From the age of about 16, I smoked very strong French cigarettes. My Art Master at school smoked Disque Blue and I would occasionally half-inch one from his pack whilst he wasn't looking. I became a fan quite early on.
Otherwise, in my study we would smoke very expensive Sobranie Balkan cigs; they were small and oval with a gold tip, and came in a very attractive white pack. Why we were so keen on these I don't know, it was probably my 'aesthete' friend Monty who started the trend; he was that type!
At the same time we would drink unbelievably cheap and nasty 'British' Sherry (called English Rose), which was awful. On reflection, we would have been better off drinking good quality Sherry, and buying less expensive cigs. However, we did think ourselves as being very sophisticated when we offered study-visitors a glass of this dreadful stuff; but always in a nice s/h Sherry glass.
As soon as I left school I began smoking unfiltered Gauloises; possibly some of the strongest cigarettes around. I was never a big smoker, but I enjoyed a few each day.
I continued smoking Gauloises until about 1998, when I suddenly stopped. I woke one morning and thought how silly it was to continue smoking, and bought no more cigs. It was as simple as that. I felt no withdrawal symptoms, nor did I start to crave sweets, etc. It was a seamless divide between smoker and non-smoker.
They do say that one's lungs completely repair themselves after 7 years of non-smoking, so I think mine must be OK by now.
Maybe I'll take-up my Gauloises again;...... NO, I WON'T.
I was never tempted to smoke, maybe it was from listening to the Bob Newhart track of Walter Rayleigh bringing back tobacco from the New World. He did rather send up the whole business of smoking!
ReplyDeleteI remember it well.
DeleteMy mother smoked unfiltered Old Gold cigarettes from 1948-1978 and stopped cold turkey just as you did. She died in 1986 after a brief bout with agressive metastatic duodenal adenocarcinoma. I had made arrangements for a private post mortem to be done because I wanted to know exactly what the cause of death was and her overall physical condition. Though agressive the cancer had only spread to her liver. The doctor who performed the post mortem said that her lungs were pristine and showed no signs of her ever having been a heavy pack-and-a-half-a-day smoker for 30 years. The same was true for her arteries. So Cro it is possible that you too have lungs that have completely repaired themselves as did my mother's in her last 8 years of life. Cro, I must say that I have enjoyed year after year the wide range of interesting, thought provoking, controversial, food for thought, recollections from moments of your life and times, and not least of which the hotest trending topics you have put out for comments and discussion. I applaud you sir.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very kind comment Woody. Some, it must be said, die from smoking, on the other hand my Father-in-Law died from Lung Cancer and he'd never smoked a single cigarette in his life.
DeleteI never wanted to smoke. Growing up with both parents who were heavy smokers I just couldn't stand the stench... and still don't.
ReplyDeleteMy parents didn't smoke, but I found the activity quite appealing from a very young age. I have no idea why.
DeleteI started smoking in my teens .... it was a bit of a showing off thing to start with for many teenagers I think. I vaguely remember there being a Sobranie factory nearish our school. We used to smoke Gauloises/ Disc Bleu because it was very cool !!!! I hated them as they were so strong. Then it was Dunhill International and St Moritz ! Then we all toned it down to Benson and Hedges, Embassy and even Silk Cut ! I gave up in my early 40's as we all then knew it wasn't good for us. I think I read it took ten years for your lungs to be clear but I don't know how true that is. My Grandmother smoked plain Senior Service all of her life and then decided to give up at the grand old age of 96 ! We always wondered if it was worth it but she said she felt better !!!! XXXX
ReplyDelete96 does seem a bit late to quit. I think I might have carried on.
Deletemorning Cro. Like you my dad gave up smoking without any withdrawal signs, at the age of 80. My father in law carried on smoking even when he was ill and was told his lungs were shot. Even when he was on oxygen at the end of his life! Mental.
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed when I see smokers coughing their lungs out. I don't think they realise how easy it is to quit. And with a pack costing about £20, it's much easier to stop these days.
DeleteIt ISN'T easy to quit when you are addicted. some people just don't have the "addiction" gene and can give up easily.
DeleteI remember being sent to the shop for cigarettes (Players) by my father. The shopkeepers knew my father was housebound, so were OK about selling to a child! One day he gave me a ten shllling note, and I remember thinking that if he rolled up the note and smoked that instead, there was no difference in the outcome. The money would have gone up in smoke either way.
ReplyDeleteI have never smoked. Not once.
You are very wise, it's a really stupid habit. One sees very few smokers these days, which is good!
DeleteI had a red and golden Dunhill cigarette lighter and thought it chic to have cigarette packet that matched (B&H ?) I smoked about six a year and got more sense when I was 25yrs old plus.
ReplyDeleteSix a year is hardly what I'd call smoking, but well done for quitting.
