Hey Rich ! Speaking of smoking parents. My mom was 18 and my dad wad 19 when they had me. If it weren't for great grand parents I would have wound up in federal penitentiary.
I remember being in the back seat of our 55 Ford sick as hell from their smoke , complaining and being told to shut up . When my dad caught me smoking as a kid ,he beat hell out of me. people are crazy , he should have known I was already addicted from 2nd hand smoke.
My Mom was 15 and my Dad was 20. They stepped up and became parents (6 kids across 10 years). My Mom ended up pregnant about every year and a half. People used to ask me if we were Catholic. I didn't know what the hell they were talking about. My Mom became a Grandma at 35. I was the oldest, and it wasn't from me. One of my younger sisters; actually #3.
The always smoked. I was born in '55. Growing up in the 60s, everyone smoked. And they smoked anywhere they wanted. I remember people walking around the grocery store with a cig in their mouth, ashes fall to the floor, snub the butt out on the floor. Even most non-smokers kept ashtrays out for their friends. We had a 57 Chevy. I remember piling into that thing, both parents light up, with the windows up if it was cold. I used to complain too! It was really bad. When I complained, they might crack the window a bit, or open the wing window.
The first time one of us got caught with cigs, my parents staged a little "scared straight" drama. They put us all at the breakfast table and said, "OK you want to try out all this grown-up stuff? Here is a cup of black coffee, and a cig. Be sure and inhale the cig." Trying to make us get sick from it. Didn't have the desired effect.
They bought cigs by the cartoon, and when I decided to try it; it was nothing to lift one of their cigs out of a pack, or a whole pack out of the carton. My Dad smoked Kools when I was a kid. I remember Camel filters for awhile. I started smoking daily by age 15. By then, they had switched to Vantage. They were HORRIBLE. I liked Marlboros, but certainly lifted and smoked lots of those horrible Vantages.
My Dad died about a month after bypass surgery at age 55. My Mom has had breathing problems forever, but blames it on "allergies and asthma". Total denial. She has had a lobe of her lung removed from lung cancer. She was back on them within a month of leaving the hospital. I use her as an example when talking to my two sons who smoke. At least my daughter didn't take it up. My brother and my sisters all smoke. It was kind of a big deal to me, to break the cycle.
