Any of you that have hung out with me at a show know I spend more time smoking than playing pinball. 2 packs a day; I'm no quitter.
Don't smoke in vehicles or in house atleast.
Hope to quit one day but need to drop 35 lbs first.

Not to tell anyone what to do but please quit the best way you can. I have lost too many loved ones to the effects from smoking.
If you do smoke there are many people who depend and love you.
Put the cigarette out and pick up a tool and fix a machine!

I smoked for about 14 years. Wore the patch for 4 or 5. Got to where I'd wear 2 patches a day (putting one on every 12 hours). My GP said even though this wasn't great for me, it was still 10x-less-bad for me than continuing to smoke. I quit when my first kid was born and haven't smoked since. My wife had quit about 2 yrs earlier. Chantix didn't work for her, and she had a really bad experience with it, she used that "How I Quit" book and went cold turkey. I had a slightly harder time. That book didn't work for me, I don't have a puritanical attitude towards substances or addiction. But I also I don't feel that you get anything out of smoking other than the desire to smoke more ... and of course the side-effects. Now I can't believe I used to, very rarely do I feel the urge to smoke and the one or two drags I've taken have made me regret I ever did. I was a pack-a-day for the longest time, so if I'd given it up back then I'd probably have like 15 System 11s. Oh well.

I quit about 5.5 years ago and haven’t touched one since. I smoked for 15 years and was a 1-3 pack a day smoker depending what I was doing. 3 packs easy on those long all day up north drink-a-thons. I used the gum for about a month before switching to an e-cig. I used that for a year before I realized it had turned into too much of a crutch and quit that too. It certainly wasn’t easy... I’ve got friends that smoke still and I STILL get urges if I’m hanging with them and having a beer...

Mom & Dad were smokers, as were both grandparents and my uncles. Never wanted a cigarette thru my teen years. Smoked the wacky-tobacky in college. In the late 90's I started smoking black & milds (ya, I was inhaling them). Fast forward 20 years- cancer got Mom and my grandparents. My youngest uncle just went into the hospital after neighbor found him unresponsive on the floor of his home-complications from (COPD, diabetes). Dad quit a year ago (hes 75).

After visiting my uncle, I decided that I need to make a change. I answered the poll as a smoker, but I haven't had a Black & Mild in over a week.....I've been vaping since I quit the cigars and am going to reduce my nicotine intake slowly..... I still have the urge to light up, but am gonna take it one day at a time...

Congrats to everyone that has quit!

I've never smoked because my parents did. We'd get in the car and go somewhere and they would smoke one after another. My brother and sister and I would be waving our hands trying to breath. If we'd go out to eat we'd have to hang out for a half hour afterward so they could smoke and drink coffee. Go to school and kids would sometimes ask if I smoked because I smelled like it. Hated it so much. The benefit is I never got into it.

Used to smoke pot, does that count?

Then my oldest (at the time was 4) told me that I stunk, “what’s that smell daddy?”

Really disturbed me, quit the next day.

I don’t care if it’s legal, still a Douchy thing to do...sneaking around smoking weed trying not to get caught or let your kids smell it.

They will probably try it out when they’re older...but they certainly won’t be introduced to it through me.

I quit about 23 years ago. And like everyone else, I wish I had quit a decade earlier. But at least it wasn't a decade later.

I quit cold turkey. I gave it to myself for my birthday. I probably slipped and had a cigarette in a bar about 5 times over the few years after that, but I was really careful to never totally slip and go buy a pack. I say it was just will power, but really, I knew it was time to quit because it was causing physical problems, so I did.

I quit in 1992. I thought it was ridiculous that prices went over $2.00 a pack at the time. It was a very tough habit to quit as it took several tries. I bet a friend $25 who could quit for 6 months. Both of us went the distance so no one won. I gave up the habit and he went back to smoking.

I started smoking during high school and I quit in 92 after watching a friend of mine have a heart attack when he was 37. He smoke 4 packs a day.

When I went to work for my first NASCAR team in the late 80s RJ Reynolds was the title sponsor of the sport. Cigarettes were free! I smoke Winston.

