The Ukiah Daily Journal

I'll tell you my story, if you tell me yours

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The last several movies I've watched have had someone, or several someones, smoking.

There's always a warning posted that the movie contains violence, sex, blinking lights or smoking. I've not paid too much attention to the warnings, but in the last few movies I've watched where someone is lightning up and taking that first deep drag, I've been bothered. Bothered so much that I thought back to the time when I took a first deep drag on a cigarette.

That rattled me. I quit smoking 35 years ago. I had quit several times before and it never stuck until the day I walked out of the shower a non smoker.

The day before I went with a friend to lunch. I drove and even though it was a short distance to the restaurant, I had to have a cigarette in the car. My friend had never smoked and I was so addicted that I subjected her to the smoke. I felt so embarrasse­d but I smoked anyway.

Later that night I ran out of cigarettes and it was too late to run to the store for more. Totally disgusted with myself, I took a shower and when I finished I was a non smoker.

It wasn't as easy as it sounded. I had a planned trip from my home in the Los Angeles area to my dear friend here in Lake

County. The problem was, she was a heavy smoker. Three packs a day. I knew I couldn't be around any cigarettes if I was to stay a non smoker.

So I called my friend and canceled my trip. It was the only time she ever got mad at me. But it was survival for me. She unfortunat­ely died years later of lung cancer.

To complicate things, I headed north on the freeway before I called to cancel my trip. I was so messed up that I turned south instead of north, yet

I didn't want to go back home. I had heard about a chichi spa in San Diego so I headed there. Crazy.

When I pulled into the spa, I parked my beater VW Rabbit next to Mercedes, and a Rolls Royce. Not intimidate­d, I went to the reception desk and introduced myself, “Hi, I'm Lucy and I just quit smoking.”

The receptioni­st congratula­ted me and went to get her supervisor who had also quit smoking. They were so supportive they gave me a huge discount! For the next three days, I used the steam room, the milk baths, the sauna. I ate in my room and had few conversati­ons with the other women who were spa-ing for their own reasons.

I suspected many were there after some plastic surgery.

I felt somewhat strong that I had been smoke-free for three days so I continued on my journey that took me north to Santa Barbara, but then I diverted to Hearst Castle.

Still crazy.

 ?? ??

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