SURGEON GENERALS WARNING: SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU.

IF YOU DO NOT SMOKE, DO NOT START. IF YOU DO SMOKE, STOP.




Okay, now that that's outta the way and the lawyers will be happy--Fumebag's thread on smoking in the 80s and how it may have affected her perception of perfume got me to thinking about smoking, cigarettes and our relationship to tobacco products. If you want to discuss, feel free.

Growing up, my parents smoked occasionally when I was younger, but they both quit after my sister and I basically nagged them incessantly to stop. Many of my aunts and uncles on both sides continued to smoke, however. As children, my sister and I used to play with candy cigarettes. And growing up in North Carolina in the 70s, a school field trip to the R.J. Reynolds factory was almost mandatory! I remember the tour quite well, we got to see the tobacco being cured and the cigarettes in the machines getting wrapped and packaged.

I tried to take up smoking cigarettes in college in an effort to lose weight <<--WARNING! DUMB. DO NOT TRY.
But I never liked it, really. But I'll admit, it was relaxing for me. I suppose I was an occasional or social smoker. A pack could easily last me a month. After college I quit. I suppose I saw the harm in my family caused by smoking. My mother lost two of her siblings--both in their early 50s--to heart attacks. They were both heavy smokers.

I'll admit, however, that sometimes, when I'm feeling stressed out, I crave a cigarette.

What's dumb is taking up the habit again after ten years. I started smoking at age 13 (kinda, I didn't really inhale) and quit when I had my youngest son. I started again after stressing so much about my job. I was watching a Korean horror film the other day and the female main character I SWEAR had a cigarette in her mouth EVERY scene! Damn, she made those cigarrettes look so good. I finally had to get up and go outside for a smoke. My relationship with tobacco is like an episode of cops at the trailer park. " Ma'am, ma'am, you should get some help, we are taking him to jail tonight, do you have a place to go?" " No no officer, I know he slapped me but I provoked him and I deserved it. I can't help it, I love him! Don't take him to jail!". That is my relationship with smoking. So bad for me, but I can't help it.

Hi Soledad!

No judgments here. We're all adults. Smoking and our relationships to cigarettes are complicated, as anyone who has ever smoked knows. Quitting is hard. And it's definitely more than just willpower, it's a physical/psychological/chemical addiction for many many people.

So, hugs. No judging.

Was a 2-5 cigs a day person from 15 to very recently with numerous periods of quitting completely. Now I sometimes have one or two when out for drinks. Due to this mooching I recently got smokes to redistribute to friends, first ones kicking around in a year or so. Just tried one and it's not so much 'blech' as just ... no. They will all go to friends and if I have nic fits while tipsy I'm going to try to ride them out and simply not dabble ever.

I was one of those smokers who could smoke and then not smoke. I was a moocher too...........then....I decided people got sick of that so I bought my own and then "left" them with other friends who smoked the same brand. That was in the 80's. Then...........went through the DREADFUL Divorce that lasted forever and smoked myself into oblivion. After smoking heavily for about 10 years, I decided to go ahead and QUIT!!
That was IT! I've never desired another ciggerette ever again.

Now it turns me off to see anybody smoking.

I tried smoking once when I was in high school. I didn't know how to inhale, but it was still unpleasant and tasted really bad, so I never wanted to try again.

I did grow up around smoking, though. My dad rolled his own, using Zig Zag papers and Prince Albert tobacco...

Remember how the I LOVE LUCY show would sometimes start out with Lucille Ball, then young and gorgeous (former CHESTERFIELD model, of course) strolling fitfully into her beige living room, wearing short sleeves, splayed collar and tight black toreadors... She'd be holding a lit cigarette at arm's length, her fingers splayed stylishly... as she decided what was missing in her life... so she could cook up her next wacky scheme?

There have been periods when I've smoked. And, just as with my tastes in perfumes, I loathe cigarettes that are "LIGHT" and cheap and flavorless: I always smoked CAMEL TURKISH GOLDS or CAMEL TURKISH JADES. If a cigarette doesn't make you slightly dizzy, it's no good!

For whatever reason, so many people around here smoke MARLBORO LIGHTS or BENSON & HEDGES LIGHTS. DisGUSTing!! I honestly can't understand why they bother. They kid themselves that a Light cigarette is "better for you". But my motto has ALWAYS been: "If you're gonna sin, sin BIG."

I've been smoke-free for two years now. Though I sin every now and then... just once in a blue moon.

Believe it or not, BUGLER loose tobacco makes fabulous-tasting cigarettes.

In the 1960's, every adult in my family smoked. Nobody ever asked, "Mind if I smoke?" They just DID.