On a Thursday afternoon we were testing a new car for an upcoming race the driver always had a cigarette in his mouth. After an hour of testing he came off the track and said he was having an issue breathing. He sat down and fired up a cigarette and was drinking a Mountain Dew. He said hold my drink something wrong with my arm....its numb. He sat there and finished his cigarette and said he could not get back in the race car. So the crew pack up pit box and the car. The track offered the medical personnel to check him out before we left but he said I think I'm ok. So we started out 1 hour ride back to the race shop. 45 minutes in to the trip he said we have to get to a hospital asap. We located one close by and stopped in the emergency room. By the time he was admitted to a room and they started checking him over his heart stopped. I saw the ekg flat lined. Medical personnel tossed us out and they began to start his heart again. Lucky for him he is still alive and well.

I went cold Turkey and quit. My friend went cold Turkey and quit.

My Mother started smoking when she was 13 and passed away before she was 50 due to lung cancer.

My story is a little different I suppose. I started smoking Marlboro Lights at 18. Everyone I knew smoked and quite frankly I liked it. But I made a deal with myself and said I'll quit when I turn 30.

Fast forward to my 29th birthday & I remembered my promise to myself. I thought "Well... just another year of smoking". It was like a cloud hanging over me. Then it was just 6 months of smoking left....then 3 months. The reality of my promise became pretty clear with just a month to go. I was counting down the days until I had to quit. It's pretty hard to break a 12 year promise to yourself.

On my 30th birthday, I went to see Star Wars Episode III. I smoked as usual that whole day. Then right before I went to bed I smoked my last cigarette & made sure to enjoy it. Then I took my favorite ashtray & lighters & threw them all in the trash. I took the remaining cigarettes I had & flushed them down the toilet. Quit cold turkey after a pack/day for 12 years. It was the only time I attempted to quit.

The physical withdrawal was awful for about 3 days. After that it was all mental. That was the worst part. I continued to be around friends who smoked & went to bars when everyone else was smoking. I had one moment of weakness about a month after quitting. I asked an acquaintance outside a bar if I could just have a drag of their cigarette. I took one drag & my lungs exploded with fire, I was coughing uncontrollably. I said to the guy "Oh man I don't know how you can smoke those Marlboro Reds, these are so strong". He laughed and said "Dude...that's an Ultra Light". I was completely stunned. What an eye opener.

That was the last smoke I ever had. Quitting was the best decision I ever made. 14 years and counting. I'll never go back.

The sad part is we had a few people that would quit during the winter here, from November to May ever year. When May finally came it was like a after school special, the first couple times I smoked I would just cough and wheeze and feel like shit. "I just need to push through the shitty feeling and then it'll get cool like it used to be."
Haha so screwed up...but damn honestly it was cool.

Quit 20 years ago, because of a bet with my then 11 year old son. His baseball team made it to the AABC world series in Kansas City. Alot of the other fathers/sons made bets that if the kid got 3 hits in a game, dad would get a buzz cut.
Mine said quit smoking, and I did. I still remember him jumping up and down on 2nd base after a double (his 3rd hit), and pointing at me.
He threw that pack of Marlboro lights in the trash can, and I never smoked another.

It's always been amazing to me that with all the research and all the statistics on the effects of smoking, that people still lite up. Not to mention the costs.

It really shouldn't; it's one of the most highly addictive chemicals on our planet with a long intertwined with our countries history and culture.

What I find most interesting is all the HEALTH CARE workers I see smoking. I say that as my mother is a retired RN, and still smokes today, further, her mother died from cigarette borne illness!

OH yea, and my mother is a CANCER survivor (currently).
Of all the people who genuinely know better...

I would think all the stress from those kinds of jobs leads people to smoke.

Smoked from age of 31 to 49. Quit New years eve 2017. Went a few weeks cold turkey but ended up using Skoal pouches. So I'm still addicted to Nicotine but not cigs.

Dad and his Dad smoked as did my brother and I. (My father told me stories of sneaking filterless Camels and J. Walker red in for him at the hospital just before he passed at 87.) I smoked from 14 to 38 and decided I was tired of wheezing after one flight of stairs. The Navy has always offered a smoking cessation class so the wife and I took it the year I retired. Counseling and Zyban did the trick. Haven't had a smoke since Feb of 2003. The smell of cigarette smoke is fine, ashtrays and people who have just had a smoke stink. Some food tasted worse to me, but I got over it. Still waiting to pay for all the alcohol I drank as a sailor. Good genes I guess? The cost these days is insane. Lucky I have better things to spend it on now.

