How and When I Quit Smoking

I was a smoker years ago ... smoked Marlboro.  I quit cold turkey on November 11, 1982 after trying to quit with hypnosis or by myself.  I remember watching the ACS commercial in TV of a guy looking older than my age (32 then) celebrating his 18th birthday.  He obviously wasn’t 18, but said it was 18 years ago since his last lung surgery following a lung cancer diagnosis. Said he could wait to be 21.

I believe smokers are addicted just like they are to other drugs.  Quitting is hard, harder than most can relate to.  I respect those that try to quit but can’t.  Quoting only comes when your self conscious says enough is enough.  Before that, you outer being may say quit, but your inner being is stronger and want let you.

I quit when my inner being said I was going to live to see my kids grow up... now so I can see my grandkids grow up.  They are so stinking cute!

This writing was prompted by a sign outside of a Cumberland Farms store advertising the “low cost of cigarettes”.  Ha!  $9.34 for a pack of Marlboro... that’s $93.40 a carton. At my peek that I remember was aboard my submarine on 6 hour watches, or duty.  I could easily do a 1-2 packs per day.  At least a carton per week ... that’s a drug habit in the making.  More than a mortgage payment back then.

The cheapest I can recall buying cigarettes for was $1.30 per CARTON!  Sea rationed cigarettes.  I was aboard the USS LaSalle, LPD-3, a target operating out of Norfolk, VA between schools before submarine assignment in the early 1970’s.  Submariners often said, you could be assigned to a submarine or a target. We went out to sea for only 1 day while I was stationed aboard.  When the announcement “Sea Stores” were opened, there was a rush I knew nothing about.  Sailors buying tax free sea rationed cigatettes by the case of 60 cartons.  I did t have much money with me, but I did buy what I could.  Can you imagine - $1.30 a carton?  I’m sure they are more than that now, but geesh!  We didn’t get that benefit aboard submarines.

In any case, I’m sorry those still afflicted with smoking are there, smoking does cause cancer.  Start believing in the reason to live, reach out for help, and save a LOT of money.