You've Come A Long Way, Baby
"Cigarettes are killers that travel in packs."-Mary S.
"You've come a long way, baby" was the slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes. They hit the market in 1968. Longer...slimmer, they were targeted towards women. You'd look cooler, hipper smoking one of these.
Sure...smoke enough of these and you'd be cooler and hipper in your grave.
Tuesday was my mother's birthday. She would have been 87. She didn't get there, not even close. She died in 2003. Lung Cancer! She smoked Virginia Slims. I don't blame the Phillip Morris company, who makes Slims. She smoked lot of other brands. Kent's, Benson & Hedges. I don't even blame the tobacco companies. When you smoke four packs of these things a day, you have to take responsibility for your own behavior...and your own death.
When you check out at age 74, you miss a lot of good things. This picture is my mother with two of her grandchildren...my daughters. She was especially close with the older one, the redhead. Amy has been living in Southern California for the last couple of years. It's where my mother lived and died. They could have seen each other often and built on the love they had for each other two decades ago. Didn't happen and I'm sad for both of them.
The other child on the left is now twenty-three. She was married last summer. I'm pretty sure my mother would have liked the guy Kim married. I'm pretty sure my mother would have loved to be there and celebrate. Didn't happen.
And it's not just those two. Six other grandchildren. Two with kids of their own. Great-grandchildren! Missed it all!
It's hard enough to stay healthy. You hear lots of stories about people doing all the right things...they eat right, deal with stress, get plenty of sleep, exercise and they still get Cancer or heart disease. The chances of getting Cancer at some point in your lifetime is one out four...25%. Pretty bad odds. Why would anyone want to do anything to up those odds? I didn't get it then and still don't.
That's part of my family's story. My Dad smoked five packs a day but we can talk about that another time. Maybe on Father's Day which will be the 35th that he'll be missing. I'm sure you have your own story. It's almost fourteen years and I still miss my mom. Pretty sure that will never change.
#Fuck Cancer #Fuck Smoking #Fuck Virginia Slims
Here's a nicer, funnier story about my mother.
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