True Stories

   Edna C.

My husband had smoked for 40 years and I had smoked for about 25. We made plans to quit smoking on my birthday. We looked forward to that day by talking about how nice it would be — everything would smell better and we'd have extra money to spend. We tried smoking a little less. We'd light up, take a few puffs and put out the cigarette. We did not empty or wash the ashtrays. After several weeks of this, smoking was not enjoyable and the house smelled pretty bad.

The night before my birthday we put the cigarettes we had left in the sink and ran water on them, and threw the mess in the garbage. We emptied and cleaned the ashtrays, and put them away. We never smoked again. And we never regretted quitting.

P.S. My husband sometimes had a toothpick in his mouth and carried hard candy in his shirt pocket so it was handy.~ Edna C.

_______________________________________________________________________________

  Joan B.

     I gave up smoking in 1968 after years of smoking two packs a day. I have never smoked since. The unique aspect of the method I used, was that I could smoke as much as I wanted to, provided I followed simple rules.

Here's how it worked:

List the following hours on an index card:

AM:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
PM:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Day 1: Cross out all the hours you're usually asleep. These are the hours each day that you will not be permitted to smoke (this made me feel really good because it was effortless). You may smoke as much as you like during any hour not crossed out.

Day 2: Select one hour that you will not smoke. Cross it out (choose an hour where you usually do not smoke very much). Remember, you may smoke as much as you like during any hour not crossed out.

Day 3 and beyond (about 3 weeks): Repeat Day 2 until all hours are crossed out.

Congratulations! You have given up smoking!

I followed these instructions until there were three hours left where I could smoke. By then I was so disgusted anticipating the remaining hours where I would chain smoke almost two cigarettes at a time that I gave it up altogether.

At the time I gave up smoking, I was a public high school commercial art teacher. So impressed was I with my results that I had students design a brochure, "How to Give up Smoking." Then the print shop class published enough to distribute to the entire student body and faculty. ~ Joan B.