Light up and enjoy a fag?

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George Jenkins
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Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by George Jenkins »

In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that my life with smokers might be interesting. If this is allowed, I would like to say that anything that I write is directed only at younger people who are thinking of starting smoking, perhaps because they want to appear "grown up" like their young friends.

I have no interest in older people who have already made their minds up, as to how they intend to conduct their lives and recreation habits, and in any case, it is not my place or intention to lecture these people. If young people read my story, I would like to tell them that it is not only about my past, it is also an indisputable story about their own future if they take up smoking. This also applies to young people who have already started to smoke.

I smoked my first fag at the age of thirteen. I bought five "park drive" fags for two old pence, and bought them because everybody seemed to smoke, and it seemed to be the normal thing to do. Walking through a hop garden at Goudhurst, Kent, I lit up and waited for wonderful things to happen. I remember the funny smell, the dirty smoke, and the heat in my eyes. I felt sad that I had bought five stinking fags instead of a bag of sweets. I chucked the rest of the fags away, and that was 68 years ago.

At 17, I started work at the locomotive shed at Hither Green, and I remember that few Drivers there lived past 70. The first one that I remember was "Darkie" Roberts, only in his 50's from cancer. My own Driver, Bill Ashby died two weeks after he retired, at 65. His son, "Slosh" Ashby, died in his 50's. There were several more, and of course, all smokers.

My next Depot was Orpington, and one day in the Drivers lobby, I made the tea and got my sandwiches out. there was one other Driver in the room, Les Diamond. He bred Corgi dogs, and I bought one of them. He put his cigarette out, and I said to him, "That's alright Les. you can smoke". He said "no, it's not alright while you are eating". Poor Les, a Gentleman, was dead in less than a year. When I visited him in Hospital, he broke down an cried. He said that he didn't know that he had so many friends.

My next Depot was Victoria, and the next one to go was Ron Cooper. We are in the Driver's lobby, and Ron is suffering from a terrible back ache, and we are teasing him unmercifully about his sex life. I remember that, with tears in his eyes, he said "please don't". He was dead in a couple of Months. His insides were full of cancer. A smoker of course, and we collected £200 for his Widow.

Next, Micky Motha, from Sri Lanka. I went with his Wife Sheila, to see him in hospital. He was little more than a skeleton. All he kept saying over and over again was "George, the pain". He was dead in less than a week, a chain smoker of course, and 50 Years old.

The deaths kept coming all the time in my working career, and we would hear about our mates from different Depots, dying from cancer or unable to work because of Emphysema. I can't remember all their names, there were just too many. I should point out that Drivers were like one big family. we mingled in Drivers lobbies all over the Southern Railway. We knew most of each other by name, which is why I know the extent of the killing. we never heard of any of our generation dying of diseases like Flu. etc. It was always cancer or Emphysema, but one Driver did die when he fell off a ladder.

Then I was diagnosed with heart disease, which was a shock to me, because I was only 47 years old, and I am convinced that I was a victim of passive smoking. From the internet, I discovered that there is a chemical in tobacco smoke that effects the liver, in which there is a chemical which controls cholesterol. the poisons in tobacco smoke affect that chemical. now I have to take cholesterol reducing drugs drugs for the rest of my life.

Because I was not allowed to drive trains carrying passengers, I was transferred to Slade Green Depot for carriage shunting. Also there was Eddie Allen. We were cleaning engines together in 1945, firing and driving as the years went by. Eddie had a wonderful sense of dry humour. We were standing on Slade Green station platform, which overlooked a field. In the middle of the field, was a solitary horse. Eddie turned to me and said, "there you are George, I always knew that Slade Green was only a one horse town. What a lovely throw away line.

