On Jun 17, 5:47*am, Dave wrote:


Of course no one forced them to do it.

True but peer pressure played a fair role with me starting. During
the early 60's we were still pretty ignorant on the effects of
smoking. TV hero's had cigarettes hanging from their lips and the
Marlboro Man hadn't died of the effects yet. When I started openly
smoking my folks didn't like it but both smoked. Many if not most of
my friends smoked. I'll never forget one small-town Halloween evening
when the nigh****chman rounded up a dozen or more of us for general
mischief. We were all sitting on the curb, most were smoking and
staring at the ground when we hear a voice from behind "Well....that
looks like most of my football team!". It was the coach and MY GOD
did we run wind sprints the next afternoon!

Thankfully, youth of today don't have that kind of peer pressu but
I still seem quite a few smokers among the teen-early 20's crowd. And
this includes some who really don't seem to make sense - smart young
college types as well as others. The other thing that doesn't make
sense is hospitals and nursing homes. When you hang around these
facilities you see large numbers of nurses, other employees and a few
doctors who absolutely know better --but they are smoking.

But then, did you ever see a health dietician who weighted less than
200 pounds? :O).

RonB