Serendipity Sunday - No Smoking!

Looking for yearbooks in the Internet Archives I came across this book...

The main reason it caught my eye is because I used to smoke. I love the old classic movies and in many of them the actors smoked so elegantly. Cigarette ads were on TV, in magazines and on billboards. My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all smoked. My mother had ashtrays strewn all over the house and always a fancy cigarette box and lighter set with matching ashtrays on the coffee table for visitors to help themselves.

 

I look at old family photographs and someone invariably has a cigarette in their hand. My maternal grandfather smoked cigars and I loved the smell even though my grandmother made him smoke them outside. He also hand rolled cigarettes. He got all excited one time when he found my baby daughter (his great granddaughter) sitting on the floor with his pack of papers, pulling them out one by one, because he said I used to do the same thing. My paternal grandfather had a cigarette making machine and he used to let us sit on his knee and help him to make his cigarettes. My uncle/godfather smoked a pipe and I can still smell the cherry tobacco he used.

Seeing this book also reminded me to check my Quit Keeper, which I hadn't done in almost a year. 

I had smoked for over 40 years. In 2008-2009 I spent a year looking after my brother while he wasted away dying of cancer. I promised myself that in the new year I would quit, no matter what.  It took me about 4-5 tries and a change in eating habits and life style, but I finally quit in June 2010. I downloaded the Quit Keeper program, that keeps track of how long since I quit, how much money I have saved and how much time I have added to my life. At first I checked it every few weeks, then months, and it was a great motivator to stay quit.

So, these are my stats when I checked today....

Quit Time:       4 years, 1 month, 3 weeks, 6 days, 13 hours, 24 minutes, 32 seconds
Days Quit:        1,517 Days
Cigarettes:       30,357
Money Saved:   $13,660.74
Life Saved:       3 months, 1 week, 6 days, 9 hours, 45 minutes  



Relevant Links:


The Smokers Year Book 1908

Quit Keeper Download

Golden Rules for Cigar-smokers 1833

Tobacco leaves; being a book of facts for smokers - 1915

Early Smoking Pipes of the North American Aborigines

Smoking: a world of curious facts, queer fancies and lively anecdotes about pipes, tobacco and cigars - 1891 

Vintage Smoker's Accessories

The Freedom to Smoke