Eddie was a smoker till he got throat cancer, so it was goodbye Eddie, and he was just about 60 years old. Also at Slade Green with me was Ken Short, who also started with me in 1945. He was taken off the main line because of heart disease and difficulty with walking. He went into hospital to have his leg taken off. As sick visitor for our sick club, I went to see him, and I said, "as sick visitor Ken, I have to make sure that you are not malingering". He saw the joke and we laughed. Some weeks later, they took the other leg off, and he died. Ken carried on smoking right up to the time that he went into hospital. when the leg Arteries get bunged up, the gangrene starts at your toes,

The South- Eastern Drivers meet four times a year for reunions. At Rainham, Ramsgate, Tonbridge and Ashford. Every time we meet, there are more faces missing. Mostly, they are a lot younger than I am. I say, "Is Johnny Wilson here?" (from my old Depot, Victoria). No! dead, got cancer. "Arthur Clingham?" No! dead with lung cancer. "Ronnie Hill?" No! died before he retired. "Ken Hilton?" No! dead with cancer. "Buck Ryan?" No! dead with cancer before he retired.

My Aunt Rose and Uncle Doug both died before they were 70, both with lung cancer. My Cousin Dougie, told me that he wouldn't want to see anybody else die like his Mother did. I found out what he meant when I watched my young Brother David, die. My Wife's Brother Bob, one year younger than me, died wearing an Oxygen mask and lung cancer 11 years ago. My Son-in-law Pat's Mother and Father, both died with Emphysema. Pat's Mother asked my Wife, " how do you keep so healthy?" I would have thought that the answer to that question was obvious.

My Sister Rose's Husband, Eddy, a heavy smoker, died from Emphysema. His Brother would smoke all day, lighting a fresh fag from the butt of old dog-end, died with Emphysema. My Uncle Wally, another heavy smoker died aged 58.

My Workmate, Bob Morrison, loved a fag. I used to get irritated when we played golf. His fag smoke always seemed to go down my throat all over the course. He'd put his fag down on the grass, hit his ball and stick the fag back in his mouth. He retired from work early because he was very well off, and he wanted to enjoy a long retirement. He was 5 years younger than me at the time, and his retirement consisted of a hospital bed, with lung cancer and the usual oxygen mask. He was crying because he wouldn't see his Grandchildren get married. He is now a little pot of ash, retired.

Little Vic Tibbles was nearly 50 years old when he died of lung cancer.
I'm playing chess with little vic in the Driver's lobby at Victoria. I move my Queen next to his King and call "check". Vic can't take my Queen because she is defended by my Knight. Vic Captures my Queen with his Rook, which I have pretended to not to see, and there are gasps of surprise from the watching Drivers. Vic has his lopsided smile because I have lost my strongest piece. I moved my knight and said "check mate". I see the smile fade from Victor's face, because he can't move his King out of danger. His own Rook traps his King. I have allowed my Queen to be killed so that I could kill his King.

Writing about my old mates now, I can see their faces and little mannerisms. I can see little Vic Tibbles at Victoria, hurrying along the platform, because he has lingered too long in the Driver's lobby, talking. He's got a cup of tea in his hand and he's trying not to spill it. He's driving a boat train to Dover, and he's got to run 14 coaches to reach his cab, and the whistles are blowing. I can still see his lopsided smile and the fag stuck in the corner of his mouth. that image of little victor has never left me. It's the same with all the others. I can hear Ron Cooper saying "I've made the tea George" and salt is stinging my eyes, and it makes it hard to type, and I wish that I hadn't lured Victor into that trap with my Queen , because he wasn't a strong chess player. I could have beaten him easily, but I had to be clever. That was more than 40 years ago, and Victor has lost all those years because of a stinking little fag.

There is one good thing that happened to me because of a fag. I was at a dance, and saw a pretty young girl smoking a fag. She looked about 16 years old and I said to her, "what's a young girl like you smoking a stinking fag for?". after I'd walked away she said to her mate, "who does he think he is?" Well, at the time she didn't know that we were going to marry. That was the best thing that I have ever done, and she's been thanking me ever since for telling her off. She's still got beautiful Platinum silver hair, without any dirty yellow nicotine stains.

