I quit smoking for several reasons which include:

1. My father got emphasyma from smoking and had been  hospitalized twice to get his lungs pumped out.

2. My uncle worked on the spacecraft recovery and relied heavily on statistics. His cousin, an MD, asked him when he lit a ciggarette in front of him if he belived in statistics. He told me this story in front of my dad while dad was puffing away. My uncle had quit 6 months prior to telling me and my dad this story.

3. Many magazines in the 1960's showed pictures of smokers' lungs and non-smokers lungs and the difference in the two pics side by side made me a believer in how bad smoking was for my health.

4. I was coughing and hacking up yellow flem with dark brown specs in it just like my dad.

5. I couldn't take a full deep breath without coughing and hacking.

6. My fingers were stained yellow from the nicotine.

I quit for these reasons in 1968, my dad never quit and died at age 60 in 1974, mom died at age 60 in 1974 also and she was also a 2 pack a day smoker who quit 6 months after I quit. My sister and brother don't smoke and sis is 2 1/2 years older than I am and still kicking. My brother is 6 years younger but has still outlived mom and dad and still going strong. I may have gained a few pounds after quitting smoking but I feel a whole lot better and can breathe without coughing and hacking. No more yellow flem and no more brown specks. I feel like I may have evaded empasyma and maybe something worse.

How about those others who quit, what was your motivation? I also noticed that I can no longer stand to be around smokers and I dislike the smell left behind by smokers as it stinks up cars and homes and clings to clothes making them seem unclean. What have you other quitters noticed about smoke after you have quit?

I look forward to comments.

Marty, at age 13 I tried a cigarette on a cold winter night out under the street light.  I remember clearly wondering if it would keep my hand warm!  Ha-ha...of course not...my pocket would have worked so much better!   Also, the next time my hand got near my face, I smelled that horrible smell, and decided right then and there, I NEVER wanted my fingers to carry such an odor!  That was it for me!  Sadly, however, I lived with smokers in the past, and we all know that can be very damaging too.

Thanks for the input. It's too bad everybody who does smoke didn't notice the smell and decided as you and stopped smoking before it got difficult. My dad used to say that "smoking is a dirty rotten stinking habit and I wish I could quit". I had a hard time quitting but was determined and I chewed gum and did another thing somebody told me to do that got me over the urge to light up; when the urge to smoke would come upon me, I would look at my watch and wait one minute before lightiung up, after about 20 seconds, the urge would pass and I no longer needed the smoke. It took about 6 months of closely looking at my watch, but then it was less often and eventually I forgot all about smoking. When I quit it was 31cents a pack and you got 4 pennies in the pack when you bought cigs from a machine. I don't know how much a pack costs now but I know it is over 2 dollars. I sure have saved a lot of money by quiting smoking not to mention doctor bills.

I have never smoked but my parents did

my aunts and uncles did

my sister did

my roomates did

my husband did

so I have all the problems of smokers from 2nd hand smoke

as a little kid I kept telling them they were making me sick as they lit up

and I coughed but it seemed like I was the only non smoker around

now in our family and friends there are no smokers all have quit

and they all say why didn't you tell us we smelled so bad

I had one son who smoked but he quit when he had kids

and the others didn't smoke

thank goodness

Marty, a very interesting post.

Personally, I never smoked.  No one in my family smoked, so I guess that was a positive influence not to.  However, most of my friends smoked , and girls that I dated smoked.  Have you ever kissed a person who smoked regularly and you did not?  Yuk!  How do you tell someone that you care for, you don't want to kiss them because they taste like cigarettes?

The other positive influence for me,  and I know this may sound square,  was Coach Larimore.  He told our team at various times, anyone caught smoking was off the team.  Well I certainly was not going to jeopardize my possibility of being kicked off the team.  The funny thing of Coach Larimore is that he smoked.  I always wondered if his smoking added to his passing.  I think he was only slightly older than most of us are now when he died.  Never the less a great coach as far as I am concerned.

Ken Barna