Once in a while some people are surprised when the subject of smoking comes up and I say, "I used to smoke." It is the one vice I am most happy about no longer having. Mom thought I started smoking when I was a senior in high school because my friend Donna smoked as well as my boyfriend Kenny. In reality I did not start smoking until after graduation and it was my brother Ron who got me started. We were both working in town that summer. On the way home he started offering me a cigarette when he lit his. I think the brand was Viceroy.
Smoking was de rigueur then; almost everyone smoked and there were very few places you could not smoke. A pack of cigarettes was 40 cents but if you went to Missouri or Nebraska you could buy them cheaper.
The first time I quit smoking was when I was pregnant, not for the health of the baby - we didn't even think about that then - but because it made me nauseous. After Doug was born and I went back to work, I started smoking again - Kools that time. One day I was holding the baby and smoking when an ash fell on his little hand and burnt him slightly. I was so appalled at myself that I quit again for a short time. When I started smoking again, I switched to Salems.
I smoked until 1967 when I wanted to purchase "The Great Books of the Western World". I could make the monthly payments by using the money I saved on cigarettes. Over the years I started and stopped several times - again during two more pregnancies. It was only after Preston was born (#3) that I started smoking again specifically so I could lose those last 10 pounds. Those sexy Virginia Slims were just made for women like me.
I did not smoke those longer, thinner ciggies for more than a few packs, though, because they did not fit in my fancy green leather cigarette case with matching lighter. Proper accoutrements were all a part of the smoking mystique. Just the pop of opening the case and the snap of closing it and the click click of lighting the cigarette were part of the image I imagined for myself. A large ceramic ashtray and its matching lighter was the centerpiece on my coffee table.
When the stop smoking campaigns began in the 70's, Doug began his personal campaign to get me to quit smoking. Every time I lit a cigarette, he would tell me I needed to quit smoking; that it was bad for my health. His little sister and brother began the same pleadings. Then cigarettes went to 50 cents a pack and between the cost and the quit smoking campaign, I bought my last pack of cigarettes in January, 1973. One morning at work, I looked into the mirror above my desk and said, "That's it. I quit."
I bounced around the walls for about two weeks; was bitchier than usual, but I stuck it out cold turkey. I have never regretted giving up cigarettes. However, there was a time later on I wanted to smoke a pipe. I dated a pipe smoker off and on for five years. I loved the smell of his pipe smoke - a blend he bought special at David's Briar Shoppe. Luckily, I did not learn how to smoke a pipe.
To paraphrase the Virginia Slim ad: "I've come a long way, baby!"
I LOVE that you once gave up smoking to buy a set of books (a story I hadn't heard before, by the way. I'm loving hearing all these tales.) If anyone ever wonders what my deal with books is, I'm just pointing them to this post and saying, "I am my mother's daughter."
ReplyDeleteI was thinking you've given yourself a college education with the classics. :)
ReplyDeletei quit smoking, too, but not until 1982 or so. Actually that was the 2nd time, but it stuck.