To be continued.
Last edited by George Jenkins on Sun May 03, 2009 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jon Corby
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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Reported for homophobia
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George Jenkins
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by George Jenkins »

Jon Corby wrote:Reported for homophobia
Homophobia Jon ? I thought it was truth and history.
Sorry again Jon. I've just looked up the meaning of homophobia. I suppose that it was my reference to fags which inspired your remark and was hopefully meant as a joke. I am too old and slow to keep up with you sharp young blokes. I think that the title of my essay is a bit unfortunate, but that is because I am so inocent and naive
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Derek Hazell »

George Jenkins wrote:Walking through a hop garden at Goudhurst, Kent, I lit up
Crikey, cigarettes AND beer at such a young age.
Living life in a gyratory circus kind of way.
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by George Jenkins »

Derek Hazell wrote:
George Jenkins wrote:Walking through a hop garden at Goudhurst, Kent, I lit up
Crikey, cigarettes AND beer at such a young age.
Of course Derek, the only entertainment we had in those days were fags, beer, football matches and the wireless. And sexual intercourse of course. Beer and sex go very well together, thats why it seemed that everybody had at least ten kids.

Fortunately I could only manage half a fag, which is why I can pontificate on the evils of nicotine. I do not think that whiskey and wild, wild women should be banned, or are you too young to have heard that song, sung by Red Ingle and his City slickers. It went--"Cigareets and Wuskey and wild wild womin, they'll drive you crazy, they'll drive you insane".
Words of wisdom indeed, and I agree about the womin. they can drive me crazy any time they like.
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by David Roe »

I wonder if all this lung disease was made worse by the smoke from the boiler? I can't imagine it would help.
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Peter Mabey »

David Roe wrote:I wonder if all this lung disease was made worse by the smoke from the boiler? I can't imagine it would help.
More likely the dust from the coal - remember the miners' death toll, too. :cry:
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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Peter Mabey wrote:
David Roe wrote:I wonder if all this lung disease was made worse by the smoke from the boiler? I can't imagine it would help.
More likely the dust from the coal - remember the miners' death toll, too. :cry:
We weren't bothered too much from coal dust and fire smoke Peter. We would keep the coal on the tender well soaked with the pep pipe, and the steam and smoke from the chimney, depending on the direction of the wind would normally go over the top of the engine.

Fast Passenger engines had deflector plates on either side of the smoke box which sent the steam over the top, but at slow speeds they were not effective, and the smoke tended to roll along the top of the engine and down the sides. you can see the deflector plates on the picture of the engine on my avatar on the left of this page.Actualy, it is a photograph of a painting I'm working on and is in an unfinished state. I took the photo of 792 when it was standing outside the shed at Hither green. I've placed her on the main line travelling st speed. It's what is called artistic licence. When I mentioned the Lewisham crash, which was actually at St. Johns station, I believe that is what happened. With the fog and smoke, the conditions were such, that it would be essential for the fireman to assist the Driver. If I had been the Fireman, the accident would not have happened. But don't get the wrong Idea. I'm nothing special. Most of us firemen kept a look-out for signals, and as one Driver explained to me, two pairs of eyes are better than one on the footplate. It became second nature for most Firemen to keep a sharp eye out for signals, and self preservation is a powerful incentive. I also had the powerful incentive of keeping my old Driver Percy happy.
Last edited by George Jenkins on Mon May 11, 2009 12:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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George Jenkins
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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Peter Mabey wrote:
David Roe wrote:I wonder if all this lung disease was made worse by the smoke from the boiler? I can't imagine it would help.
More likely the dust from the coal - remember the miners' death toll, too. :cry:
I searched the Internet Peter, and it described the Miners disease as Black Lung disease, and a form of Pneumoconiosis. Coal dust doesn't disolve in the lungs and just builds up. However, considering that at that time, smoking was a popular social activity, it was likely that Miners were also smokers, and that might have reduced their chances of a long and active life.

We didn't hear of any of our mates who died of Pneumoconiosis.
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Kevin Thurlow »

I had wondered about inhaling all the smoke from the engine, but obviously inhaling smoke deliberately and deeply from a cigarette is worse than coal smoke when you have a reasonable source of oxygen!

I may be wrong, but I think it was "Red Ingle and the Natural Seven"? I have the record somewhere!

I liked the chess story - I did the same trap in a league match and was delighted, what amazed me was that my strong opponent didn't notice until the queen check. I think your mate should have been proud to participate in a game with such a beautiful finish, and it was the easiest way to win, so don't feel bad - it's better than taking all his pieces and promoting 4 pawns to knights...

