Death of a smoker

Welcome to SportsJournalists.com.

 

Seriously? Call me crazy, but we've had great threads here over the years about pieces everybody (or most people) liked, and they included comments about why something worked. They included discussions about certain choices making all the difference. I guess we've reached the point on this board where discussion automatically means pissing match? Oy.

But really? From a journalistic standpoint, there's nothing left to discuss?

 

OK, then let's talk about it from a writing standpoint. You start.

 

I remember when a smoke break would clear out the newsroom at the college paper. I finally quit about six years ago, and there are days when I still miss it. But it got to the point where it cost too goddamn much -- I work for a company with a smoker's surcharge for your insurance -- and I couldn't do it anywhere (I think that's why it's more noticeable now; you can't do it in a lot of places, so you're not used to it anymore).
Not coincidentally, I've been married for five years to a non-smoker -- and we have a baby at home. So every day, even the difficult ones, I'm still glad I quit.
My parents smoke in the bathroom. They think we don't notice.

 

My parents (born 1925 and 1930) started smoking in their mid-teens as was nearly universal in their generation.

THEIR parents had all smoked but the three survivors (my maternal GF died before I was born) all quit in the early-mid 1960s.

From my youth I remember my maternal grandmother used to smoke L&Ms. She quit in 1965 and lived 30 more years to the age of 99.

My parents both started to develop a variety of health problems in the late 1970s. My dad had ulcers while mom had chronic bronchitis, which eventually developed into COPD.

Around 1985 they both had fairly serious health crises and spent a few weeks in the hospital. My dad had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, underwent chemotherapy and the whole deal. About that time the doctors said, "you both have to quit smoking or you'll be dead in five years. At most."

They did. Cold turkey. Threw 'em out.

My mother's COPD was already to the point she needed oxygen, but quitting smoking did help. My dad's lymphoma went into remission/ cure status following his chemo. All his hair fell out, and to the shock of all the doctors, it all grew back.

My mom died at 63 due to the COPD. She outlived the 5-year forecast by 3 years, so you'd have to say it was worth it for her. My dad died at 75 in 2001 when the cancer came back. He got 15 years out of the deal and he told me a million times it was ABSOLUTELY worth it.

Neither I nor any of my four sibs have ever smoked. I tried it for about a month or so in college. One morning I woke up coughing up black crap. That was the end of that.

As a result of all this, I am militant-bordering-on-violent if and when anybody ever violates no-smoking regulations in my presence.

I ask politely, once. Then I ask not so politely. Then I make it clear that the fucking cigarette is getting put out within the next 5 seconds and if it gets put out in your eye socket it's all the same to me.


As to the linked piece: Pretty good. Many parts of it really hit home for me; others were not so much on target.

My mother, in retrospect, was more self-destructive. She held on to her bad habits longer and it cost her decades off her life. My dad did make some major lifestyle changes -- quit smoking cold, cut way way back on drinking, generally ate a lot healthier. So in that regard he broke the cycle of self-destruction.

The story is well-written and hits pretty hard, but as with a lot of these first-person experience pieces, mileage may vary by the individual reader.

 

My grandmother would've been 88 today. She smoked right up to her last day. I know she'd have made it to 100 if she didn't. Of course, that's not an epiphany.

 

My mother is 61, and she is the only person in her immediate family to see that age. Her dad, mom and sister died of heart attacks at 59, 57 and 52, respectively. All were smokers.

 

That story made me want to go to the gym. I'm as anti-smoking as anybody on this site. My father started smoking when he was 12 and never really stopped until he was too sick to do it. He was 53 when he died from cancer. If he ever felt any shame at failing to quit smoking, he never showed it. Then again, if he ever felt any shame about anything, he never showed it.

I've lost way too damn many people to cancer, most of them smokers, but this article made me think of all the ways parents should take care of themselves so they can be there for hteir children.

 

The man in question was Mike Sullivan ... or Sully as a lot of us called him on the beat.

He covered the Gary Williams and Randy Ayers years on the Ohio State basketball beat for The Dispatch.

He was a great guy.

The half would end and he was headed up the runway at St. John Arena to get that halftime smoke.

I absolutely loved the guy, heart of gold

one of the 3-4 greatest bkb games ever played at Ohio State was 1991 when No. 2 Ohio State defeated No. 4 Indiana 97-95 in double OT. Keith Jackson and Dick Vitale were on the call for ABC, game lasted 3 hours

I think I have most of the starters: Mark Baker, Jamaal Brown, Jim Jackson, Treg Lee and Perry Carter for OSU. Greg Graham, Damon Bailey, Calbert Cheaney, Erick Anderson and Matt Nover started for IU.

Sully's lead: It was the best of overtimes for Ohio State.

That story his son told brought back a lot of memories.

I can still see Sully in front row at presser going, "Uh ... Randy ..."