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Random Quote: Better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission
This is something I have never understood in this day and age.
Both my parents are gone now, both smoked. We were around it constantly, second hand smoke.
Mom passed in 1998, cancer in her abdomen. Diagnosed Jan. 28, cancer in Stage 3, gone March 28, two months. Her heart, lungs and brain were good. Never stopped smoking. They said the cancer was not from smoking.
Dad passed in 2009,
1985- Heart attack on the way to work one morning, quad by pass, quit smoking then.
1997- cancer, testicular lymphoma, survived that after one year of treatment.
2009- open heart surgery again, didn't come out of the recovery room.
They had 5 children, only my sister smokes. We are all in our 50's now.
My oldest sister has a girl, just turned 20;
Older brother- one boy, 24;
I have a son, 23 and a daughter 21;
Younger sister- she smokes, no kids;
Youngest sister- girl 24, son 20
Non of them smoke. Their boy friends and girl friends do not smoke. Their friends do not smoke.
When growing up, none of my close friends or cousins smoked.
I believe racing Motocross helped me stay away plus it took all my money just to be able to afford that addition.
Everyone knows how expensive it is and how bad it is for you, why do you think young kids start smoking now? Just to fit in and be cool?
I work on college campuses and it astounds me the amount of kids smoking.
A form of saying I'm grown up now and I can do as I please
I smoked from about 14 years old 1977 up to 1991 then became a health fitness nut. Runner, weight lifter. The moral of the story I wanted to fit in and I was stupid.
It's all about peer pressure and the "I'm cool" appearance. I come from a fairly large family--6 children, and one sister and two brothers smoke. Both my parents did...my mother passed away at 71 from lung cancer. My dad stopped smoking in his 70's and lived until he was 92.
I have often asked a young person why they started...more often than not, they shrug and say "Dunno.".
I have never figured it out. To me there is nothing more disgusting that smoking. I have a few coworkers who smoke like chimneys, and it almost makes everyone in the room sick when they come in for meetings after sucking down a cancer stick. Never wanted to try it, and when I was in school the last thing I thought when I saw someone smoking was "wow, look how cool"...
Because they are bulletproof and will live forever. Besides, their parents usually don't want them to, so it is really attractive to them. I will admit, I had a half-pack habit when I was in college. But I quit after that half pack.
Did try a pipe while in college. Quit that too. After Basic Training, I thought I might try it again. Bought pipe, tobacco, cleaners, the whole 9 yards. Stud pipe in back pocket of my fatigues. Walked into latrine, we-smoked pipe bobbing in the toilet. Took it as a sigh from above. Threw away the rest of the supplies, and never tried again.
My first job was as a dockhand.
Everyone I worked with smoked. Deckhands, captains, the other dockhands etc...
Winter time was very boring at the dock. Ended up smoking at about age 16.
Oddly enough, only a few of my friends smoked, and neither did my parents.
I quit about 1 1/2 years ago. (smoked for about 16 years 2+ packs a day)
Just woke up one morning and didn't feel like smoking anymore.
My Dad never smoked until he went into the military. He said that in basic training the DS told everyone to take a break and smoke. He then told those that didn't smoke to pick up the butts and wrappers. He said the next day everyone lit up.
When I was 18 and just getting started in construction as a laborer, I worked with a very nice guy named Gene, he was 50 and a laborer also. He smoked cigars.
We were talking one day about smoking and he told me he quit cold turkey while in Korea on the front lines.
At night when smoking, they had to cup their hands over the end of the cig so the enemy would not see it glow as they took a drag.
You may see where this is going.
One night, he was smoking, took a drag on the cig and he got his scalp split right down the middle with a bullet.
He didn't quite cover the end of the cigarette completely.
He said he didn't smoke for 15 years after that.
I asked, "What made you start again?"
He replied, "Got drunk one night with two hookers and started again"
I never got the smoking thing either despite the fact my dad and both brothers smoked. I'll admit sneaking down to the creek with some buddies who had a pack when I was about 12 or so, but just having that lit cigarette in my mouth made my eyes burn. Hard to look cool with tears in your eyes, and I can only imagine what would have happened if I had tried to inhale.
