It seems that new laws related to smoking
are being passed nearly every day. Now
there is something wending its way through the legislative process that would
allow sports bars to once again have smoking areas.
It took several years for smokers to
be banned from puffing away in restaurants, offices and any space within fifteen
feet of an entrance or exit. And,
mutterings of ‘stop the stink,’ were also being bandied about regarding smokers
out on their own lanais in high rise condominiums, in parks and spread out on
beaches, which more or less put paid to smoking anywhere humans congregated.
My husband and I were smokers in the
days when restaurants still allowed you to do so but only in designated
areas. It was this ‘designated area’
thing that put a stop to our cigarette addiction, smartly and once and for all.
We were having a lovely evening out at
one of the many great restaurants in Honolulu. We chose the ‘smoking’ area because it was
our usual thing to puff away on a ciggie while sipping our cocktails and
waiting for our dinner to be served. It
was while doing this that I noticed we had been seated on a raised area of the
restaurant, surrounded by empty tables…the only table occupied was ours. The rest of the patrons were seated in the
lower level…many tables and all filled with smokeless, happy diners.
Smoke rises and so did the disgusted
eyes of the patrons seated at the lower level.
Each one staring at us as though we were visitors from an alien pongy
planet and how long did we plan to stay?
In truth, with so many eyes upon us and seated higher than the rest of
the patrons, I began to think a neon
sign proclaiming that the ciggie stink was not management’s fault but was
caused by the two idiots seated under said sign, was blinking on and off over
our heads.
We became so self conscious that our
dining experience became a race to see who could bolt the food down the fastest,
and how long before we could get away from the accusing eyes of the other
diners.
That evening at home, we emptied our
individual packets of cigarettes onto the coffee table and sat smoking every
single one down to butts. It was our
intention that once they were all puffed away, we would never buy another
packet ever again.
I was nearly green from all the
nicotine sludging through my body by the end of the night but we stuck to our
guns and remained smokeless and somewhat smug that we were able to do so. In
truth, it was not really difficult. My
usual mantra being that if you really
wanted to quit smoking it was a cinch…if
you really didn’t but had to because
someone else deemed it should be so, it was hell and practically impossible to
do.
Now, with this new legislation being
bandied about I wonder how many will once again take up a habit that was so
hard to overcome. Remember people, if
you start puffing away, the only place (apart from a Sport’s Bar) you’ll be
able to legally do so, will be sitting on your toilet with all doors and
windows shut. Not the most elegant
picture to contemplate is it?
Do I remember my smoking days! So glad I kicked the habit. It is so funny to see in the International airports after a long flight people making a bee line for the smoking area. Good one my friend.
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder if they really can't smell those stinky smoking rooms don't you? Yuk.
DeleteWell done, Astrid! A former smoker, myself, I fully agree with you that if you really want to quit you can, but you have to do it for yourself and not for someone else. It was easy for me because I was not a heavy smoker and only smoked after dinner in the evening.
ReplyDeletePeople in England thought the world would end when smoking in pubs was banned -- in fact I think it's made them more popular. Wish they would ban people standing in doorways puffing away, though!
I hope this new wave of permitting smoking in Sports Bars once again doesn't drift across the pond too. Just think a return to smelly clothes just because you popped into a pub for a quiet ale. Eeeek!
DeleteStrangley enough I gave up because of the cost. Quitline rang me a couple of times and kept asking me why I wanted to quit. I think they were waiting for me to to tell them that it was for my health. I must have repeated myself over and over till it finally sunk in. Not the smell- although it does literally 'stink' ...but so does passing a rendering plant and people still eat margarine.
ReplyDeleteNot for my health ...as my health is shot anyway and my health issues are not related to the 'ciggys'.
I would always stand away from entrances and many at time I would be backing off when someone approached me to speak with me. It must have looked funny as I took a step back-they would take a step forward. I also used to hang the clothes I'd worn to the pub, outside when I came home from a night out. I couldn't stand the smell myself ....and I was a smoker. Hubby has never smoked or complained when I did. I think it's because he couldn't smell the smoke for the cow(grassy)smell that comes out of the pores of his skin! :)
Recently there was an item in the news here about young adults taking up smoking again.
I hear you Sue regarding the cost. I nearly passed out in cold shock a couple of years ago when my daughter (still smoking then) bought ONE PACKET of cigs and plonked down something like $12! She kept saying, 'but there's 50 in the pack Mum.' The last pack I bought cost $3.00 and I thought that was over the top. So, let's get healthy and wealthy and pat ourselves on the back. Smiles - A.
DeleteG'day Astrid. I have never been a smoker and neither is hubby and with the cost of a packet now, I am glad that we never took up the habit. At the hospital/nursing home where I work, there is a no smoking ban enforced. It hasn't made a lot of people happy though, but that's the way things are now. Good on you for not taking the smoking back up.Take care. Liz...
ReplyDeleteGood for you Liz...and now that the filthy habit is less visible, let's hope our young people are not tempted by trying to fit in or be part of the 'in' crowd.
