Any smokers out there(?)

[Bankbeater]

My mom smoked, my dad didn't.  I tried it a couple of times when I was about 12.  Never cared for it and never tried it again.

[slonezp]

6 hours ago, Black Hawk Basser said:

Yep, I do, for about 20 years now.  I'm trying hard lately to cut way back in hopes that I can get to the point of putting them away for good.  Thinking about an extra $2,000 a year towards other stuff is pretty good motivation.

Smokes were $3.75 a pack when I quit in 1999. I was going thru 3 packs a day. Smokes in Chicago are $13 a pack. I'd be at $39 a day or $14K a year if I still smoked. 

[NHBull]

I have a small walk in humidor for my cigars.  I still don't consider myself a smoker...?

 

I started with an occasional cigar in the service, then nothing for years, until a couple of my athletes won National Chanpionships, and a parent brought celebratory cigars.

 

My OCD kicked in and now have several years worth of 10 year old Habanos.  That said, I haven't bought cigars for myself in a couple years.

[Black Hawk Basser]

10 hours ago, slonezp said:

Smokes were $3.75 a pack when I quit in 1999. I was going thru 3 packs a day. Smokes in Chicago are $13 a pack. I'd be at $39 a day or $14K a year if I still smoked. 

Jeeezus, they are about $6.50 where I live in Iowa.  I've seldom gone through more than a pack in a day.  Usually it's a little less than that.

[MN Fisher]

12 minutes ago, Black Hawk Basser said:

Jeeezus, they are about $6.50 where I live in Iowa.  I've seldom gone through more than a pack in a day.  Usually it's a little less than that.

Cig prices vary across the country - some places it's as low as $4-$5...here in the Twin Cities, it's about $9 a pack.

[gim]

11 hours ago, slonezp said:

Smokes in Chicago are $13 a pack. I'd be at $39 a day or $14K a year if I still smoked. 

 

The cost is more than enough to justify not doing it.  $14k/year is literally a new boat.

[Dwight Hottle]

I smoked a pack + per day for over 18 years starting as a teenager. Quit cold turkey in my late 30's after getting a terrible case of bronchitis which really kicked my arse. Started recreational running to help my breathing & ended up doing a couple of half marathons & the Chicago marathon in 1984. I told my buddy if he wanted to quit you just need to do it cold turkey because trying to taper your usage never worked for me or him. Addiction to nicotine is as bad as addiction to alcohol. It's tough to quit. 

[soflabasser]

The tobacco industry spends lots of advertising money to get people to smoke and keep people smoking. They know how terrible tobacco is but all they care about is making lots of money, they could care less what harm their products do to people. Nicotine is extremely addictive, many are not mentally strong enough to quit. Some people vape but that is also another terrible product. With that said people are free to do whatever they want, if they want to harm themselves it is their choice. I personally rather invest the money in fishing tackle since fishing is a good form of exercise.

[volzfan59]

I occasionally smoke a good quality cigar (with The Macallan scotch) or my pipe. It's getting rarer and rarer however.

[12poundbass]

7 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

The cost is more than enough to justify not doing it.  $14k/year is literally a new boat.

I wish I smoked so I could quit and buy a new boat. ?

[huZZah]

I just can’t imagine doing it now with a surgeon generals warning and such taking up half the box for any reason other than because someone told you not to. So here you go: DON’T run your car off the road and rid us of stupidity. (Or frankly the ridiculous hospital bills that you are leaving.)

[deaknh03]

On 7/26/2021 at 9:39 PM, Bubba 460 said:

 

I smoked for 32 years, started when I was 14 back in 1962. Back then I believe more people smoked than not. People smoked everywhere, restaurants, movie theaters, airplanes, stores, buses, waiting rooms, high school even had a smoking area for students. Smoking was cool... It was presented that way in the movies, on TV, in magazines on billboards. Commercials catered to smoking, the rugged Marlboro Man was on every commercial segment it seemed. Smoking was IN and a lot of people smoked. Nothing was better than lighting a cigarette after a fine Thanksgiving dinner or other "social event". I quit smoking  about 28 years ago so I would not set a bad example to my four daughters growing up... It was hard.  Doctors say my lungs look good for smoking that long  and your lungs will regenerate if they are healthy ~ guess I lucked out.