FUMERIE TURQUE is on my upcoming "must have" list... though frankly it doesn't remind me of the scent of fresh tobacco, necessarily...

I quit 2 years ago also Ras and the only thing that keeps me from breaking down IS that dizziness that occurs with the first one. I loathe dizzy. I still usually want a ciggie.

That image of Lucy. Stunning.

Gosh, REALLY immotive subject for me. I have always been hyper sensitive to odours and smells, hence my adoration of perfume. I swear I'm like the princess and the pea fairytale, I can smell thngs from 100 metres away!
I played with smoking when I was at art school, because it was cool and everyone smoked in the 80's...but actually hated it. I tried menthol cigarettes, as they covered the foul tobacco taste a little. A pack of 'flash' sobranies' or some other posey opulent brand (Mores come to mind, as they were long, dark brown and skinny) would last me 2 months.
Now I utterly LOATHE cigarette smoke. I find it unbearable to be in a smoking environment...when I fly I gaze with pity at thise poor desperate sould smoking themselves into a frenzy in those transparent 'last minute' smoking cages...and of course can smell that area from a mile away.
I have a couple of close girlsfriends that still smoke (professionally) and it really saddens me that they don't realise they have that horrible 'smokers' bad breath and they operate in a haze of stale smoke clinging to their clothes...I feel sorry for their non smokibg partners....yuk, the thought of kissing them!!
It's stunning how smokers just don't seem to realise that they smell SO bad.....
MB

My grandfather and uncle, both whiskey drinkers, smoked. My parents didn't, but for a while, they had Lalique cigarette caddy and a lighter on the living room coffee table for smoking guests. I didn't try these. My first cigarette was given to me by a boy I had my on during a drama club cast party in eighth grade. Didn't buy my first pack until a trip to Moscow during junior year high school field trip. The pack was the Gauloises unfiltereds in the blue label. bought it so I could smoke it while drinking my first martini. Didn't really enjoy either, but kept the pack anyway. It took me the rest of the semester to finish that pack of cigarettes. I smoked inside a closet where my books were kept.

When I went to college I purposely declared myself a smoker on the dorm applications so I wouldn't get an overly nerdy roommate. It worked. I smoked three to four cigarettes, usually Malboro lights. There was a student run cafe where smoking was allowed, and most of the friends I made in college I met in the smoking section. During my semester in Paris, I switched to Lucky Strike Filters which remains my favorite brand. I officially quit smoking three years ago.

I've relapsed a few times -- the first time was after Gotterdamerung when the Kirov Opera came to perform the Ring Cycle in NY. My friend and I went to get a martini afterwards, and I needed a cigarette when I got home to extend the Wagner high. Another time was after last spring's Tristan und Isolde. Since Lucky Strike Filters are only sold in Europe, my go to brand for relapses are Nat Sherman Naturals. When I relapse, I only need one cigarette a day, so it takes me weeks to finish a pack.

Cancer aside, the scent of cigarette smoke for me has positive connotations... opera fans smoking and walking around at the Metropolitan Opera grand tier balcony diring intermission... when the plane lands in the Paris airport, the blast of cigarette smoke from the airport cafe as you walk towards baggage claim, says, "Hey, welcome to Paris!"... when a guy asks for a light, it's the perfect conversation starter. The rise of Match.com and the banning of cigarettes in bars and restaurants... coincidence?

Confession time...I've never smoked a cigarette. Not one puff. My parents were both heavy smokers. My father quit the day he had a stroke ten years ago. My mother continues to smoke like a chimney. Everything she does revolves around how and when she can smoke. It puts many restrictions on her life. For example, she can't fly anywhere because she can't smoke on the plane. I realize how seriously addictive smoking is, so I try not to be upset with her, but it is hard not to sometimes. My biggest frustration with her is that she has never been a considerate smoker. She smokes in the car with the windows rolled up, she smokes at the table with people still eating, etc. My father bought his first new car at the age of 50 and she burned a hole in the seat the very week he got it....I could go on and on.

I made a decision that I would not ever touch one because I've read that people can inherit an "addiction gene". I figured it was safest to steer away from them.

-Noelle

I tried to be a smoker, and for the dumbest reasons:

- smokers got to take more and longer breaks where I worked
- I thought it looked cool
- I tend to like most things that alter my consciousness

Somehow, it never worked for me. Nicotine always made me dizzy, yes, but also slightly to seriously naseous. Couldn't do it. Of course now, I'm grateful, but I always felt like such a priss that I couldn't just light up and enjoy like alot of my friends...