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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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Kevin Thurlow wrote:I had wondered about inhaling all the smoke from the engine, but obviously inhaling smoke deliberately and deeply from a cigarette is worse than coal smoke when you have a reasonable source of oxygen!

I may be wrong, but I think it was "Red Ingle and the Natural Seven"? I have the record somewhere!

I liked the chess story - I did the same trap in a league match and was delighted, what amazed me was that my strong opponent didn't notice until the queen check. I think your mate should have been proud to participate in a game with such a beautiful finish, and it was the easiest way to win, so don't feel bad - it's better than taking all his pieces and promoting 4 pawns to knights...

Kevin
I couldn't make up my mind Kevin what Red Ingles group were called. I tried "Hot shots" but it didn't sound right. Did you know that Red Ingle was a strike breaker. At that time, recording Artists and bands were paid a fixed fee for performing on records. they went on strike for the right to be paid a percentage of every record sold. They won, which caused the performing people to become multi-millionaires. Players like red Ingle filled the recording gap while others were on strike.

Regarding the chess, my brain has become very lazy. It can't be bothered to work hard anymore.
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Kevin Thurlow »

I should have looked it up first! It was Red Ingle and the Natural Seven, but he did perform for some time before that with Spike Jones and the City Slickers, according to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ingle

so that would explain it.
A Google search revealed a Youtube hit as well which might be worth a look....
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Jeff Clayton »

I am a manager in the transport industry and despair at the numbers of drivers who can be seen smoking. We could do with more characters like George in our canteens and rest areas who not only demonstrate integrity to but also bear influence over other colleagues.

Another fascinating read. Many thanks.


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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by George Jenkins »

Jeff Clayton wrote:I am a manager in the transport industry and despair at the numbers of drivers who can be seen smoking. We could do with more characters like George in our canteens and rest areas who not only demonstrate integrity to but also bear influence over other colleagues.

Another fascinating read. Many thanks.


Jeff
Hallo Jeff, I finished my last post-- to be continued, but I wasn't sure whether it would be appropriate for these pages. I don't want to labeled as a pompous lecturer, and my purpose was to explain to young people who want to smoke, or have already started, what their future death will be like. I didn't write may be! I wrote WILL be. This essay is not for older smokers, their brains are already controlled by nicotine so I don't waste my time with them.

So I will finish it, and people who are not interested can ignore it.
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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Light up a fag continued--
Years later, I was in the Driver's lobby at Victoria. the room was full with Drivers, and as usual, thick with dense cigarette smoke. One of the lads said "we need another player for cards George". I answered "I don't play cards". Then someone who I didn't know said "I bet you don't drink or smoke either". I said "you are right, I don't". Then he said "as you've got nothing to live for, why don't you jump in the river" I replied very loudly, "If the only thing I had to live for was a card game that even my two little girls can play, and if I had to drink till I couldn't stand up and spew up everywhere, and if I had to smoke and stink for the rest of my life, that would be the time to jump in the river.

The room went very quiet, and if I had to bet money on whether that man is now dead or alive, I would bet on him being dead, and because of my experience, I would have a very good chance of winning.

That was the attitude at the time, the Manly Macho image. We were supposed to be like that cowboy in that enormous Marlborough cigarette advert that used to dominate most of the hoardings everywhere. That tough "real man" Model tried to sue the cigarette company because he developed lung cancer. He died before the case came to court.

I am a clever person, because I can foretell the future. I am gifted with that handy faculty because I remember so clearly my past, and the beautiful people that filled my past. One of them, my young brother David, described the wonderful "buzz" that he experienced all over his body. that was when he started smoking again after giving it up for three weeks. As he was a chain smoker I knew that he wouldn't reach old age.

The next time he mentioned smoking it wasn't about "buzzes". He was going to have a kidney out and had finally given up smoking. About six months later he was dead. 62 years old, and became another memorial plaque in the crematorium garden. I was surprised how many people were dead before they were 60 years old.

If you start smoking, you won't be worried about the future because it seems such a long way off, just like the man in the bed next to mine in Medway Hospital. He wore an oxygen mask all day and I asked him what was wrong. He said "Emphysema". He said he was 60 years old and would never work again. when the first cancer scare came, back in the 50's, he gave up smoking. After a while, he thought he might as well start again. he said that "since I got this disease I gave up again, but it's too late".

