I told you in a recent post that my dad tried to teach me how to not scuffle my feet when I walked, which I ignored out of stubbornness and have lived to regret it after several falls. Well, there was one lesson that my dad taught me that lasted!
Both my parents smoked when I was younger. My dad used to do a trick sometimes when relatives would come over. He would pull the clear film of the cigarette pack about 2/3 off, but still connected to the pack. He would hold the pack and film horizontally while he would touch the center of the film with the lit cigarette, burning a hole in the center. Then, he would take a puff of his cigarette and put his mouth over the hole in the clear film and blow all the smoke into it. He would take a finger and gently tap the underneath side of the clear film making smoke rings rise into the air. I wasn't even in school yet, but thought this was the coolest thing!
I must have found one of his unlit cigarettes lying around and pretended like I was trying to smoke it. My dad caught me. Dad said, "If you think it's so cool to smoke cigarettes, I want you to smoke this whole cigarette, now!" Dad sat me down in a chair in my front room and lit the cigarette for me to smoke. It was terrible, but he didn't let me quit right away. He had me smoke it until I was near nauseous from it. It may seem like a strange thing to do, but his doing that kept me from ever desiring to smoke cigarettes ever again. Although my dad quit smoking 30+ years ago, he has COPD from all those years he smoked. His lesson that he taught me has saved me undue health problems that cigarette smoking can cause. I'm very blessed that Dad took the time to teach me to hate cigarettes!
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