At approximately 11:50/11:55 pm on December 31st, 1999, I took the last puff of my last cigarette(so far). I had grown tired of smoking and the lungs would complain at me when I lay down to sleep at night, causing me to sit up for another half hour each night to let my lungs catch a full breath of air to be able to go to sleep .
This had been going on now for the better part of the year and it was becoming burdensome, so I made my mind up that I was gonna quit smoking cold turkey! Of course, I had done this a few times before and always started smoking again, BUT!
I just couldn’t breathe comfortable anymore so I decided enough was enough. Again, I didn’t really know if I could but I really was scared of not breathing more than I was afraid of giving up the not-so-pleasurable anymore habit of forcing the two filters in my chest to take in smoke and clear it for me to breathe.
I was reminded of my decision to stop when I was reading an article about 4 people passing away from vaping..or at least they attributed vaping as a cause of death. I don’t doubt it. I asked people years ago when vaping first came out as to who the originators, the inventors of vaping were? Somehow it seemed to escape their notice that the same cigarette companies that were losing smokers because many were dying and the millennials were being educated about the downfalls, the health risks, etc. of cigarettes by those great anti-smoking ads so the companies found a new, “healthier” way to smoke. Fools! I dedicate this to all those “cool marlboro men” of today:
just gonna start this before I forget:
MARLBORO MAN
I remember the Marlboro Man,
The sophistication,
The cool.
I remember the Kool Camel,
The different,
The weirdness of a camel smoking.
I remember the smoke curling up,
Surrounding you in its fog,
Wrapping you in its soundless seduction.
I remember the feel of it,
The roll of warmth,
Held between the index and middle fingers.
I remember how it sat,
Firm between your knuckles,
Holding cool to your chest like you were the baddest.
I remember lighting the match in winds,
In rain and snow,
Fire radiating your face for all to see just as suave as can be..the Marlboro man!
I remember having to work those two filters,
Those things we call lungs,
To inhale the white smoke which eventually turned the lungs black.
Yeah,
I remember how cool I thought it was,
‘Til the coughing fits started.
I still think smoking looks cool..if you’re the Marlboro Man..
Otherwise you’re just a fat bastard pointing blanks at your head in life’s russian roulette not knowing if there is any actual bullet in the gun..
Or if you’re gonna be the Marlboro Man.
Now you carry a big ass square metal box that spews the smoke directly into you with little effort…
And you still think you’re cool..
Just like the Marlboro Man..
Long live the Cool, the Marlboro Man!
There have been many..
They died……
Many quite early…
Peace!