Any A$$ Can Smoke!

I was looking through my papers when I found this, a postcard mailed to me on January 8, 1981 from Battle Lake, MN. A friend mailed it to me to support my decision to stop smoking tobacco. At the time I was not a vegetarian. I ate turkey on Thanksgiving. I looked at this postcard many, many, many times so maybe this is why I am a vegetarian now. This is one ugly turkey rear. I had my last cigarette in the morning of Xmas eve. I cried as I gathered and washed all the ash trays. I had a round green glass ash tray that I was fond of. I cried as I gathered all my lighters and books of matches. I put all the smoking equipment into a shoe box and put the shoe box in a closet. I figured the stores would be closed Xmas Eve and Xmas day so I had no opportunity to buy more cigarettes. My doctor had told me my chronic ear infections were caused by my pulling toxic fumes into my head via my pie hole. So I quit 42 years, 4 months, 22 days and 12 hours ago. My friend's note on the back of the postcard said congratulations. She said good luck with the cube. The cube was a Rubik's cube to keep my hands busy. No, I never figured out how to operate a Rubik's cube. I also had a brass candle snifter that I held and played with. Addiction is real. Quitting is difficult. On the day I quit I promised myself that if I abstained for a full year I could smoke one cigarette. I did abstain for a full year. On the next Xmas Eve I had a relative light a cigarette for me and I held it and tapped the ashes into an ashtray. I was afraid to bring it to my lips. I knew I would have to quit all over again and I didn't want to go through that again. Urges to smoke came frequently and persisted for over a decade. The strongest urges came to me while I was driving and saw someone smoking outside. I ended up gaining 70 pounds. Sometimes, as I walked past people who were smoking outside, I would inhale the secondary smoke on purpose. Coffee breaks at work weren't as much fun anymore. Going outside with the other smokers meant great conversations. For years I had dreams that I started smoking again and I would wake up in the morning feeling so guilty and sad. The crazy thing about all this is that I didn't like smoking at first. Newport menthol cigarettes tasted terrible. I wish I had never started smoking. Any a$$ can smoke. I made a good decision to quit.