 

Unfortunately two years ago I watched my best friend of 52 years die of lung cancer after smoking for almost 60 years. He wasted down to 75 pounds in less than four months, wasn't a pretty sight and certainly nothing "cool" about it. My older brother had a lung removed and what was left of the other wasn't much. We didn't know back then what we know know.

The tobacco companies would pay Drs and scientists to skew studies and endorse their products. They had every actor and actress smoking, ads in magazines with drs promoting cigarettes,, even athletes. They knew they were selling disease and sickness but the money was rolling in. Thankfully that would never happen these days.

[12poundbass]

12 minutes ago, deaknh03 said:

Thankfully that would never happen these days

????????

[Columbia Craw]

I smoked lightly in my early 20’s. Mostly pipe and cigars.  A carton of Winstons was 2.47.   My dad died at 70 and he and my mom smoked two packs of Camels or Lucky Strike.  My grandfather smoked for 70 years but as an Englishman he didn’t inhale. I quit smoking and drinking alcohol at 29 because I didn’t want to be a negative role model.  Yes, both my boys smoke and one is a recovering alcoholic.  I tried. 

[Zippo Guy]

Started cigarettes while living in my fraternity house in the middle 60's. $2.00 a carton while in the Air Force and my wife started at that point. She quit when our first daughter was born.  I was teaching at a small school and one day ran into a bunch of my students out riding ATVs.  They all lit up with my brand of cigarettes. When I asked why, they said because I smoked them. I quit that day then and there. That was 1978 and haven't touched them since. 

[HaydenS]

9 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

The cost is more than enough to justify not doing it.  $14k/year is literally a new boat.

Quit smoking and tell your wives!

[soflabasser]

2 hours ago, deaknh03 said:

The tobacco companies would pay Drs and scientists to skew studies and endorse their products. They had every actor and actress smoking, ads in magazines with drs promoting cigarettes,, even athletes. They knew they were selling disease and sickness but the money was rolling in. Thankfully that would never happen these days.

Tobacco companies are very devious and disgusting. It makes you think what kind of people would gladly work for these companies knowing well how tobacco damages people's health, these people probably lack empathy for others and seem to only care about making money. Today almost everyone knows how dangerous tobacco products are yet sadly many smoke regardless. It can take decades for the effects of smoking to show and this is one of the reasons many do not take the dangers of smoking seriously. People will do whatever they want no matter what advice you give them so let them do whatever they want.

[Jigfishn10]

On 7/28/2021 at 11:51 PM, slonezp said:

Smokes were $3.75 a pack when I quit in 1999. I was going thru 3 packs a day. Smokes in Chicago are $13 a pack. I'd be at $39 a day or $14K a year if I still smoked. 

If I remember correctly, you're about my age when we started in construction. I'll bet at least 90% of the tradesmen on the job smoked and back then, smoking on the job was very much the norm. No getting off the ladder/baker staging/scissor lift to go outside for a smoke.

 

Some of those guys chained smoked from the minute they got on the job to the minute the took a bite of their sandwich. Again from the minute they finish their sandwich to the time they got home. The jobsite looked like 1 big ashtray at the end of the day. Amazing we didn't have more fires.

 

Smokes are $12/pack here.

[YoTone]

started at 13 and quit in my late 30's. my gums were receding and my dentist whos also my father in law told me  smoking was a major part of it  and a lot of my teeth would eventually fall out.  smoking was among the worst decisions ive ever made.

 

the only thing that got me to stop was a vape.  thank god for that or else id probably still be smoking.

[NYWayfarer]

I have never smoked. My Dad did and so did my Mom. She even smoked while pregnant with me. She read somewhere that it stunts a baby’s growth. Well I am 6’1” tall and she says her smoking cost me a basketball career. They quit decades ago. My Dad was a hypocrite, but he was scary. He smoked and told me not to ever start and if I did he would break my fingers so I couldn’t hold a cigarette. I believed him and never did.

