I sat outside of a dollar store the other day and there was an advertisement on the window for Camel Cigarettes. 9.05 a pack it said. Back in the early '60s that was my choice of smokes and they were about a quarter a pack.
For me, my smoking days were short lived and I quit before I was thirty. I had such a cigarette cough that I had to quit. For many years, the tobacco industry lied and deceived the public about the ill effects of smoking. I remember advertisements that even portrayed them as good for your health with their calming effects.
To the young people growing up in those days, you were cool if you smoked, but as the years went by and the medical experts fought back the real truth came out but it was to late for many of my friends and family. They were hooked for life and they are paying the price. You see when you get to the middle 60s and 70s, where many of these people are, the effects of a lifetime of smoking finally takes its toll. I have a long list of family and friends who have already succumbed to smoking-related diseases. Most of them probably cheated out of 15years of life.
At 9.05 a pack I tried to do the math. I believe there was 10 packs in a carton and that's what I smoked, a carton a week. Yes, 90 dollars a week to ruin your health and possibly the health of those around you. I don't spend 90 dollars a week on groceries. A young person nowadays, even if the price never went up, will spend close to 5,000 dollars a year for the rest of their lives, to kill themselves.
Mike Holst
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Crosslake
