teenage rebellion smoking

Leah is 42, an only child, a single working mother and a smoker. She belongs in the age group that she believes to be the most intolerant towards smoking -- those born in the 1960s to parents who did not stop at cigarettes to get their kicks -- so it is surprising that she took up the habit.

"My parents didn't smoke," says Leah, "and I probably started smoking as an act of teenage rebellion against them."

"My first boyfriend got me hooked on cigarettes when I was only 14 - thank God it wasn't something else he got me hooked on - and it just goes to show how powerful peer pressure can be."

"He said 'Go on, try it, just take a little puff, it will make you feel great, trust me!' and it actually made me feel awful," laughs Leah, "but I persevered just the same because I wanted him to believe I was cool."

"Most of my anti-smoking friends did have smoking parents," says Leah, "so it’s likely that they rebelled against their parents by denouncing smoking as something that old folks do."

"I suppose that chewing tobacco lost popularity in an earlier similar generation swing," laughs Leah.

It may be no coincidence, then, that the anti-smoking campaign took off shortly after Leah’s generation entered the workforce as lawyers, teachers, advertising copywriters, nurses and doctors in the early 1980s.

"Of course," concedes Leah, "anti-smoking sentiment had been around a long time before the 1980s - my parents went berserk when I took up smoking - but it really became a public issue and came into force in the 1980s."

Leah makes an effort not to smoke in front of her children, yet her habit is causing friction at home. But then, as Leah points out, all children rebel against their parents and if it wasn’t her smoking then it would be something else.

"Smoking at work causes more conflict than anything else," says Leah, "but it's also an issue with guys I’ve gone out with. Sometimes a man will get together with me, thinking he can reform me - or a man will decide to quit within a short time after the relationship starts. Both types of situations leave me feeling uncomfortable."

"I’m glad that my children are not going to be smokers," confides Leah. "It was a cool and rebellious thing to do when I was growing up, but smokers are becoming as vilified as heroin addicts - and once you’ve been hooked by nicotine it is not as easy to give up as heroin. You can’t stop, and it’s an expensive habit, too."

"Every day in the city I’m confronted by deadbeats asking me for a cigarette," sighs Leah. "I feel so sorry for them because they’re often very young."

"I smoke menthol cigarettes and sometimes these guys turn their nose up at the cigarettes I offer them," laughs Leah, "but some of them are so desperate for a drag that they’ll smoke anything - even butts they pick up in the gutter."

"I’ve often wondered what I’d do if I lost my job and couldn’t afford to buy cigarettes," says Leah. "I guess I'd have to quit cold turkey. I’m just wondering if I could do it. Maybe I’ve been smoking for so long now that I can’t quit easily. It scares me that I might end up begging cigarettes on the street!"

"I’ve heard, too," confides Leah, "that a lot of robberies are committed not to buy heroin and other hard drugs, but to buy cigarettes. Isn’t that frightening?"

"My kids are drug-free, or at least I believe they are," adds Leah, "and I didn’t have to lecture them on the evils of drugs either. They just looked at me and decided for themselves that they didn’t want to be like me!"

"Come to think of it," adds Leah, "I think that my smoking habit prevented me from marrying and leading a mainstream life. None of the guys in my life accepted my smoking. It was either ‘cut down’ or ‘quit’ or ‘go outside to smoke’ and that sort of thing. I wasn’t going to put up with being told what I can do and can't do!"

"One guy from work I accepted a lift home with one day when my car was in service dropped me like a hot potato once he discovered I smoked," says Leah. "He actually turned on me all bitter and twisted and said he hopes I die a horrible death from smoking."

"I was shocked that anyone could say such a thing and I was going to report him to management for vilification," relates Leah, "and then I said to hell with it - why bother."

"That guy must be living a horrible life to say something like that," explains Leah, "and given a choice between a happy life with a horrible death or a horrible life with a happy death I know which one I'd prefer."

"I've never met a nasty smoker in my life," says Leah, "and it's true what they say about meeting the nicest of people huddled in the wind and the rain outside non-smoking buildings having a puff."

Leah's rebellious nature spills over in other aspects of her life. Her children are from different fathers and she sees this as a big plus rather than something to be ashamed of.

"For one thing," says Leah, "if one of the guys causes me trouble, the others will rally around me. It’s like having my own private army!"

When asked how the children feel about having different fathers, Leah laughs.

"They are more against me smoking - thanks to being indoctrinated at school - than having a lot of dads," admits Leah. "But it won't be long before some mean spirited teacher poisons their minds in that respect, too."