Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em

 

Growing up, my mother and father smoked,

mother cigarettes, father a pipe and cigarettes.

Historically, before me, Mark Twain, Winston

Churchill, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt

smoked a lot.

Back in 1959 when I was 12-years old,

Ronnie Barker, a friend of mine, gave me

my first cigarette spawning a habit from

which I have continued for some 63-years.

Bad news for all of us, medically speaking,

yes; an integral part of my pleasurable

existence, most certainly. Am I condoning

a habit which the Surgeon General and so

many other folks have reviled and rebuked?

No, I don’t.

However, for many, the celebrated and

common folks alike, smoking has been

as necessary to their lives as breathing

a purer and fresher air. For so many,

smoking provides stress relief and an

unadulterated accommodating pleasure.

My nurses and doctors no longer ask

me if I’d like to quit? Given my record

of denial they know as much as I do—

At age 75, I’m living on borrowed time

anyway. Might as well enjoy the time I

have left.

I like smoking and I have already outlived

my smoking predecessors and so many more

non-smokers, those who have quit or never

indulged.

I fondly hearken back to my Army days of the

early ‘60s when our drill sergeant gave us a break,

telling us, “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.” Even

though cigarette costs have skyrocketed from

25-cents a pack to over 5-dollars, I can still

comfortably afford to buy my own. Besides,

Who in hell wants to live to be 85 or 90 in these

bat-shit crazy days anyway?

                                    -30-

Chris Hanch 2-24-2023