I started messing around with analogs when I was 12. My stepfather always had a carton of Camel non-filters in the backseat of his car. My mother had a lot of purses and there was always a few cigs left in a pack in most of them. I would steal from my stepfathers stash, go to a little shed in the backyard, smoke one and walk out so dizzy.
I have no idea how long my mothers cigs, with the asbestos, sorry micronite filters, had been in those purses and they all smelled like perfume. I smoked them anyway.
My stepfather farmed 6000 acres of grain sorghum and a few hundred acres of cotton. When I was 13 he planted my .... on a Massey-Ferguson tractor. No shade or umbrella on top, 95 degrees in the shade, 10 hour days for $7 a day. I worked every summer and drove every piece of farming equipment. Most of the time combines which easily stretched into 16 hours a day. No radio, A/C cabs, etc. There wasn't much to do but I loved farming. So, like everyone I knew I started smoking. I don't remember how much I smoked during those years but it wasn't a tremendous amount but was steadily increasing.
I started playing in bands (drummer) right after high school...more smoking. Some of the venues were so fogged with smoke that you really didn't have to light up yourself, but I did anyway.
We all know that everyone smoked in those days. Wasn't Paul on the Perry Mason show that was a smoke machine? All my heroes smoked and I loved Johnny Carson. Fire one up.
My parents took me on two vacations to Colorado. Both heavy smokers, never cracked a window. My eyes burning and we pulled over so I could throw up. Car sickness they said, no smoke sickness.
Starting around 26yo I had a very high pressure job. Everyday in my office I noticed at 5pm, I was opening my second pack. The job was over in 6 years but two packs a day stayed. So for over 40 years I kept it up.
My father died of lung cancer at 59(I turned 59 today). My brother died of the same at 63, that was 18 months ago. My mother died at 73 from head and neck cancer from the lethal combo of smoking and alcohol.
For about the last two years, I noticed cigs had caught up with me. My breathing was majorly compromised and when I went to bed I couldn't make the wheezing stop and I would cough my head of for 15 minutes trying to get the phloem(?) up. Exhausted, I would finally get it.
I know that, vaping or not, that lung or other cancer will probably get me in the end but vaping may postpone it.
If I do get cancer and it's advanced I will not do chemo. Cancer doesn't kill, chemo does. Enough of that.
Within days of quitting the wheezing went away. Not sure that my breathing has improved a whole lot yet but it will over time.
If I had it to do over, I'd probably make the same mistake. I always felt that I belonged with smokers just like my recent transition to vaping, I know it's where I belong.
When I look at a chart showing causes of death in this country and see how many people that smoking kills verses everything else, it's crazy. A nice sized small city of 400,000 people is wiped off the map every year.
Seems the general public hates vapers, through misunderstanding, than smokers. Smokers think it's ridiculous, non-smokers hate everybody, quit smokers seem to despise us and I avoid them more than any other group. I'm happy they quit their way, now let me do things my way. I'm getting old and the older I get, people in general can take their opinion and shove it. I honestly don't care what anybody thinks of me anymore and I say, mind your own business.
I've found enthusiastic like minded people here who will help if I ask and even though I just started vaping for a few weeks, I know belong a shadow of a doubt, I'm done with analogs. That is amazing and yes, I'm proud of myself. I'm where I should be.
(I may have said some of this before(very bad memory) Thanks for letting me ramble.
I have no idea how long my mothers cigs, with the asbestos, sorry micronite filters, had been in those purses and they all smelled like perfume. I smoked them anyway.
My stepfather farmed 6000 acres of grain sorghum and a few hundred acres of cotton. When I was 13 he planted my .... on a Massey-Ferguson tractor. No shade or umbrella on top, 95 degrees in the shade, 10 hour days for $7 a day. I worked every summer and drove every piece of farming equipment. Most of the time combines which easily stretched into 16 hours a day. No radio, A/C cabs, etc. There wasn't much to do but I loved farming. So, like everyone I knew I started smoking. I don't remember how much I smoked during those years but it wasn't a tremendous amount but was steadily increasing.
I started playing in bands (drummer) right after high school...more smoking. Some of the venues were so fogged with smoke that you really didn't have to light up yourself, but I did anyway.
We all know that everyone smoked in those days. Wasn't Paul on the Perry Mason show that was a smoke machine? All my heroes smoked and I loved Johnny Carson. Fire one up.
My parents took me on two vacations to Colorado. Both heavy smokers, never cracked a window. My eyes burning and we pulled over so I could throw up. Car sickness they said, no smoke sickness.
Starting around 26yo I had a very high pressure job. Everyday in my office I noticed at 5pm, I was opening my second pack. The job was over in 6 years but two packs a day stayed. So for over 40 years I kept it up.
My father died of lung cancer at 59(I turned 59 today). My brother died of the same at 63, that was 18 months ago. My mother died at 73 from head and neck cancer from the lethal combo of smoking and alcohol.
For about the last two years, I noticed cigs had caught up with me. My breathing was majorly compromised and when I went to bed I couldn't make the wheezing stop and I would cough my head of for 15 minutes trying to get the phloem(?) up. Exhausted, I would finally get it.
I know that, vaping or not, that lung or other cancer will probably get me in the end but vaping may postpone it.
If I do get cancer and it's advanced I will not do chemo. Cancer doesn't kill, chemo does. Enough of that.
Within days of quitting the wheezing went away. Not sure that my breathing has improved a whole lot yet but it will over time.
If I had it to do over, I'd probably make the same mistake. I always felt that I belonged with smokers just like my recent transition to vaping, I know it's where I belong.
When I look at a chart showing causes of death in this country and see how many people that smoking kills verses everything else, it's crazy. A nice sized small city of 400,000 people is wiped off the map every year.
Seems the general public hates vapers, through misunderstanding, than smokers. Smokers think it's ridiculous, non-smokers hate everybody, quit smokers seem to despise us and I avoid them more than any other group. I'm happy they quit their way, now let me do things my way. I'm getting old and the older I get, people in general can take their opinion and shove it. I honestly don't care what anybody thinks of me anymore and I say, mind your own business.
I've found enthusiastic like minded people here who will help if I ask and even though I just started vaping for a few weeks, I know belong a shadow of a doubt, I'm done with analogs. That is amazing and yes, I'm proud of myself. I'm where I should be.
(I may have said some of this before(very bad memory) Thanks for letting me ramble.
SO glad to have you. As for farming, I get it, my hubby just bought his first air conditioned cab tractor a year ago, here in NM you just need it and he is loving it! ha ha bnrk
