There is one group that Americans love to hate and I don’t know why. They are so accommodating. Thanks to years of social engineering, they don’t like themselves any more than you do. You say, “go over there”, and they go over there. You say, “go outside”. and sure enough, they will go outside. In the rain, snow, hot summer day. Out front or out back, side of the building, next to the dumpster or in the middle of traffic. All you have to do is tell them one time and they obediently huddle together, just happy to endure whatever hardship you throw at them. The only group we hate to see coming more are Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Smokers.

Maybe I have a place in my heart for them because I was one. Thirty- five years and maybe twenty-five of those were spent in the big leagues. I smoked a cigarette every fifteen minutes. You know you’re a real smoker when your body wakes you up just so you can get your nicotine levels back to where your addiction needs them. That might not get me into the cigarette hall of fame but I was pretty damn good. Quitting was the hardest thing I have ever done and one of the best things, without a doubt. But here is the thing, not everyone breaks the chains. Every smoker has tried but not everyone makes it. I have lost quiet a few family members to smoking and I miss them all, so I have seen first hand the horrors. I am speaking with them in mind when I say, “get off their ass.” My dad told me every time he saw me for thirty years to quit before it kills you. Nothing will make you stop until you want to stop. Nothing. So give them a break.

Whew! I didn’t mean to get so serious! I won’t let it happen again.

So,I said all that to get to this, because people tend to forget stuff. Even though these colonies of lepers are now condemned to a roped off area next to the dumpster, they were once in great number. I remember smoking all the way home from Germany, on a thirteen hour flight back to the States. I think the only time the no smoking lights came on was during take off and landing. That’s right, No Smoking Lights! When I got my first job after getting out of the military, the room where we all sat had a long table and the smoke was so thick that you couldn’t see from one end of the table to the other end. You smoked in the house, in the car, where you ate … you even smoked in the hospital. I never saw anybody smoke in church but I have seen people get up, walk out to smoke and come back in. Watch Mad Men… it was like that, exactly like that. You could smoke anywhere.  And now you can’t.

Well last night I had a craving for fish. We drove to this little out of the way place that has awesome food and it was like stepping back into the nineteen- seventies. The smoke was thick and that smell took me back to a time before it was acceptable to tell another man what he could and could not do. I am certain that any of these guys would be happy to tell you where to put your second hand smoke concerns. I sat there and ate my fish diner with a smile on my face.

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