DeleteMy daughter does not want to marry a smoker (she lets people know that when they want to introduce her to a nice guy). She is frowned upon and some one even called her shallow. Well, shallow or not she does not want to make it hard on her future kids to stay smoke free.
ReplyDeleteGood for her for sticking to her guns! I think it would be quite hideous for a non-smoker to even date a smoker. It really is like kissing an ash-tray. I don't she's shallow at all...she's very smart and looking ahead to kids who will want to see if Mom practises what she preaches.
DeleteI gave up smoking over 30 years ago, Astrid and only then realised what I must have smelt like during those years I smoked. I think the smoking ban in enclosed places is truly great and am sorry to see it being rolled back even a little. Thinking about it, hardly any of our family and friends still smoke - such a change from even 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what a few years will do...just watched an old movie on TV and was appalled that the Doctor was puffing away on a cigarette while talking to his patient! Can you imagine that happening today? Hopefully never again.
DeleteNow, see, I look at it differently.
ReplyDeleteI quit smoking -- cold turkey -- when I was five years old ;) and I detest tobacco; I have never allowed anyone to smoke in my house or car (and when we were teens, that caused friction with my siblings, all three of whom (*) smoked at the time).
At the same time, I know that it is generally not within my liberty to try to use government compulsion to compel others – under threat of violence-unto-death – to prohibit their guests from using tobacco, a legal product, on their premises.
Get back to me when the government outlaws the production, sale and use of tobacco – which we all know will never happen.
(*) One sister still smokes, and she makes all the standard whines about how hard it is to quit. Of course, and as others have pointed out, the fact is simply that she doesn’t yet want to quit … despite seeing, first hand, the effect it has on a person’s ability to draw the next breath.
The way I see it, everything, or nearly so, comes down to the conjunction of morality and liberty -- if I am willing to use government violence-unto-death to compel my fellow citizens to do what I think they ought to do on a matter of which the morality isn't all that cut-and-dried, how then can I complain when other persons seek to use government violence-unto-death to compel me to do what they think I ought to do on a matter of which the morality isn't all that cut-and-dried?
DeleteYou've done it again Ilion..how is it you crack me up so much with your comments. Five indeed!
DeleteTo make it a short story --
DeleteI don't recall whether we did it repeatedly, of just the one day, but, when I was five, my younger brother and I sat on the front stoop watching for smokers from down the street walking past our house. When one of them would flick his cigarette butt into the grass, we'd look around to see whether anyone were watching us, then we'd scurry out to pick up the butt, then we'd scamper into the narrow way between our house and the next, and smoke what was left of it.
That is my experience with tobacco use.
Well, that and listening to my gradmother hack her lungs out every morning (during the couple of weeks our family had to stay at her house while something was being done to ours). And watching my aunts, in their old age, alternately puff on inhalers and cigarattes.
DeleteBefore they became Christians, and met, both my parents had smoked.
DeleteAs I recall, my father had smoked 4.5 to 5 packs a day. According to what he told us, after he became a Christian, he decided one day, "God doesn't want me to smoke", and so he just quit that day.
It's true! I'll try to remember to explain later.
ReplyDeleteI can just see you and your mates at age 5 huddling around an old butt puffing away. Glad it didn't become a habit. As you say, watching someone whose lungs have nearly collapsed from the dreadful things either makes you sad or furious.
DeleteI think much of what has gotten people to quit smoking is cultural. If we start allowing it one place, then more people will smoke. Simple. And it is everyday people who foot the bill when these smokers end up in the hospital. Ah well...
ReplyDeleteYou're spot on Rubye Jack...let's hope the lobbyists for Big Smoke don't win on this one! Thanks for stopping by...Smiles
DeleteLet's see if that argument holds up --
DeleteI think much of what has gotten people to quit [drinking] is cultural. If we start allowing it one place, then more people will [drink]. Simple. And it is everyday people who foot the bill when these [drinkers] end up in the hospital.
I think much of what has gotten people to quit [turning their noses up at tofu] is cultural. If we start allowing it one place, then more people will [turn their noses up at tofu]. Simple. And it is everyday people who foot the bill when these [tofu non-eaters] end up in the hospital.
I think much of what has gotten people to quit [over-eating] is cultural. If we start allowing it one place, then more people will [over-eat]. Simple. And it is everyday people who foot the bill when these [over-eaters] end up in the hospital.
I think much of what has gotten people to quit [leading sedentary lives] is cultural. If we start allowing it one place, then more people will [be couch-potatoes]. Simple. And it is everyday people who foot the bill when these [inactive people] end up in the hospital.
I think much of what has gotten people to quit [fornicating] is cultural. If we start allowing it one place, then more people will [fornicate]. Simple. And it is everyday people who foot the bill when these [fornicators and/or their bastards] end up in the hospital.
-- the point is, when you’re willing to use government violence-unto-death to trample someone else’s property-rights, to say nothing of their other freedoms, then you can hardly squawk when someone else does it to you.
it is not shunned in college..I was surprised at the kids that smoke.
ReplyDeleteas soon as i found out I was pregnant, I quit...24 yrs ago...I still think I would like a smoke!