I just keep reminding my son how much cigarettes stink and are bad for people. No doubt he'll be faced with his own buddies who start experimenting with such things, and I can only hope he'll pass. Nothing good has ever come from smoking cigarettes. Hopefully I can keep him occupied with other "cool" things that will prevent him from becoming bored and trying stupid things.
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Military boredom, and 12 cents a pack cigs are a bad combination, but I was 20 not 13.
Same here. Never smoked or drank alcohol before going into the service. Discharged as a drunken smoker. Smoked for over twenty years, finally quitting after a bad three packs per day chimney. Stopped drinking too.
Started chewing tobacco when I was outside working around 13-14. Funny thing in those days, I could walk in any store and buy it. Levi Garret and/or skoal. Started smoking when I went to college. Smoked until I was about 34 with a four year break from 26-30. I quit cold turkey. I don't recall why I started.
My brother told my sister that smoking was a filthy habit, then he started chewing.
Not sure if he still does. He just got here from Montana yesterday. Will be here for 7 weeks. I guess I will find out.
The guys that carry a clear plastic bottle in their tool pouch or pocket to spit in, now that's enough to make you want to barf. Not to mention the tobacco juice ring left on their lips or the drool down their chin or the $h!t in their teeth, yea, having a conversation with them is not so pleasant.
Sometimes when they eat lunch the chew remains in their mouth
Ever get your beer bottle and spit bottle mixed up when drinkin?...Nice....
I'm 20 and in college and have been surrounded by smokers since high school.
I grew up watching my mom's mom and my dad's dad smoke. My mom's mom lives with us now and has a chronic cough and respiratory problems from years of smoking. My dad's dad passed away 2 years ago as a result of lung cancer and emphysema. My mom's dad smoked for most of his early life and got diagnosed with emphysema and lung cancer in early 2001. His prognosis was actually good, but he was in his apartment in Battery Park (a block from the World Trade Center) when the planes hit. He had to walk down 14 flights of stairs alone, in the dark, breathing all that debris in. He passed away in November due to complications mainly resulting from that day spent breathing everything in.
Needless to say I never have and never will have any desire to be anywhere near even secondhand smoke, let alone smoke myself.
I've lost friends over smoking just because I can't stand to be around it after they've picked it up.
As far as why, I couldn't say. I've never had any desire to destroy my body in order to "look cool" or to buck my parent's authority so I don't understand that mentality in the least...
And Seacat FL, I won't jack this thread with talk of tattoos. But I will say that you should alter your post to say "Same reason SOME people get tattoos, ignorance or stupidity plus they think its 'cool.'" I've seen very stupid tattoos that are the result of drunken nights or dares or just plain stupidity, but I've also seen many (including my own) very well done tattoos done for good reasons.
Same reason here as many others. I never took it up but tried a few times. Why? Something to do, encouraged by friends a little, and seemed kinda' cool way back when. But I heard a popular radio personality say something one day that made sense. He stated he could never get "hooked" on much of anything that one could smoke, drink, inhale or eat. The reason? Because doing any of those things started tasting bitter after a while. That described me to a Tee. I love beer but will switch brands every 4 or 5 months for that very reason.
I tried in college, simply because it was just one more way to interact with the opposite sex "mind if I bum a smoke" But even with my newfound reason to talk to girls I still couldn't do it. Theres just something a little weird about intentionally inhaling smoke that I never could quite comprehend. Thankfully I had strikingly good looks and so I didn't need the cigs to get a piece
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I think a lot of it has to do with the parents, if the parents smoke then for some reason the kids think it's OK. I know a woman that tried everything to quit smoking, until her 16 year old daughter started. Now they go outside to smoke together and I never hear her say she wants to quit now.
My 19 year old daughter tried it and hated it. My wife used to smoke when we met but I would not date a smoker and she quit back in the 80's. I actually get sick to my stomach from the smell of tobacco smoke, I wish I didn't but I do. My mom died @ 49 from lung cancer, that was my greatest reason for never smoking seeing the way she died.
There seems to be this stigma that cool people smoke so kids that want to fit in will join the smokers club. I think if the parents are smokers their kids think it's OK and will start smoking easily.
To me the whole smoking thing makes no sense, the constant repetitive action of doing the same thing all day every day seems just stupid. I just don't get it.
Why do young people start smoking? 
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