Strange how a hardened smoker can give it up when they know that they will soon be dead. It's because they have discovered that life is beautiful, sunrises are beautiful, they know that they will not see their beautiful grandchildren grow up, and they lie in their beds and wonder why they were so stupid.

This is not some opinion that I have dreamed up, this is the experience of my past that I have learnt when talking to them when they were still alive. I've heard the fear in their voices. they forgot the golden rule of life, that life is not a rehearsal. there is no second chance to start again.

Lets go further down the road that you have chosen. You are suffering from the delusion that you are in control of your own body, but in reality, you are a puppet with strings pulled by millionaire cigarette makers. If you protest that you are not a puppet, why are you still smoking then? surely you don't really like your mouth stinking like an ash tray. Surely you don't want to suffer from the diseases caused by smoking that you are certain to acquire, or kill your children with passive smoking, like I was nearly killed. If you were really in control of your brain, you wouldn't spend your hard earned money on that stinking little dog-end glowing just in front of your mouth would you? Think about it.

The ironic thing about smoking is that you actually pay a fortune to these millionaire cigarette makers to kill you. the only reason that I am alive is because I refused to conform to the Macho film star image prevalent at that time. My dad had only contempt for me because I wasn't a "real man". when he died in agony, I said "goodbye you Bastard".

I'll tell you of another truth. You think that you look like a tough macho man like film stars Steve McQueen and Gary cooper, both dead with cancer. The Queen sent Gary Cooper a get well card, but it would have been more useful to tell him to chuck his fags away twenty years earlier. The Queen's father when he was King George, died of lung cancer. He enjoyed a fag.

My young neighbour's mother died from lung cancer. She was in her early 50's and a chain smoker. my neighbour gave me permission to mention that. Gillingham Football club used to own that house, and for several years our neighbours were footballers. One of them didn't smoke but his Wife did. She died with lung cancer in her twenties.

I've just remembered Peter Waters. We are both Locomotive firemen 18 years old in 1946. We are talking about food which at that time was rationed. I said that I didn't eat bacon because I didn't like it. He said that he didn't eat it because he couldn't buy it. I can still see Peter with his ironic smile on his face, looking manly with his pipe.

Years later, he told me that his Wife was heart broken because they never had children, and how much he was hurt when our mates joked with him that he didn't have a good fuck in him. when he retired, they bought a mobile home on the Isle of Sheppey. He was dead before he reached 70 with lung cancer, and he was never without that pipe in his mouth. His Wife is now alone with no living family, no children and no friends. If he had chucked that pipe in the firebox in 1946, I'm certain that he would still be alive and company for his Wife.

My old fishing mate's daughter Jill, died of lung cancer before she was 60, and so did her young brother David. David told me that he'd been treated, and his lungs were now clear. But he was wrong.
I could have just given you a list of all my workmates, friends and family that I have lost over the years, but I have taken you to meet them, to show you that they were not just statistics, but real people, just like you. they filled the landscape of my past with colour and humour, and they needn't have died.

At our Drivers reunion, I saw one of my old mates, Charlie Mealing, who is about 10 years younger than I am. I remember Charlie when we were young men. He's laughing and playing cards. He's dealing the cards and smoking a fag. He's squinting and blinking because the smoke is getting in his eyes. We chatted a bit but he seemed to have trouble breathing. I said "have you got a problem charlie", and he said "yes, I've got Emphysema, and my Doctor said that if I don't give up smoking, I'll be dead in a year"

Charlie's dead.

I've got several more pages of death to write about but it's only more of the same, so I'll just describe your last hours in the hospice.

The cigarette makers will guarantee that you will enjoy their products and life will be a pleasure.
I will guarantee that you will look back on you past, lying on your Hospice bed,
wondering why you thought it a pleasure to surround yourself with stinking smoke, stinking clothes, stinking mouth and causing everything round you to stink.

I will guarantee that you will look forward to your last few months of life, wondering why it is happening to you , and when you talk, your family will hear the fear in your voice.

