If you'll excuse me...

[cozmik_cowboy]

...I feel the need to brag a bit.


03:36 CST this morning marked 45 years since my last cigarette!  I am quite happy about this, I must say.


I was doing sound, follow spot, and pyrotechnics for "Holidaze, Featuring Doc & Linda Holiday", a lounge act working 6 sets a night, 6 nights a week on the Midwest hotel circuit -on -ct.Fri & Sat the 5th & 6th sets were the "Las Vegas Style Floor Show".  Meaning Doc wore an orange-and-chartreuse sequined jumpsuit while Linda wore a matching disco-chick "knock-me-down-and-do-me" dress, and I rode the follow spot a lot more while he would take you on a history of US pop music - like how rock'n'roll replaced swing because the economy went bad in the '50s and no one could afford the big bands of the '30s & '40s anymore.....   Doc's big plan was to keep doing that until he was discovered, so he could make an album and go play Vegas.
Yeah, it was a really shite gig.  But, it was a gig.


We had the last week of Jan & the first of Feb booked in Minot, ND (Why not Minot?  Freezin's the reason!)  None of us cried when it cancelled - but all the agency could find was that the Osh Kosh TraveLodge would let us stay and rehearse free for 2 weeks in exchange for 2 nights of shows at the end; sold!
But first, it turned out, the guitar player had to go back to Dayton to see his parole officer (he apparently had not sufficiently vetted the person to whom he sold some booger sugar......).  On the way to meet up with us, his van broke, so he had to get a job to pay for the repairs - so no practice.


We'd wake up early afternoon (like rockers will), and sit around smoking cigarettes and joints until the bar opened, when we'd go down & drink and smoke cigarettes until closing.  Then we'd repair back to a room to recommence on the cigs-and-doobs thing until we started falling over.  I will note that this schedule did put me a bit ahead of my then-usual 5-packs-a-day habit, and at 03:36 Feb 3, I ran out.  I sat there gasping for breath and trying to figure out where I could get more in the wee hours of a Sunday in Osh Kosh.  And I crumpled the empty pack and launched it at the trash can saying "f*** it; I'm done!"  And I was done, from that second.


Even though I was working in pre-smoking-ban bars nightly at the time - and for another 6 years & change thereafter - I haven't wanted one since that last one - when I'm awake. 


I still dream that I'm smoking again, and that I've have been on & off this whole time.


Peter

[DistillaMatto]

24 years without having to quit (If you don't pick one up you don't have to quit) and I still have smoking dreams.

[DistillaMatto]

Great story.

[pauldo]

Very impressive.   You are a man of strong conviction.

I have quit multiple times.  Current streak is 4 + years.  Catch a whiff of 2nd hand and it re-awakens desires. Besides the nicotine it was the “ritual”, the first and last smoke of the day…. cup of coffee and a smoke…. smoke after a nice meal….

Peter, congratulations on your win.  Thanks for sharing that reminiscence of the events leading up to your last smoke.  Tells a tale of times gone by. 😄

[edwardofhuncote]

Yeah, that's worth remembering. I quit tobacco on October 20th, 2004. I don't remember the exact hour/minute, but I was on the way home from my 2nd shift job, so approaching midnight. I used to stop in the little store every night on the way home, coffee, whatever... unwind, and go home. I just stopped in that same place the other night, but for a pack of four-corners and bottle of water.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Very impressive.   You are a man of strong conviction.

I have quit multiple times.  Current streak is 4 + years.  Catch a whiff of 2nd hand and it re-awakens desires. Besides the nicotine it was the “ritual”, the first and last smoke of the day…. cup of coffee and a smoke…. smoke after a nice meal….

Peter, congratulations on your win.  Thanks for sharing that reminiscence of the events leading up to your last smoke.  Tells a tale of times gone by. 😄

The Lovely & Charming Mrs. Cowboy (who I didn't meet for another 3 years after that), despite trying cold turkey, tapering off, gum, patches, hypnotism, acupuncture, etc., wasn't able to quit until 1/1/02.  I fear I gave Her a very hard time about it, too; "I quit cold turkey with no problem from 5 packs, and you say you can't quit from 1 pack???  You're not even trying" and so forth.  She finally did it with the help of an American Heart Assoc. smoking cessation class.

Almost at the end of Her class, I was in the car listening to NPR, and they had an interview with a smoking cessation counselor; she said that a 1-pack smoker is smoking in response to specific triggers, and thus has to overcome not only the strongest addiction known to man, but also has to break the link to the triggers, whereas a chain-smoker such as myself, always having one lit, has no triggers and thus only has the physical end of it to deal with; 1 pack is a much harder quit.
 
Stay strong!  (She says She still wants to smoke, but won't because She doesn't want to have to quit again; hey, whatever works.......)

Peter (who is not saying #2 Son has an addictive personality, but the kid decided to quit using patches; now he smokes while wearing one)

[David Houck]

...I feel the need to brag a bit.

As Matthew said, great story!  And congrats on the accomplishment.  You should write an autobiography; you're a great story teller, and a lot of us can relate to the stories of trying to make a living (barely) playing music in bars.

[garyhead]

I quit cold Turkey 17 years ago.  I smoked Clove ciggies but not quite a pack / day.  It was the night before the presidential election 2008....My cousin, 6 years older than me dropped dead in the shower of a heart attack.....he never smoked.  It was hell the first few days....the answer is I have an unopened pack in the junk drawer.  That stopped the obsession of making sure I don't run out.  I was hospitalized 3 weeks later with pnuemonia so I always associate smoking to a hospital say on oxygen.   I can today still feel my throat constrict when I think about lighting up.

[hankster]

Good for you, Peter. I had my last 45 years ago. Had a gig, and was losing my voice.
My dad died of lung cancer 27 years ago. Not smoking is a great choice.

[keith_h]

Congratulations. It's been 35 years for me though it wasn't until the second serious try that I quit for good. I had tried the nicotine gum, tapering off, etc but the only thing that worked for me was quitting cold turkey. I don't have any desire to start back up nor do I dream about cigarettes. I will admit if I'm out somewhere and someone lights a cigarette that waft of the first smoke still triggers a pleasurable response but that's where it ends.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Perhaps I should have included the fact that I had tried many times previously (but my record was 2 months; most attempts didn't see their 3rd day).

Peter