Smoking

Giving up is easy - I've done it loads of times

Smoking

Like many people of my age I perfected my addiction to cigarettes at
school. I started when I was eleven. At that time you could buy single
cigarettes from the shop near school. A Number 6 would be 2d, an
Embassy 3d and five Park Drive amounted to 10d. Anybody rich enough to
buy a pack of five cigarettes soon found himself with 4 new
friends.

Anybody too young to know how to convert these amounts to current money
should move on to another article. For a quick guide 12d = 1 shilling =
5p. 20shillings = ?1 or 100p, half a dollar was 2s and 6p, a monkey is
500 sovs and double carpet is 33-1. Well that's the batteries on my
calculator gone.

At the age of eleven I specialised in smoking Freemans. These were so
named due to the fact that you either scrounged them from friends or
nicked them from your parents. My Mum and Dad smoked non-filter Senior
Service or Players and these came with lip warnings. Namely, they used
to stick to your lips and disintegrate at the ends when 'bummed' This
term related to the habit of making the bit that goes in the gob, too
wet. Usually happened when a snout was being circulated amongst
friends. Please note that pre decimalisation Snout = cigarette not
police informer.

When I reached the age of thirteen I was old enough to get a paper
round and become an earner. In school it was easy to smoke and
everybody seemed to do it. In the playground seemed too easy but a few
of us perfected the art of smoking during lessons. This is done by
sitting near the back of the room, frantically waving the cigarette to
disperse the smoke and exhaling in a downward fashion. You had to be
selective about which teacher was in the room at the time.

At fourteen I went to the Doctor who told me I was suffering from
Congestion of the Lung - it might have been plural it didn't seem to
make much difference at the time. I seem to recall the Dr saying that I
would be dead by 34 if I continued to smoke. What he probably said was
that I could die within twenty years.

As the years passed I tried a few times but nothing serious. I remember
about 1973 trying some tablets that made the smoke taste awful in your
mouth when you lit up. The tablets lasted about 3 hours. Trouble was I
found myself lighting up testing the taste to see if the tablet had
worn off.

First major attempt at giving up was at the age of 23. I was working at
the Elephant &; Castle at the time and fancied a young lady that I
later married. I had a plan to give up and go Cold Turkey. I would save
the money and buy a pair of hand made shoes. This was the most
luxurious item I could imagine. I was saving about 50p a day (notice
the change in currency). At the end of the week I had nothing as I was
going over the Wimpy Bar twice a day for egg burger &; chips.

I gradually noticed improvements. I no longer reeked of tobacco,
nicotine stains vanished from my hands and I felt in control. On the
other hand I did go from eight and a half stone to just over ten stone
so a new wardrobe was called for. I also had to buy some new clothes to
put in it.

Around about the same time as giving up smoking I found a tolerance to
alcohol. Nothing serious, but up to the age of 23 I did not like the
taste of beer or spirits. I found a taste for bottled lager. Starting
off every Friday me and two mates would go to the Albert in the
Elephant &; Castle and have 3 bottles of Carling Black Label. This
made me drunk.

I was off the fags for nearly four years and in that time I never
touched one, in fact I became so anti-smoking I appeared to have a
mission. Then the inevitable happened. I was invited to a party in
Wapping. In an effort to enliven the proceedings some idiot persuaded
me that some kind of 'Herbal' cigarette would not harm me. I did not
notice the effect until two days later when I convinced myself that I
could have another, but this time it would be a Benson &;
Hedges.

You notice that many smokers are only too happy to give up a cigarette
in the hope of returning a lost soul back to the ranks of the addicted.
I think that the more smokers there are around the less guilt they
carry. The gradual progression from one a day back to twenty a day had
begun.

I continued to smoke on and off over the years until I took up
abstinence as a profession. In 1984 I thought I had cracked it. Wife
was 8 months pregnant with number one son. Gave up in expectation of
sterile home to bring up child. Night of birth boy 8lbs 15oz, looked
like Winston Churchill all very emotional for me. My eldest brother
once told me that all babies look like Winston Churchill when they are
born. Left Hospital two hours later and went straight to off - licence
and bought 4 cans of Pils and 10 Embassy.

The worst part is the feeling of guilt followed by the question 'why
did I bother giving up in the first place'. I then entered the period
of drifting. Neither committed to smoking nor to not smoking.

The big push came on 12 April 1986. Number one son was nearly two and
number two son was six months away from being born. I made a pact that
if the kid could give up his dummy I could give up the smokes. In this
endeavour I was successful. Well if you can call 9 years 8 months
without a fag successful, this is what I achieved. In retrospect it was
easy but again put on a stone and a half in weight.

Christmas 1995 was my downfall and it started with a Xmas lunch in
which I had too much to drink. I tried to eat a cigarette and had my
tie cut in half with the missing half pinned to the restaurant wall as
a trophy. Jack's place in Battersea has a wonderful tradition. The guy
who owns the restaurant comes across as a villain but is a 'diamond'.
The wall is covered with severed ties. Mine happened to be a Police one
from the TSG.

The deal is that in exchange Jack will give you and your pals a drink.
So I gave up half a ?4.50 tie and he gave us eight glasses of Port. Not
a bad deal.

The following week the evening do consisted of a night away in
Brighton. I was up all night misbehaving, smoking, not non-smoking
activities. After that the gradual decline sets in. I am proud to say I
did not buy any cigarettes but smoked about 25, someone was out of
pocket.

For the past 3 years I have cut down by 50\%. This means that half the
time I have been smoking and half not smoking. Today, 16/12/00, I have
been 359 days without a cigarette, but then who is counting.