I will guarantee that you will receive wonderful kindness from the nurses in the Hospice. as your pain increases, they will gradually increase the Morphine dose to lessen the pain. On the final day, the nurse will strap a new Morphine injector box on your arm, and make a final adjustment. She will whisper to your family just two words. "two hours" and I guarantee that she will be absolutely right.
I guarantee that your family will be bewildered and unable to comprehend what has happened to you, because you used to be so strong and they depended on you. Now you have two hours left to live when it should have been 20 years. Now they watch you with your slack mouth wide open, and making funny rasping noises through your nose. they see your skeletal head, because for the last two months, you have been only able to take liquid food, and you have been starving to death. They see your skin turn to a bright yellow and you are dead.

Trust me, I have witnessed this scene three times, and this is what your family will see when thay are watching you die.

I might as well tell you of the chemical analysis of tobacco smoke.

FORMALDEHYDE (embalming fluid) AMMONIA (lavatory and dry cleaning fluid)
ACETONE (nail polish remover) TAR (deposited on the lungs)
NICOTINE (so toxic that one solid drop on your tongue will kill you)
CARBON MONOXIDE (car exhaust fumes, a poisonous gas, fatal in large amounts)
ARSENIC (rat poison)

HYDROGEN CYANIDE (GAS CHAMBER POISON)


Light up and enjoy your fag
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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I told my nan about this thread yesterday, and she told me to tell you that my great great grandfather chewed tobacco all his life and lived to be 90 . . . only to be knocked over and killed by a bicycle.
Living life in a gyratory circus kind of way.
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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Smoking is cool; any forum member under 16 should start today; steal the money from your mother's purse if you have to; why not try heroin too?
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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David O'Donnell wrote:Smoking is cool; any forum member under 16 should start today; steal the money from your mother's purse if you have to; why not try heroin too?
:idea:
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

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I said that I will end the story relating to all my dead friends, workmates and relatives. the reason being that I would bore you if I just kept repeating names of dead people. But I would like to remind you that I have only described the people that I knew in my own little World. And you have to know that I listed only some of them.

You have to know that the same thing was happening at every train depot in the country, and with every family that contained smokers. At that time it was the most normal thing do, and I remember how it was like in cinemas, watching the film through a thick haze of blue smoke rising all the time. When you multiply the number of dead people that I knew, with the number of train depots and families, you will get a good idea of the extent of the killing.

I would like to beg your patience and give you two examples to convince you of the truth of my story. Two years ago, I attended a reunion of Drivers. there were more than two hundred there.
I saw only two people smoking and I sat down with one of them. He was peter Jupp, and when he was sixteen years old, and an acting Fireman. I took him out on the main line and it was the first time that he'd worked on an engine. At first I let him get on with his job, and we stuck up Brockley bank short of steam. It was my fault of course, because I'd left it too late to show him how to fire to an engine.

At the reunion, I found it hard to talk to him, because he couldn't talk and breathe at the same time, and he smoked at the same time. The smoke made me feel sick so I had to leave him. He died a couple of Months later, as I knew he would, and he was under seventy years old.

The second example is my workmate Reggie Coote. There are some men who stand out in a crowd, and reggie was one of them. He was our Union branch secretary, and when he talked people listened. He was also in charge of our sick club with more than ten thousand members. I was on the committee.

At a reunion I sat down beside him, and he said "mind my oxygen George". I was baffled and didn't understand what he meant. He started telling us a joke (he was a great one for that) but he couldn't finish it, he couldn't breath. Then he took an oxygen mask out of a bag, put it over his face, and that's when I saw the oxygen bottle. Then I understood.

When it was time to go, He phoned his wife to fetch him. She travelled from Rainham in Kent to Victoria in London. I watched her supporting him to the door and put him in a wheel chair. His wife was a nurse and his full time carer. His first Wife had died a couple of years earlier. Reggie was once an intellectual giant among men. Now he had to be looked after like a baby.

Last year,Reggie and me were the same age, eighty years old, and last year we barbecued Reggie. At his funeral, they played "Always look on the bright of Life". Reggie joked right to the end. I climbed up five conifer trees at the bottom of my garden, and chopped the tops off them with trunks up to seven inches thick. I finished the job in one afternoon.

