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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;masterswimmer, post: 7320744, member: 102022&quot;][USER=106712]@beaver96[/USER] congrats on an incredibly difficult feat. I&#039;ve never taken so much as a drag on a cigarette, but I know how tough the task is, by virtue of my mother. She smoked and had to contend with the likes of me as a kid.</p><p><br /></p><p>Growing up I could not stand to be around 2nd hand smoke. I was a kid in the 60&#039;s &amp; 70&#039;s. I was a terror while doing everything I could to get my mom to quit. There was a novelty item on the shelves back then called &#039;Cigarette Loads&#039;. These were little 1/4&quot;-3/8&quot; long, white, splinter like &#039;explosives&#039; you&#039;d put into a cigarette. When the lit end of the cigarette would reach the load, it would blow up. Now we&#039;re not talking nitro glycerin type explosion. More like the cartoons of the day.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mom would be cooking dinner....boom!</p><p>She&#039;d be sitting on the throne.....boom!</p><p>Sometimes just relaxing reading a book.....boom!</p><p><br /></p><p>I once got a phone call from one of her friends. The woman could barely talk she was laughing so hysterically hard, along with all their friends in the background. Mom was bowling and standing on the approach with her teammates watching her. Standing there with the cancer stick dangling from her lips. All of a sudden.....boom! Her friends needed to let me know about it that instant. They couldn&#039;t wait to tell me. Payphone was the only means of reaching me in those days. The hysterical laughter was out of control. My poor mom. She was either going to die of lung cancer or I was going to give her a heart attack. Either way she was a goner.</p><p><br /></p><p>We were a very low end middle class family. We did not have much money for anything beyond necessities. So when I started dumping whole, unopened, full cartons of cigarettes into the buildings incinerator, poop got real. And it got real, real fast. One cigarette exploding at a time here and there wasn&#039;t such a big deal. Entire cartons was a different story. The punishments were still not enough to deter me. Mom and dad were at their wits end. Mom stopped smoking, finally. Not sure if it was because she had a reconning, or if they just couldn&#039;t afford it any longer? Either way, I won.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mom just passed away last year at 84 y/o. January 2, 2020 to be exact. Just before the whole Covid pandemic. No lung cancer. No emphysema. Nothing smoking related. She didn&#039;t have to endure any of the 2020 craziness the rest of us have.</p><p><br /></p><p>[USER=106712]@beaver96[/USER] may you be successful in your quest and have a long, healthy, happy life without the burden of those nasty cancer sticks. If you&#039;ve got kids, I&#039;m sure they&#039;re appreciative and thank you.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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