Shawn

Quit cold turkey June 10th 1995. Haven’t cheated even once. They were awesome as a teen. Don’t regret it but they do get gross as you get older. Say mid 20’s.

My theory back then was the more times you try to quit, the less likely you’ll ever succeed. Tried only once and succeeded!

Lung cancer or emphysema may help you achieve that goal.

I smoked since high school, back when it was cool.
I used to have a cigarette in my hand whenever I played pinball.
Mostly to keep the little kids from pushing the start button while o was playing. Lol
But anyway I quit and went tot done group hypnotist, did notnthink it would work.
But I have been nicotine free for almost 20 years....
I started putting 3 bucks away every day, and bought my First Addams family..
Smoking sucks, smells like shit, hair clothes, car , house etc. You don't know how bad you stink
Til you quit,..
I also gained like 30 pounds, I got fat, but I've lost the weight and in am healthier for quitting.
They say only thing worse than a smoker is an ex smoker.

If you smoke you're an idiot and if you don't try to quit you're a bigger one.

My parents both smoked. My dad quit cold Turkey at 54 after he had a heart attack. None of this gum or patch or other shit. He just quit. My mom did a few years later. For my dad the damage was done. He eventually died of cancer.

It's a filthy disgusting habit. Thank God it has been banned in most public places.

Well...um...err...he kind had a heart attack so I wouldn't call it cold turkey

Amen.

It's insane now when you think aboot all the smoking in public places that used to happen. I don't even mean 50/60s style shit the 80s it was everywhere. Just 30 people smoking away in a restaurant for breakfast, lunch, & dinner.

What sucks is you’re forced to eat inside when you’d rather eat outdoors on a nice day. It’s the smokers who ruin it. Hoping the ban on smoking expands.
In 1996, Boulder, Co passed an ordinance which banned smoking in public. That was big news back then.

Dad died of lung cancer at 55. I saw him fight it for 3 years, as the cancer slowly killed him.

I had other family members that still smoked, and I would just shake my head with wonderment as they were seeing the same thing I was seeing. I knew that it had to be a powerful drug as everybody who did it had a hard time stopping even though they hated doing it.

The best way to stop, was to never start.

Smoked from my teen years till I was 39. Last couple years 4 packs a day. Could never see myself ever stopping till my allergists did a breathing test and said the way your going you'll be carrying around an oxygen tank by the time your 50. The next day I did this therapy where they touch a light to the back of your ears for about 30 seconds. Arickular therapy. Something like that. Thought it was a joke but 14 years later and haven't had one. It was tough, took probably more than a year before it wasn't on my mind everyday.
I keep telling myself I am in a fight with these smokes and I'm tired of getting my ass kicked.
It was a social thing that me and all my friends did.
Breathings good now. Your lungs can repair themselves.
Also my high school had smoking lounges for us to use in between classes. Ha! Hard to believe now days they aloud that.
Funny thing, I realized that smoking doesn't relief stress it really only marked stress worse.

your lucky, they passed the smoking ban in Houston in 2007. They tried a number of times to pass it in Katy (right outside Houston), but it never made it through. Then it's like they just gave up... which sucks.

Had my first Marlboro red when I was 17. From my late teens to early 20s, it was a combination of Marlboro lights, Camel Turkish Royals, and sometimes Camel Blues.

I never smoked at home. Only at friends houses, hang out spots and restaurants when you could still do that. This was in the early 2000s. It was always a way for me to mellow out or have 'something to do.'

Switched to American Spirits in my late 20s. Early 30s, I rarely smoked. I'm now 35 and maybe had 2 cigarettes in nearly a year. I find alternatives. I still enjoy being around it, however.

Started smoking at about 12 or 13 years old back in 1979 under typical peer pressure.

Met my wife and subsequently her grandfather who was retired Navy and Customs and had smoked since he was a teenager as well. I became very fond of him, outdoorsy, a hunter, woodcutter, a VERY hard working man.

