Poll: Does Anyone Smoke Cigarettes Anymore?

[ShokWaveRider]

I thought this would be an interesting Poll for those who are FIRe'd. If you have quit it is a no. Cigars and other indulgencies do not count here....

I do not know about you but we do not smoke. In fact we are allergic to the fumes and find them very distasteful. When walking out of Walmart, we hold our breaths till we get to the car or where the air is clear(er).

We do not have any friends that smoke either. In our area it seems those with the least means tend to smoke, so I would think most of those who are FIRED do not. Although I am sure this is not a general trend. We are a college town, I would expect more students to smoke, but we rarely see them doing do.

 

[scrabbler1]

Never smoked or even tried it out. I had some coworkers who smoked, but never had any friends or relatives who smoked. I am very sensitive to smoke.


I had to battle smokers in the 1980s and 1990s several times, not just the smokers themselves but continue pressing those who institute stricter rules against smokers and to guarantee far more smoke-free areas.

 

[Nemo2]

Haven't smoked for 42 years.....sitting at my desk one day (you could smoke in offices back then) I said "Naaah" and dropped half a pack and a lighter in my garbage can....that was the end of that.

 

[MRG]

I'm an ex-smoker, chewer, and dipper.

I quit chewing and dipping before I left the lumber industry in '83, continued to smoke Camel non-filter's(thanks dad) till 2000. The odd thing is how freaking hard it was to quit chewing, much more difficult than smoking. Withdrawal from smoking generally goes away after a week or two, chewing was months of physical withdrawal.

In 2000, I had severe pain from my c-spine and a nuerosurgeon told me he couldn't guarentee much, except if I continued to smoke I'd have more of these type issues! I haven't had any tobacco since before that appointment.

It's pretty strange, I was talking with a mentor who also quit smoking. We're both wonder what we were thinking. I suppose that's common after a while.

ETA: We lost a awesome former co-w*rker to lung cancer about 8 years ago. I still remember our last conversation. He was saying how everyone else had quit, he hadn't. He totally took ownership of his issues.

I have another buddy who can't quit(he doesn't know he can) but he's not concerned. His dad, a smoker, died from cancer at an early age. However it wasn't lung cancer so his denial is in high gear..

 

[mpeirce]

In my normal life around home I never see a smoker.

 

[unclemick]

Smoked everything, chewed tobaky, dipped snooce, had a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and a great pipe collection.

ER'd at 50, smoked the last cig at 62 in time for my 50th High School reunion.

heh heh heh - still have fond memories of Becchnut, Apple Sun Cured, Lucky Strike, Copenhagen, White Owl Cigars and Kirsten pipes. Grin.

 

[fh2000]

I smoked total 7 years in my early 20's. I had a lung surgery this year to remove a tumor which turned out benign. From the pictures that my surgeon took, he pointed out the black spots of my lung from smoking, and I quit smoking more than 35 years ago!

 

[ProspectiveBum]

I smoked for a brief period (~18 months) in my early 20s. DW (who was then my girlfriend) convinced me to knock it off. My grandfather was a lifelong heavy smoker, and he had emphysema and an oxygen tank in his later years, which didn't look too appealing.

I don't miss smoking, but I do still rather enjoy the smell of a freshly-lit cigarette. It reminds me of my grandparents' kitchen.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

No way. No how. Used to smoke the occasional cigar but after watching both my Mom and Dad die in a not-so-great way from COPD, I won't mess with them now, either.

My Mom and Dad smoked a LOT (quit in 1989, though) and their choice was Pall Mall. I had a chill go up my back yesterday when I went out to check progress on the estate sale that is being set up at their house. Smack dab in front of the garage door was a half smoked Pall Mall cigarette (from one of the workers, I assume). I didn't even know people still smoked those things!

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Although both my parents were lifelong smokers, smoking didn’t appeal to me—except for about a week when I was 13.

In 7th grade in a very small town in Louisiana, I briefly hung out with the town “bad girl,” Bonnie, who introduced me to smoking Virginia Slims. Every day after we got off the school bus, we’d meet up and smoke down by the bayou. I also sneaked cigarettes at home.

One morning in my reading class, after about a week of being a new smoker, I caught myself daydreaming about smoking after school and realized that wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing.

