Smoking Etiquette

In 1940, goddess-of-etiquette Emily Post wrote about smoking in an article in Good Housekeeping magazine. She said, “Those who smoke outnumber those who do not by a hundred to one… (nonsmokers) … must learn to adapt themselves to existing conditions and when they come into contact with smokers, it is scarcely fair that the few should be allowed to prohibit the many from the pursuit of their comforts and their pleasures.”

My mother was strikingly beautiful, quite elegant–and a chain smoker. Mother taught me to waltz, made me walk with a book on my head to improve my posture and thoroughly drilled me on all forms of good manners. Mother also had her own rules of etiquette for smoking, including:

• Never dangle a cigarette from your mouth. When you light a cigarette, maintain contact with the cigarette with one hand and light it with the other.
• Always hold your cigarette between your index finger and middle finger–never between your index finger and thumb.
• Never, ever smoke when walking on the street.

Mother absolutely refused to adapt when smoking became socially unacceptable. She smoked anywhere and around anyone.

She’s been gone three years now and I miss her a lot. I am glad I’m not around her smoking while I’m trying to quit.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 at 7:14pm and is filed under Quit Smoking diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.