Amanda R.

Pennsylvania

Ever since humans have walked on this planet, society has determined our way of life. It has told us what we should do to become successful and how we must dress to be considered acceptable. It has spread the word about what we must eat, and where we fit in here on Earth. We have put together false categorizing of what is good and bad, wrong and right, ugly and beautiful. Even cool and un-cool, Our civilization has told us what er must do to be on top in the modern world, even though the act may hurt us. Smoking has been a key to popularity.
Up until the early 1960’s, the media included smoking in just about everything. Not a single movie, television show, of magazine would go by without mentioning tobacco. This told our civilization that smoking was the “thing to do.”
“Everyone smoked back then, but no one knew the effects of it,” explains baby boomer Anette Raiser. People did it because everyone did, but how did smoking really affect the family?
Anette lived her whole childhood with a smoker in the family.
"My father smoked even before I can remember," says Anette. "Even my mother did at one point." She was never able to experience life without it.
"The whole house, even our clothes always smelled," she explains. BAck then an ash tray could be found on every coffee table in every home. Guests would light up in the house, even without permission.
As science began to explore the effects of smoking, amazing discoveries were being made. Smoking could damage your health. This incredible finding shocked the world. How could something so natural, so a part of society be so wrong? The media began to publicize it, Congress began passing bills on it, schools began teaching the effects of it. Although she eventually learned about smoking the classroom, Anette was too afraid to talk about it with her father.
"No one liked my father smoking, I believe it was one of the reasons why my sisters and I never did," Anette explains with concern.
Her father would spend long, dreary nights in smoke-filled bars, a cigarette in one and and a deck of cards in the other. A feeling of guilt hung over his head. His family was home alone, and he was here because of his addiction. With his tobacco, he couldn't keep a job. Supporting a household of girls was hard enough, but paying for his cigarettes was even harder.
When he wasn't at the bar, you'd find him rocking silently in his chair. The smell of nicotine would filter throughout the living room. It would infiltrate the air, cling to the furniture, devour a family. As day turned into night, his pack would slowly reduce to an empty box.
He knew he was destroying his family, sending them through pain and sorrow because of him. It wasn't helping his health either, so he began to cut down. With all the strength he had, he gradually decreased his habit from a pack to a couple cigarettes. Quite an improvement, but it couldn't fill the empty hole he felt. Nothing ever could.
As socity learned about the effects of smoking, our civilization bega to change their point of view. Cigarette adds were banned from the television. Instead, publicservice announcements filled the screen. programs such as D.A.R.E. were introduced into the schools, as experts tried to teach the dangers of tobacco to our civilization.
Unfortunately, not everyone learned the lesson. Thousands of children, teenagers, and adults still smoke, and don't seem to care what it can do. With every pack, every smoke, every puff, a piece of your life dwindles away. Smoking not only affects you, but it destroys your connection with the ones you love.
"I always loved my father, and I believe the tobacco contributed to his death," Anette comments, "I wish I could have stopped him."