I watched him go from a seemingly healthy man, to dying on June 1, 1995 at the age of 71 in about 1 1/2 months from congestive heart and lung failure.

I quit cold turkey on July 25, 1995 after seeing that.

Gave up cigarettes about 25 years ago but I do enjoy an occasional cigar and I haven't missed a day with some herb since the day i quit smoking cigarettes.

I still hang with the smokers. Gets pretty lonely at the bar when everyone is out smoking on the patio.

I've chewed tobacco for the last 25 years. I've already quit the smack, blow, and hookers! What else do you want me to give up! In all seriousness, I would like to quit but it would drive me crazy. I'm so fixated on this crap.

Einstein’s (Katy) would be the best pinball place in Houston area, but their advertising slogan is “second hand smoke always free!”

I hear you,
Believe me if it were easy to cut out, we would. It makes maintenance and upkeep a lot more difficult (filters, cleaning, etc..). Sadly there are a lot of things it would disrupt if we did, since 80-90% of our base smokes. Eventually it'll happen, a ban would make things a lot easier though.

For now, were pretty focused on the second place due to open late October or November, there won't be smoking there from the start.
Cool seeing TGP get a second place and the other venue popping up downtown. Gonna be a good year for Houston's location pinball scene.

I was an On-again off-again smoker for 20 years, and after a few short-lived smoke free intervals I finally decided enough was enough... I used Chantix successfully and have been smoke free for three years this August.... I do have one celebratory smoke at the York and Allentown shows but no more than that... works for me!!!

I had no ill effects or crazy dreams with this drug. My sister used it successfully as well (pack a day smoker for 35 years), although she did have some wacky dreams. I’m glad I used it, made quitting so much easier.

I treated my self buying an old TZ when i quit smoking. I keep adding thanks to quitting. I feel free of the disease and love it.

Never have been a smoker. My mom once handed me a lit cigarette when I was six years old and told me to take a puff. Of course I coughed so hard I thought I was going to die. Never wanted to smoke again, plus I'm not one who felt a lot of peer pressure as a kid. Kids could call me a pussy all the wanted for not smoking or not popping pills with them and I just didn't care.

When I first started work in the late 80s an older guy I was working with told me about a huge investment account he had that was going to allow him to retire at least five years early and live more comfortably. He explained that 30 years earlier he quit a three pack a day smoking habit and ever since put an equal amount of money into the savings plan instead of into the cancer sticks. As cigarettes and the taxes increased over the years he would adjust the amount of his monthly investment. He was a pretty savvy investor so this grew into the hundreds of thousands of dollars before he retired. With cigarettes $6 a pack or more even one pack a day is over $2K a year. Not to mention the cancer and smelling like shit all the time.

Smoke to get high, not to die.

I quit at 36. 56 now. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Took several years and numerous attempts and don’t forget a ton of nicotine gum to quit. That’s all we had in the day. My dad was a smoker and mom was not. I started by taking smokes from my dad at 15. Glad I was able to quit however, I have some health issues from past smoking. Unfortunate but dealing with it.

Started smoking when I was 12. My friend and I would rip off two of our science teachers' Pall Mall's from his jacket pocket in the back of the classroom every day, and smoke on the way home from school. Eventually 2-1/2 packs a day for many years. Sometimes 3 packs a day, but not that often.

Quit cold-turkey when I was 25, first son born. That was 40 years ago.

Here's the pisser; I went in for an annual physical in January, and my doctor asked if I EVER smoked. Told him so. He sent me in for an aortic ultrasound and sure-as-shit found an aneurysm in my aortic vein, 3.5cm. Turns out that if you're a male over 50 and smoked or smoke, you're at high risk for this. It could have been there for years, or could be growing regularly.

So I gotta watch it annually and if it grows beyond 5cm, I gotta do something about it...

Smoking sucks.

We've replaced that with smartphones! Here's to hoping we look back at these little devices in the same way in 30 years. (not in regards to health issues, just in regards to pervasiveness)

for you would you say it's about the aesthetic of smoking? Like could you replace smoking weed with edibles and be fine with that?