Day by Dave by Dave Whamond for May 31, 2023

Smoke and mirrors

I quit in 2016. I’m so, so glad.

This one is spot-on. I always wondered how the smokers got away with more breaks than us non-smokers did.

I smoked but not very much…when I got my new car in 2004, I didn’t want it smell like smoke…so I quit! Still have the car and never smoked again! ☺️

I quit about 15 years ago.

I get this.

In an office cubicle environment, it’s easy to find the smokers, ESPECIALLY in the summer!

You could walk up and down the cubicle row and smell: perfume, perfume, cologne, perfume, cologne, wet-dog-that-put-out-a-campfire-by-rolling-in-it. BINGO! Found one!

At the least stare at your phone.

I used to work in a lumber yard. To avoid any possible fires, the company built a little shelter way at the back end of their property. So now not only did the smokers get time for a cigarette but they had a nice stroll back and forth to their spot!

I wish that could be every day…

November 2000 for me. I got hypnotized to stop!

I quit smoking in Fall 1978, about 1 month before my 27th birthday. I attended a Smoke Enders course in my then-home town of Philadelphia, PA. When I quit ciggies were going for $6.50 a carton; now in NYC they’re selling for $14 per PACK, & most of that is taxes!

When shamed in public while buying cartons years ago, I used to tell them that I did it “for the children” because that’s where some of the huge taxes I paid supposedly went …!

( no more cartons … sorry, kids )

Back in the late 90’s I was working at a clothing outlet and the manager at the time did encourage the smokers to stop – very nicely out of genuine concern for their health. One they they jokingly told her that in honor of the Great American Smoke Day they hadn’t opted to stop but had talked me into starting (I have never smoked). They almost had her fooled but she quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen.

I’m 11

I quit in November of 1985. When I quit, I was a FOUR packs a day smoker.

Somehow, I made it thru the 2 weeks hump period. From then on it was much easier. One day, I woke up, ate breakfast, and went to work. I was walking into work from the parking lot when I suddenly realized I had not thought of cigarettes until that moment.

I credit a person who, at the time, asked me to calculate how much money I spent on smoking for the prior year.

I sat down and did the calculation. I was shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that I had smoked the equivalent of a brand new car.

Of course, many other people continued to smoke, but the age of “no smoking” in buildings had arrived, so folks had to go smoke outside.

Well there were some people who went out to smoke every 45 minutes or so, and they were outside for 15, 20 minutes.

So, one day, I brought some fruit to work, and every 45 minutes or so, I would go outside to the smoking area and spend 20 minutes enjoying my fruit.

In the after noon, my manager asked me what the heck I was doing. I told him, and he said, “But, you’re not smoking.”

I said, “No, I’m not, I’m eating my fruit.”

And he said to stop what I was doing and eat my fruit inside the building.

So, every 45 minutes, I took my fruit to the dining area to eat it. My manager saw what I was doing, and told me to eat my fruit at break time (10 minutes midmorning) or lunch.

I said, “Hey, what about the smokers?” and he said, “They’re smoking, you’re not. Have pity on them. Now, get back to work.”