 

I have lost many a relative to smoking. Most memorable was my Grandfather. He was a chain smoker. Couldn’t go to the local store without a pack, a carton for an overnight trip. When they didn’t allow smoking at the movies anymore he stopped going.

 

One day while mowing the lawn he came in and told my Grandmother he was quitting. It was because he was coughing up blood. They found cancer on his lung. He went in for an operation to have the spot removed and they were successful. However he never woke up. He faded away as the stress of the operation was too much for him. He was 72 years young. That side of the family lives into their late 90’s.

 

 

[CrankFate]

I see mentions of cigars. I have a few decent stogies in my humidor. A few years back maybe 9 years after quitting smoking, I was painting and doing a lot of work around the house. When I finished, I lit up a cigar. Made it about 40% through it. Got dizzy. I could not take all the nicotine anymore. I couldn’t finish it. Last time I ever lit one up.

[slonezp]

39 minutes ago, NYWayfarer said:

I have never smoked. My Dad did and so did my Mom. She even smoked while pregnant with me. She read somewhere that it stunts a baby’s growth. Well I am 6’1” tall and she says her smoking cost me a basketball career. They quit decades ago. My Dad was a hypocrite, but he was scary. He smoked and told me not to ever start and if I did he would break my fingers so I couldn’t hold a cigarette. I believed him and never did.

 

I have lost many a relative to smoking. Most memorable was my Grandfather. He was a chain smoker. Couldn’t go to the local store without a pack, a carton for an overnight trip. When they didn’t allow smoking at the movies anymore he stopped going.

 

One day while mowing the lawn he came in and told my Grandmother he was quitting. It was because he was coughing up blood. They found cancer on his lung. He went in for an operation to have the spot removed and they were successful. However he never woke up. He faded away as the stress of the operation was too much for him. He was 72 years young. That side of the family lives into their late 90’s.

 

 

Lost my aunt a few years ago. She probably smoked every day from the time she was born until she passed at 83. Had a serious case of COPD and we think emphysema, but she would never admit it. The day before she passed, my father and I were at the hospital interviewing with the hospice people. My aunt wanted to make sure she was able to smoke at the hospice facility and requested and oxygen machine rather than a tank because...oxygen is flammable and she didn't want to blow the place up. When I left the hospital that night I asked her if there was anything she needed. She said she wanted a cigarette and a strawberry margarita.  Told her I would bring her a margarita but I couldn't help with the cigarette. She told me to forget about it and I could get her a margarita when she moved into the hospice facility. I came back the following morning and the tides had turned overnight. She was unable to expel CO2 from her lungs. Watched her basically suffocate for an hour or so until the doctor showed up to examine her and give orders for the pain meds. Scary stuff. She passed that evening.

[DINK WHISPERER]

Yuk, no way! ?

[Sphynx]

I took up smoking when I joined the Army, after 2 bullets and 4 explosions I came to the conclusion that it wasn't very likely that I would live long enough for it to make any real difference whether I smoked or not and I smoked the entire time I was in, few years after I got out I just stopped smoking cigarettes cold turkey, I had taken up a pipe and the occasional cigar which I still enjoy to this day, there is no addiction any more, I can smoke 3 pipes a day for 2 or 3 weeks then not touch a pipe for a month and it doesn't bother me in the least, I am quite comfortable with my relationship with tobacco, I truly enjoy the taste of a quality cigar or nice bowl of pipe tobacco and as long as I can pick it up or put it down as I choose I can live with it, sure its a harmful substance, but so are many of the things we eat and drink so I figure that the burden falls on me alone to decide which risks I take as long as I am paying for my own Healthcare its between my insurance provider and me, I also do not delude myself into thinking that following all the doctors rules will allow me to live forever, but it will absolutely mean I will hate every minute of it,and I would rather live 60 or 70 years that I enjoyed every last minute of than 80 or 90 where I was hating all the rules I had to follow.

[scaleface]

I smoked from 16 to 41 .   Just got tired of cigarettes controlling my life and quit cold turkey . It wasnt easy .

 

 

One day , while landing a bass , my smokes fell out of my shirt pocket in the water . I needed my  smokes more than fishing so left .