So I dumped the remaining cigarettes down the storm drain, told Bonnie I’d smoked them all, and quit.

My mom was glad. She’d smelled the smoke coming out from behind my bedroom door despite my best efforts to blow smoke out the window.

I’m glad I was sensible. I understand that cigarette smoking is one of the hardest addictions to break.

 

[Dreamer]

I quit smoking 12/31/85. I unfortunately see people smoking when I am driving or standing outside of stores. My DB died of lung cancer in 2001 at the age of 45. He had quit smoking 2 years previously. He died way too young and I still miss him and wish that he was here.

 

[Woodsrider]

I think our country has had a change in perception. Smoking used to be considered "cool" now, not so much. It is a habit of the lower class. I just sold an auto repair shop in a low income area. All my employees and most of my customers smoked. On the other side of town at my buddies nice shop it was rare to see anyone light up.

 

[omni550]

Never a smoker.

I HATED working in the smoky offices back in the '70s-90s.

In college, I worked in a small open office of 11 employees where one of the directors smoked cigars all day, plus there were about 5 cigarette smokers there, too. All my clothes smelled SO bad after work. Yuck!

After graduation, I worked for a Fortune 50 corporation and they had a large (8" dia.) company-issued ash tray on every desk, and the cleaning crew cleaned them out every night. Even if you didn't smoke, you had to keep one on your desk for visitors. My then-boss was a heavy smoker and would sometimes have 2 or 3 cigarettes going at the same time, (I guess he just forgot that he was already smoking one, and he'd start another.)

At work, I used to 'campaign' for putting all the smokers in one big room where they could smoke and inhale each other's fumes. That fell on deaf ears.

I remember all-day work conferences, and coming back from a break, there would literally be a visible cloud of smoke throughout the room.

I also traveled a lot for work back then. Non-smokers were seated in the non-smoking (back half) of the plane, and the instant the "no smoking" light went off, the entire plane would fill with smoke. WTH?

Thankfully, my friends have never been smokers.

omni

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I remember when they used to smoke in Planes also.... Yuk....

 

[happy2bretired]

Does Anyone Smoke Cigarettes Anymore?

I smoked total 7 years in my early 20's. I had a lung surgery this year to remove a tumor which turned out benign. From the pictures that my surgeon took, he pointed out the black spots of my lung from smoking, and I quit smoking more than 35 years ago!

Wow that’s kinda my history too, except for the black spots, that I don’t know. Growing up, there was alway 2nd hand smoke, everyone was exposed to 2nd hand smoke. My mother tried to warn me, but you know kids.[emoji53]

 

[VanWinkle]

I smoked for 30 plus years and quit 8 years ago. I still get that special taste in my mouth that only a cigarette will satisfy(I throw in a breath mint now).

I weened off cigarettes with E-cigs and found it easier to quit.

Did not smoke in house or cars- that's just too rough on relationships.

 

[Amethyst]

I, the least boat-rocking of people, became an anti-smoking activist in college in the late 1970s. Despite Fire Marshall signs forbidding smoking in every classroom, instructors and students both smoked like chimneys. It was making me sick and hating to go to school.

I brought this to my faculty adviser's attention and insisted that the smoking ban be enforced. Amazingly, it was!

We still see a lot of cigarette butts on the ground where construction, yard work, hair or nail work are taking place. So there seem to be some lines of work where smokers are still prevalent.

 

[Car-Guy]

I stopped smoking a little over 30 years ago. Missed it terribly for the first few years. Then I often thought about starting again for the next 10 years. (Still missed it somewhat but never smoked again,,, not even one). Now 30+ years later, I consider the habit kicked.

 

[Koogie]

I used to get severe sore throats as a child. My dad would stand over me, smoking, and say "what's wrong with you lad ?"

I wonder...

DW quit smoking about 15 years ago. It is incredibly expensive in Canada now to smoke. FWIW, the only people I ever see smoking anymore are young girls and old guys.

Two wildly different demographics united in stupidity...

 

[Major Tom]

I think our country has had a change in perception. Smoking used to be considered "cool" now, not so much.

I'll go with that. On the few occasions I see a young person smoking cigarettes in these parts, I really notice it, as it is now relatively unusual. On the other hand, the smell of pot is a common thing. I'm not sure which is worse!

