Thoughts On Smoking

Cutter's Log - Stardate 3102.81.60
Current Song - Around The World (Daft Punk)

I don't smoke.

I've never smoked. Never will.

I come in contact with about 50-60 smokers per shift at work. About 25 of them are younger than me. Most of them are regular customers.

I just don't get it.

My buddy Joe, who is my nightly "super-regular" at work, told me about a former customer of ours that recently had a stroke and a heartattack. He had stopped smoking for a while and went back to it. Then this happened.

Joe himself became a smoker when he was 18, in 1958. He smoked as many as three packs a day, while working two jobs, until he was 25. That's when a doctor scared him into not smoking another cigarette for the rest of his life. Therefore he quit "cold turkey" and it has worked. Two years from now will be 50 years smoke-free for Joe.

Joe and I are often completly bewildered when the subject of smoking comes up in our nightly conversation. We just don't get why people smoke. For a while I didn't have a problem with people smoking in my car, but now I do.

Of the four Cutter Boys, two smoke and two do not smoke. This seems natural when you consider that, for all but two months I can remember, my parents never smoked (my mom lit it up in that brief time). But two of my four grandparents were big smokers; one died before I was born and the other quit in her mid-60s. Most of my great-grandparents smoked. But then again, the true dangers of smoking weren't shoved down people's throats at that time. 

They're going to bitch at me for writing this, but I could never understand why two of my brothers (Mike and Chris) started smoking. That's when I began to think about why young people start smoking in the first place.

I grew up around relatives that smoked. I can't ever say that any of them have ever influenced me into thinking about it. I do remember hiding mom's cigarettes one time during that brief period in which she smoked. Might have been influence from my grandparents (dad's parents).

Then I got to thinking about the people I was around. In Rock Falls, most of the kids I grew up with, those in my neighborhood, later smoked. After moving from Rock Falls, I really didn't have a specific group of friends - it was all just one big whole to me, although through sports I gravitated toward the athletes quite a bit.

Thinking back of all four of us in high school, Dan and I hung out with athletes more than Mike and Chris. I think that is a big reason that seperates us two when it comes to smoking. But at the same time, hanging out with athletes doesn't present a smoking problem much as it does an underage drinking problem. Dan and I have survived all of that.

Throughout middle school and high school, I've never been asked those questions of "Do you want ..." Even when I was hanging around seniors as a freshman, never.

When I talk about the differences between Cody/Dan and Mike/Chris, that doesn't mean that smoking seperates us. We're still a strong four-person unit. I'm just point out differences in personality and liknesses. It "distincts" you, I guess.

And most importantly, all of this slamming on smoking - I don't look down or dislike people because of whether they smoke or not. 


However, the one big dislike that I have when it comes to smoking is this: I cannot fathom living life along with a woman that smokes. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why I'm still single right now. When we kiss, there's that certain "smoke breath". I hate to say it, but smoking is a big turn-off for me. It's not a problem with relatives, but with that certain someone that you will be bonded with forever, I just can't see it. I don't hate them, I'm just saying that I can't see myself committed with one.