DeleteI used to smoke twenty cigarettes a day but in 1985 or was it 1986 - I decided to stop. I broke up my remaining pack of Benson and Hedges into our dustbin and have never smoked a single cigarette since. I call it "The Willpower Method".
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what it is. People with strong willpower can quit easily; those without will always claim to be addicted.
DeleteI used to be a twenty to thirty a day woman!
ReplyDeleteI started smoking when I was seventeen, Sobranie Black Russian of all things!
I then turned to JPS, followed by B&H Gold.
One morning, at the age of thirty four, I suddenly decided that I had no wish to smoke any longer, so I hid my cigarettes in the back of a wardrobe (just in case), but have never wanted one since that day, thirty two years ago!
I can't even bear the smell of fag smoke now, and the thought that I used to drag that rubbish into my lungs makes me feel physically sick! X
Yes, it's a strange thought that we used to breathe in all that poison; and not die at once.
DeleteMy husband was a heavy smoker until he ended up with lung cancer at the age of 52. He had to quit immediately, of course. The cancer treatments were incredibly hard; first he lost his entire left lung, then he had three months of chemo. Thankfully he's been cancer free and healthy for 12 years and counting.
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't pay me to smoke cigarettes!
I didn't realise he'd had lung cancer. Thank goodness the treatment worked for him. Now he can enjoy his early retirement.
DeleteHappy memories. And I won't dwell on whether your kids and their mother were subjected to your fumes. My father? He smoked Gauloise (blue) and Roth-Handle (red) - if ever there were stinkers.
ReplyDeleteMy own smoking career was short lived. About three years. In my early twenties I met the Englishman who later became FOS (father-of-son). He made no bones about it: "I don't wish to kiss an ashtray." And you thought the English were polite, not blunt, by nature. HA!
I loved smoking. The romance of it, the kick. Still, there was no contest. I quit. Alas, unlike all you saints in the comment boxes, it took me nearly two years before the craving finally left me. And, to this day, there are moments, maybe once or twice a year, when I dream of having that cigarette.
U
People coming to my home in Brighton used to say it smelled of France. That Gauloise aroma got into everything.
DeleteSobranie, what memories. Pastel colours with a gold tip although my friend and I favoured the black ones with gold tips, always smoked in a cigarette holder. Remember them? My mother had a collection of cigarette holders to match her evening dresses which I purloined in my teens. We thought we were so sophisticated.😁
ReplyDeleteI remember those "cocktail" ciggies. My brief attempt at smoking involved Dutch cigarillos in a tin. Wilhelm's if I recall
DeleteMy parents used to offer the Sobranie Cocktail cigs at parties, but there were very few takers.
DeleteI am told that the mutation I have in my lung cells is normally caused by smoking and can appear decades after giving up. In my case, it is due to "significant passive smoking" in the 1970s.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, passive smoking was never thought about 30/40 years ago.
DeleteGood for you quitting and staying quit.
ReplyDeleteI took one drag on one in 8th grade. Blech. Not appealing at all!
I enjoyed it at the time, but now it seems like a crazy nightmare.
DeleteSmoking was once popular. My friends and family smoked and I disliked the smell of cigarette, pipe and cigar smoke choosing not to partake. It is rare to see people smoking today. That said, when I am in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, I can smell hints of weed in the outdoor air. Most, if not all, workplaces, bars and restaurants have banned all smoking.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of smoke one smells here comes from Marijuana. People seem to smoke it openly just like we used to smoke ordinary tobacco years ago.
DeleteNo, never smoked in my life. My parents didn't smoke, but my husband smoked from about the age of 14, all through his life and died from lung cancer. I remember how angry he was when it was first confirmed and he was told to give up. Sadly he didn't.
ReplyDeleteI used to hate going into pubs and restaurants in the days when smoking was permitted everywhere. Impossible to avoid ending up smelling of smoke. After a night out I would come home, shower, wash my hair and the clothes I'd worn go straight into the machine. Thank goodness things have changed.
I'm quite shocked these days when I see people smoking, even if it's outdoors. Of course here they mostly smoke marijuana, and occasionally the smell is quite overpowering.
DeleteCro, my dad smoked cigars and a pipe... and even though he gave it up late, did end up with cancer. I never wanted to smoke. I thought it made a person look 'hard/mean'... ? I did try a few when I was in college - but only because it took hunger away and that summer I lived on Tareytons and peanut butter. I think you were wise to stop.
ReplyDeleteMy father did smoke Cigars when he was older, but I really don't know why. He had never smoked before.
DeleteMarlbro for a whlie
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine went to the USA to photograph Cowboys for their adverts!
DeleteYou probably don't have the "addictive" gene that makes it so hard for others to give up. My younger son has made several attempts at quitting and he does smoke fewer cigs now, but can't yet give up altogether.
ReplyDeleteHe probably doesn't want to give up. Some people just enjoy it too much.
Delete