I was talking with Betty, a friend in the Village, and telling her about my brother-in-law’s brave fight against lung cancer. I also told her of my brother’s passing from lung cancer some years ago.
The first thing that pops into everyone’s mind at the very mention of lung cancer is, “Did they smoke?”
Betty then asked me, “Did you smoke?” I replied, “No. I tried but wasn’t very successful.” “Successful?” she asked, looking at me rather oddly.
“Yes. Once I tried in my 20s at a party. The combination of alcohol and cigarettes resulted in my spending valuable party time in the bathroom, worshiping the white porcelain god (if you get my drift).”
Another time in my 20s, when I worked at a rock radio station in Fargo, my friend Medrean and I would go over to the savings and loan building where there was a cafeteria on the top floor. The employees of the savings and loan were mostly conservative, so they found us pretty wild. (Medrean was originally from New York, so they were half right. I was a naive farm girl from North Dakota.)
I had discovered a cigarette called Erik’s, which was a slim brown cigarette. You could smoke in restaurants in those days, so I decided to light up while we were busy chatting.
I had seen the dramatic flair some actresses in old movies used to light their matches, so I thought I would give it a try.
With the cigarette in my mouth, I struck a match and carried it across half the table with great flair. I was quite pleased with myself until I came precariously close to the paper napkins scattered on our table and started a small fire.
Without a word, Medrean and I took our glasses of water and doused the fire.
What amazes me to this day is that everyone was so busy chatting, they didn’t even look over at us – with the exception of one lone guy in the corner who was chuckling, or I should say chortling, at the sight. Even when Medrean went over to the ladies who worked at the cafeteria to ask for some rags to clean up the mess, telling them “We’ve had a small fire on our table,” their only reaction was, “Sure, here.”
So, successful at smoking? No. And thank God for that.
Diane Duray is a Laguna Woods resident. Contact her at dduray47@gmail.com.
