Lucky Strikes (L.S.M.F.T.) were 28 cents a pack by the carton, 35 cents in vending machines -- remember when you dropped in the coins and then pulled the handle under the brand you wanted? -- when I started as a freshman in 1971. In those long-ago days you could also get non-filter Kools in the short pack, just like Camels. The real he-men at destroying their lungs as fast as possible were the multiple-pack-a-day smokers of full-length unfiltered Pall Malls and Chesterfields. My first experience of a really wonderful old guy who mentored me in Boy Scouts dying berfore his time was a Chesterfield man, and when he coughed it sounded like a full garbage disposal in his chest. I quit before my daughter was born 35 years ago and was quite shocked when my doc wanted me checked out for COPD, even though I hadn't smoked for so long.
I do miss a pipe. And I do resent second-hand smoke. I can sit next to someone and have a beer and they won't get liver disease, but I can sit next to a smoker and suffer lung damage.

Guess I'm a bit older than you! I remember cigarettes from vending machines at .20 cts. a pack and you got two pennies back inside the cellophane.
Worked in a suoermarket when I was 16yo and Lucky Strikes were .25 cents a pack. One of the cashiers knew I smoked non-filters and gave me a carton of Camels that someone left and that changed me to smoking Camel non-filters.

Hip

P.S. Yes I have some sort of COPD!

PPS LSMFT----Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.

PPPS My wife has kin in N. Carolina and while visiting them we stopped at a tobacco drying house (?) and one of the workers saw me take out a Camel and said "The boys will sure like you down here!)"

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And I do resent second-hand smoke. I can sit next to someone and have a beer and they won't get liver disease, but I can sit next to a smoker and suffer lung damage.

And now that weed is legal one is stuck smelling that crap.

Agree, Ann. The dopers seem to get a special joy out of shoving it in other peoples' faces where they can.

We don't get any of that around here, perhaps in downtown Austin, but not out here. It is still illegal in Texas but usually anymore if they charge them at all, it's just a ticket like a speeding ticket. I smoked cigarettes for several years, but I quit a long time ago, but my doctor wants me to get a chest X-ray just the same. Probably won't hurt + he said that these days, if they see a spot on your lungs, they can just zap it while you're there. Pretty simple, so he says. I smoked the non filters too, Camels, Lucky's, Pall Malls, + then American Spirits right before I quit. I remember those machines with the knobs too, also back in the day, I would buy my cartons on Post because they were tax-exempt. And, yes, Bill, I miss a pipe too. 2 years ago at a friend's wedding I was offered a cigar + although it sounded good, I saw no reason to tempt fate.

Here is what I do not understand, the goverment went out of its way to destroy the tobacco companies, due to the health problems it caused, Yea I smoked when I was younger as well, and now hate the smell.
Now they are pushing dope as the cure all for the perceived health problems. Having been in law enforcement for a number of years have seen first hand what happens when the dope smokers brains start short circuiting
That did not happen with tobacco so what is worse bad lungs or a brain that does not function in a rational manner and effects everyone around.
Our goverment at work.

Friends my age (early to mid 60's), who have been lifelong weed smokers, are all full of lung problems but claim it is not from smoking so much pot. They smoke it like cigarettes, all day, claiming health benefits. I guess COPD is worth it to them?

Anything besides room air in your lungs is detrimental. And yes, just because you stopped smoking x years ago you can still get COPD. The damage was done long ago. I work in an acute care hospital, see it every day.

I had a sister-in-law and brother-in-law that smoked like fiends. Everyone encouraged them to stop for years and years. The woman finally did, yet she died of lung issues. The husband never did until he had to carry an oxygen bottle around with him every where he went, until the day he died. The final year he could hardly speak.

What I found surreal was that when their close relatives came to clean out the small house that they lived in for years, and everything was removed from the bedroom, it was like the aftermath of Hiroshima. The shadow of everything in the room was reflected on the walls and floors. Where pictures hung, the original color of the walls existed. Furniture and drapes "protected" the original color of the walls and carpets. It was an incredibly bizarre and sad sight, and smelled like a well used ashtray.

I used to like the flavoring in Pall Malls, did not like the micronite filters in Kents (gave me headaches for reasons I could never discern). I did like a pipe, smoked Borkum Rif and Captain Black (another flavoring thing but it was allergenic and caused diarrhea that took a couple of uncomfortable years to identify). My wife and I quit around 1985, while we were living in Utah. I carried a pack in my coat in case I changed my mind for about six months. A little blond Mormon secretary at the six month stage asked if I was still carrying it around. I said yes, she said that changing my mind was unlikely and besides by now it was all dried up and nasty to smoke anyway. Why didn't I just hand it over and she could put it in the trash. While I was pondering how an 18-year-old Mormon girl would know that, I absentmindedly did just that. I sometimes missed it on rainy days, like when I'd get a dry cigarette out from under my jacket and light it up. I hope never to go back to smoking...

Brunette says to the blond----do you smoke after you have intercourse.

Blond replies-----Gee I never looked!

Hip

I was stationed in Okinawa 1966 and 1967. I still remember the shock when the PX raised the price of a pack of cigarettes from 0.10 cents to 0.15 cents a pack. I was up to 4 packs a day when I finally quit early 90's. I can't imagine paying the price per pack today.

I smoked for 65 years and have copd, but quit smoking a couple years ago. Except the copd health was fine. Wheels fell off when I quit. Been in and out of hospital several times. Then 1 1/2 years after quitting I have lung cancer. Going through radiation treatment currently.

BTW how can I possibly complain about someone elses smoke when I smoked for 65 years and others smelled mine? On the other hand I enjoy second hand smoke at this time.

I can't say that I like it, but I don't complain. It used to really gripe me that ex-smokers were the biggest critics of anybody else smoking + I didn't want to be like that. When I smoked a pipe, I used a combination of a coarse cut Burley + Latakia blend. I must say that I still like the smell of pipe tobacco.

I watched L&Ms kill my dad, so it was easy for me not to start. Did date a girl in high school that was a smoker, killed her in her 60s.

My first wife smoked before we got married, and I told her we wouldn't be getting married unless she quit. She quit; and we got married.

Found a pack in her purse a few months later. I tore it to shreds and dropped everything back in her purse. I told her we had a deal and I expected her to hold her end of the bargain. I never saw any evidence that she fell off the wagon for the 22 years we were married.

We have only one man in our retired group that smokes. As soon as he throws one butt away, he lights another. None of us understand how he can still be alive. I try to avoid being around him, even though he is a perfectly nice guy.

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What I found surreal was that when their close relatives came to clean out the small house that they lived in for years, and everything was removed from the bedroom, it was like the aftermath of Hiroshima. The shadow of everything in the room was reflected on the walls and floors. Where pictures hung, the original color of the walls existed. Furniture and drapes "protected" the original color of the walls and carpets. It was an incredibly bizarre and sad sight, and smelled like a well used ashtray.

Exactly describes my dads house.

We used to smoke at school.

We had competitions on who can finish a packet faster than the other.

Lighting one cyg from the another as we went.

Never liked it.

My grand dad used to smoke a what we called a coconut .

Which it was.

A dried coconut shell.

Holes are drilled at the top, and on the upper side.

They both had bamboo tubes in them.

On top one puts a specially made sort of a cup that fits on made of clay.

The side one a straight pipe.

Water is put in the coconut.

The top pipe goes down into the shell more than half way - so the water works as a filter.

Most people I know who smoked were always considerate.

A few were just plain obnoxious!

Saeed, that sounds like a homemade hookah