Do you smoke cigarettes?

never have, never will...

I quit the day I received my college diploma. Figured it was a good milestone.

Nope, I don't smoke and luckily I rarely see people smoke out here, and if
they do, they're stared down. Southern Californians are ferocious when it
comes to smokers - unless it's weed, for medical purposes only, of course!

Not anymore. These days it's just a crack rock after dinner.

I've quit many times. Many, many times.

nope - they are bad for you, haven't you heard?

No, I don't smoke.

As a kid, I tried one. Hated it.

I am a big believer in non-smoker's rights in public places. Finally, some sense has come to our area over the past few years.

I can remember in the past going to restaurants and having to endure smoke in the "non-smoking section". What a joke that was!

Now, we finally have smokers out of buildings, and a minimum of 12 feet away from the door.

It's hard to believe, but when my oldest daughter was born in 1980, my wife was in hospital prior to giving birth. She was in a ward, which had 4 beds. 3 of the occupants were smokers! And they allowed smoking in the beds!!

When she complained, she was told by nurses and doctors that it "wouldn't hurt her or our unborn child".

We've come a long way, baby! Now, here, you can't smoke, even outside, on the hospital grounds.

I remember my doctor smoking in the office And everybody smoked at their desks, remember? We sure have come a long way!

It was never such a sweet day as when they stopped allowing people to smoke at their desks. My first job, this poor loser and me sat right between two chain smokers. He constantly complained about the smoke - I kept my mouth shut because there was really nothing I could do.

Then one day they announced no more smoking at desks, we have a smoking room on each floor. The poor sap who sat out near that office must have been miserable as whenever that door opened there was a huge cloud of smoke. I would not walk near the place.

Then it changed again to no smoking at all in the buildings even better!

I remember people smoking in offices, but never had a doctor that smoked during an appointment. Maybe he was considerate?

It sure is hard to believe now though that there was a time when smoking was allowed in hospitals, of all places, for heaven's sake!

I remember when smoking was still allowed in bars.

Gah, all this talk about smoking makes me want a cigarette. I knew this would happen.

It has developed that after all this time I really don't want to breathe in smoke. I used to think that the day I got some exciting terminal diagnosis I'd go buy a pack of cigs.. but no, no chance of that now. I might, however, go buy an expensive single malt or the very best chocolates money can buy. Or maybe a really really good steak.

Yes, this kitten smokes.

I started when I was 11 (I usually lie about that, and up it to 17, but I could NEVER lie to A2K pals). I am now 47.

Would I like to quit? Why, yes. I can't say I'd "prefer" to be a smoker. Bad for me, messy, dirty, etc.

I am surprisingly healthy, not being overweight, drinking water more than anything else, eating fruits & veggies ('cause I like them), blah blah blah... excuses?

Where are all the smokers out there? Is everyone truly as virtuous as previous, non-smoking/once-smoking posters? Not me.

I smoke.

I could name some members that smoke, but don't want to get in their business.

Yes, plenty of a2kers smoke, including some of the people I most respect as people. I'm not interested in being righteous - I remember really enjoying it, including everything that went with it, the lighters, the cig cases, the cool ashtrays from Mexico, the sex... Plus it made me glam, no kidding. I'm of the era when it was glam.

Besides BorisKitten and myself, you mean?

As I said, it's none of my business. I also loved a good smoke in the old days, so who am I to judge? There was a story on the evening news today, that charges that American cigarettes are more deadly than the rest, because of the way the tobacco is cured.

And 2Packs, of course.

I just smoked the last in that (thinking back) 11-month-old pack. My friend BB had 4 or 5 or 6 of 'em, dropping by after tough day at work. So a little more than one skinny bitch a month at this point.

I still enjoy the occasional ciggie, as mentioned. But the heavy smoking I was doing when I was a heavy smoker -- well, when I was born, I spent my first 2 weeks under close watch at the hospital because I was born with crap lungs, and I was treated for some form of pneumonia or bronchitis 5 times before I was 14, so it's probably a more foolhardy venture for me than it is for the average schlub. I'm lucky in that cigs don't hold that strong a power over me -- wish I could say the same for caffeine, and someday I will probably wish I could say the same thing about the firewater, too. It is what it is.

That's a mouthful, Patd -
Some of my cig avoidance is from years of rhinitis (no, that's not true, I smoked while sneezing, quite happily) and asthma, the asthma not then from the smoke but from, ack, to me extreme exercise, or, CATS. Eh, I started to like clear lungs not as a concept, just to have them for whatever time. That didn't really take hold for me until several years after quitting.. that I really appreciated clear breathing. A kind of liquidity. Not to proselytize - we can differ.

You and your one cig, eh, I get that. Quit the one or not, I'm not all worried unless you get flamboyant lung reactivity from the one.