 

[Car-Guy]

On the other hand, the smell of pot is a common thing. I'm not sure which is worse!

I always suspected a lot of folks in California were smoking something.

 

[Ian S]

I remember when they used to smoke in Planes also.... Yuk....

OMG yes! Then they had a smoking section at the back of the planes. I dreaded getting stuck in the seats adjacent to the smoking section! I actually smoked when I was a teenager ~17 and working in park in northern Ontario. About a pack a day for two months. Quit soon after returning home and never smoked again.

What the cigarette companies did was despicable: made it "cool" to get each successive generation of young people started on smoking knowing a high percentage would become addicted. Also fighting against efforts to educate people as to the dangers of smoking.

 

[MRG]

I think our country has had a change in perception. Smoking used to be considered "cool" now, not so much. It is a habit of the lower class. I just sold an auto repair shop in a low income area. All my employees and most of my customers smoked. On the other side of town at my buddies nice shop it was rare to see anyone light up.

+1

I remember a conversation with my DM, she tried really hard in the 1950's and early 60s to smoke and couldn't. She said it was seen as a sign of status. Fortunately she never learned to inhale and not cough, DF smoked enough. He quit cold turkey when they buried his DM.

I seldom see smoking today, but it's normally a more working folk thing.

Look back at older movies, everyone smoked. We watched "The Exorcist" a while back and the scene where the Doctor lights up is a great reminder.

Here's another reminder.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/just-because-len-dawson-enjoys-a-sweet-cig-during-super-bowl-i/

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I quit in 1985, cold turkey, and never touched another one. I recall paying 50 cents for a pack in college, and today I noticed a sign at a gas station for a brand on sale for 5 bucks. I mentioned to DW that smoking was way to expensive these days even if I wanted to. I was one of those who smoked on airplanes and in the office back in the day, and in my final days in the office before ER I actually thought to myself after seeing a coworker outside on a smoke break, how much of a PITA it would be to smoke these days.

 

[scrabbler1]

I, the least boat-rocking of people, became an anti-smoking activist in college in the late 1970s. Despite Fire Marshall signs forbidding smoking in every classroom, instructors and students both smoked like chimneys. It was making me sick and hating to go to school.

I brought this to my faculty adviser's attention and insisted that the smoking ban be enforced. Amazingly, it was!

We still see a lot of cigarette butts on the ground where construction, yard work, hair or nail work are taking place. So there seem to be some lines of work where smokers are still prevalent.

My battles in the 1980s weren't as large or severe as yours, but I had my share. I (and others, I presume) asked my dorm's manager to set up a separate non-smoking section in the cafeteria. It wasn't separated by a complete wall-ceiling barrier, nor was it separately ventilated, but at least we had a bunch of tables which were away from the rest of the large room where anyone could smoke. I also got the dorm manager to put up no-smoking signs in the elevators. The elevators! And it was a frequent battle to spot smokers who would try to sneak in lit cigarettes, turning the elevator car into a gas chamber. I would ask them to put the butts out.

That elevator battle (and that was illegal since at least the mid-70s, as it was a fire hazard), was one I had to deal with in and out of the college. Just minutes after my last final exam in 1985, I was in another NYU building and some smoker tried to enter an elevator with a lit cigarette. I asked her to please put it out and she refused. I held the elevator door open and repeated my request. She still refused. I yelled for security and the guard at his desk nearby in the lobby came over. I explained to him what was going on and he ordered the woman out of the elevator. She sneered at me, and I entered the elevator alone and happily went to my floor.

Less than a year later, a similar thing happened at my office building (and on my birthday!). But this time, it wasn't just me and the smoker. Despite the other passengers giving me a hard time for keeping the elevator door open, I asked the offending smoker to put the butt out or leave the elevator. I yelled for security and some lobby attendant walked over (smoking a cigarette, a bad sign). I told him what was going on and he walked away. The other passengers, rather than join me in asking the offending smoker to put his butt out, all left the elevator, along with the smoker. The last non-smoker to leave told the smoker to "Stay in the elevator with him (me)!" I rode to my floor alone. I only wish I had reported this to my HR people so they could report the lobby attendant to his boss. for ignoring me.