Do you think that there is a Moral somewhere in my story, and whose life would you prefer, Reggie's in a little china pot, or mine, still playing golf and having a lot of laughter in the club house with all the other eighty year olds.

To the young people who are thinking of starting to smoke because they want to look "grown up"and the ones who have already started, THE CHOICE IS YOURS!, and if you smoke there is one thing that you will never cure. YOU WILL STINK.
Last edited by George Jenkins on Sat May 09, 2009 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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George Jenkins
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by George Jenkins »

Derek Hazell wrote:I told my nan about this thread yesterday, and she told me to tell you that my great great grandfather chewed tobacco all his life and lived to be 90 . . . only to be knocked over and killed by a bicycle.
I believe that Derek, I assume that he enjoyed the effects of nicotine which went down into his digestive organs, and not into his lungs. I have heard that tablets can be had which can give the same effect as nicotine, but are not as harmful. My experience is only confined to the effects of smoking. I can see a little bit of humour in your post. Life sucks sometimes, don't it
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Philip Jarvis
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Philip Jarvis »

Can this be used as a thread for Smokers Amonymous? If so, I'll just say-

Hello - my name is Philip and I'm a smoker.

After 33 years of smoking (about 20 a day), I'm now on my 4th day without a cigarette. I'm being helped by a wonderful drug called Champix. I'm determined to give up this time, so wish me luck.

p.s. My dad (who was named after the poet John Milton) was also a train driver. He started out on the steam engines before moving on to the diesels. Along with most of his colleagues, he was also a smoker but packed it in when he was in his late 40's. He's still enjoying life at the age of 81.
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Derek Hazell
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Derek Hazell »

Philip Jarvis wrote:My dad (who was named after the poet John Milton) was also a train driver . . . He's still enjoying life at the age of 81.
I'm glad you included that bit in brackets otherwise we'd have thought your dad was George Jenkins (also 81!).

Congratulations though, and good luck with continuing to be smoke-free.

What a shame you can't bung a poll in halfway down a thread, as we haven't had one on how many of us smoke yet :D
Living life in a gyratory circus kind of way.
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Phil Reynolds
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Phil Reynolds »

Philip Jarvis wrote:My dad (who was named after the poet John Milton)
You mean your dad isn't Martin Jarvis? :?
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Philip Jarvis
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Philip Jarvis »

Phil Reynolds wrote:
Philip Jarvis wrote:My dad (who was named after the poet John Milton)
You mean your dad isn't Martin Jarvis? :?
:lol: No - my dad is John Milton Jarvis.

Martin is my cousin ;)
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by Phil Reynolds »

Philip Jarvis wrote:my dad is John Milton Jarvis
Crikey. Good job he didn't follow the trend when you were born or you might have ended up as Pam Ayres Jarvis.
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George Jenkins
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Re: Light up and enjoy a fag?

Post by George Jenkins »

Philip Jarvis wrote:Can this be used as a thread for Smokers Anonymous? If so, I'll just say-

Hello - my name is Philip and I'm a smoker.

After 33 years of smoking (about 20 a day), I'm now on my 4th day without a cigarette. I'm being helped by a wonderful drug called Champix. I'm determined to give up this time, so wish me luck.

p.s. My dad (who was named after the poet John Milton) was also a train driver. He started out on the steam engines before moving on to the diesels. Along with most of his colleagues, he was also a smoker but packed it in when he was in his late 40's. He's still enjoying life at the age of 81.
Good luck for your new future Philip. 20 a day? When I thought of all that money going up in smoke, I suffered an attack of the vapours. I still regret the 2d I spent in 1941 (I think) on a packet of five Park drive cigarettes. I only smoked half a fag, and chucked the rest of them away in the Hop garden. We were Hop picking down in Kent. We could see Goudhurst town from our farm about three miles away on top of the hill, and just before the Hoppers arrived, all the shops would isolate their counters with wire netting frames. I think they thought all the Londoners would pinch their goods. As if we would? of course we would, and they've still got my 2d.
Does your Dad suffer from nightmares like I do. I usually have a heavy freight and I can't stop. or I'm driving across a ploughed field, Things like that. But it's nice when I wake up. What a relief.
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