Loved your post, Chenas. I've heard of plenty of trigger points for returning to smoking, but never has Wagner been among them. I love this group.

My parents smoked. My dad quit when the surgeon general's warning came out. My mom quit a few years later. I was a little sprout at the time and told her I'd give her a hug whenever she wanted a cigarette. I still remember her calling up the stairs "I want a cigarette!" and I'd come running. She says after that, she just couldn't bring herself to start smoking again.

It's funny; much as I dislike the smell of cigarette smoke, I distinctly remember loving the smell of my mother's breath when I sat on her lap: cigarettes and coffee. She's appalled by that memory now, but to me it was "mom breath" and therefore great.

As for me, I played with smoking off and on. I wanted to sound like Bonnie Raitt when I was in college, so I thought smoking would help. (It didn't.) Then when I lived overseas, I would smoke now and then, mostly out of boredom. For whatever reason, I never developed the habit. Which is fine; I have enough bad habits as it is.

I broke up with my last boyfriend because of his smoking. He was a chain smoker and I just couldn't be around him. It irritated my eyes and I didn't like stinking of stale cigarettes. Smoking, drinking to excess, overeating -- all destructive ways of dealing with stress.

I attempted to smoke once when I was in college, because I thought it looked cool and sophisticated. Bought a pack of Gauloises (being a francophile) and a book of matches and sat down in Union Square in San Francisco and attempted to smoke. Could not get it lit, had no idea how to get it going. After burning through several matches, I burst out laughing, gave up, and never smoked again.

My BF actually quit smoking for about 8 months, then started again. He says his favorite part is that dizzy feeling you get after not smoking for a while, ironically.

My dad smoked from the time he was 9 until about a year or so ago when he finally quit using the drug Chantix. Mom only smoked lightly until I was about 7 then gave it up without regret.

I still love watching people smoke as it fascinates me, and I have a self-destructive impulse that makes me want to smoke when I'm stressed (I'm sure I would be a chain-smoker if I did, being addictive), but no serious desire to actually smoke since the smell on breath and clothes repulses me. I won't allow BF to smoke inside the house, or in the car while I'm in it.

My uncle, who died of a heart attack when he was just 54, smoked unfiltered Camels. They smelled so good. But to me now that smell is tinged with such sadness.




((Noelle)) I think you're absolutely doing the right thing. I'm no doctor, but I do think that there is a genetic component to addiction.

Chenas, I must say that is the very first time I have ever heard someone say they started smoking again to prolong a Wagner high. Gracious, girl, but you slay me!

I loathe cigarettes and their smell. I cannot wear any perfume that has a prominent tobacco note. The negative associations are too strong. My thoughts about cigarettes and smoking are well-documented on this board, but I'm copying and pasting an old post of mine from last year here:

When I was growing up, my mother smoked three packs a day. She was, until the day she entered the hospital for the last time, totally hooked and a slave to cigarettes. She even woke up in the night to smoke. Dad smoked two packs a day. My sister and I both have asthma, even though lung disease doesn't run in the family. When discussing this as adults, my mother pooh-poohed the obvious connection between smoking and lung disease, saying, "I'm toughening up your lungs." Moreover, my parents were not big believers in opening windows. Our home was one big hermetically sealed smokehouse.

Before my sister's wedding, my parents invited her future in-laws over for dinner. They brought three heavy smokers with them to add to the two already in the house. I had the worst asthma attack of my life that night, but soldiered through as I didn't want to make a scene for my sister's sake. Unfortunately, when I noticed that my fingernails were turning blue, I had to make a scene after all. I ended up in the emergency room.

On car trips, we used to beg for our parents to crack a window. They hated to do this, as it "made noise."

Kids in school used to ask me if I smoked. I reeked of it constantly, every day of my life until I moved out.

My mom died of lots of things (multi-organ breakdown), among them inoperable lung cancer. She was only 64. Despite the portrait I've painted here, she was a loving mother who adored me and who I think about every single day.

So, to finally answer your question, no, I don't like the smell, I don't crave them, I detest being around cigarettes, and have no desire to smoke. And I HATE it in perfume. I can even tell when a person in the car in front of me in traffic is smoking now. Ugh.

I've never smoked cigarettes. I have lots of bad habits, but that ain't one.

That being said, I love the smell of fresh cigs in the packet.

I truly feel admiration for anyone who has kicked the habit, or has even tried to kick it. I know it's a real toughie.

Up close and intimate , full of love , hate , passion and regrets ...

I am having a dinner party tonight for 6 . Five of them are smokers. I shall be inside with the dogs.

Oh, its winter here by the way so - they must be dedicated!