One of the things I disliked during my time in Europe was the lax attitude toward cigarette smoke. What was the point of bathing, washing and styling my hair, putting on clean clothes and lint-brushing my coat to go out, if in a couple of hours I'd return home reeking of cigarettes, from my skin to my clothes. I'd have to air out my clothes on the balcony, jump back into the shower all over again and go to bed with wet hair, to avoid smelling like a stink bomb.
I’m grateful that my parents didn't smoke and that I never picked up the nasty habit, but it’s not hard to see why millions of people did. They thought they were being cool.
I can’t even imagine some of my old favorite black and white movies without smoking, it was such an essential and glamorous element. In many old films, smoking was a romantic mating ritual. Try to imagine Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in a cigarette-free world. Or what about one of the most famous smoking scenes of all time—between Bette Davis and Paul Henreid in Now, Voyager. Henreid’s gesture of lighting two cigarettes and handing one to Davis is, in my opinion, is rather sexy and inviting. Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and many others actors used cigarettes as an effective prop. Of course a good many of these folks squandered their good looks and health and had hideous deaths from cancer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KGiwGn1d8
And then came the massive anti-smoking campaigns, but despite them, smoking didn't fade and it made a strong comeback. I welcomed the ban on smoking in planes and restaurants and in many cases, even outdoor venues.
Everywhere I go I see misguided kids lighting up, begging for life threatening diseases. I can't help but wonder if they have ever seen the effects of a smoker afflicted with emphysema or heard how they labor at speaking from all their wheezing and hacking.
So why do I care? I think youth mistakenly believe they are infallible. In time, they come to understand that we all have health ills that we meet as we go along, through a pre-disposition and our genes, self-inflicted diseases need not add to the list.
Like you I have never smoked, quite unbelievably really as my parents were, and my 89 year old Mum still smokes 10+ a day, prolific smokers. Probably as they were such dirty smokers it never appealed to me. Even though surrounded by smokers most of my life.
ReplyDeleteI don't know when cigarettes first came into being. Watching period dramas on television would suggest the early 1900's cigarette smoking became the fashion accessory.
Who would believe the French and Italians would toe the line with no smoking bans. Even the Arabs, the men are prolific smokers. But here in Vegas, the authorities are slipping back into the dark ages.
I used frequent a popular back in the 90's where smoking was so heavy, my underpants would stink of smoke. I would undress before going inside my small house. So'k no one could see me.