Did Gus ever smoke?

When I lived in Denver in the early 1980s, I helped three women, who owned a small training firm, conduct a stop-smoking program at a major employer. We went to their office on three Wednesday afternoons for a one-hour session at the end of the workday. I was their "token male" on the training team.

At the last session one participant approached me and asked if I had ever smoked?

"Yes," I answered.

"How much did you smoke?" she asked.

"Not that much," I answered.

"Was it hard to quit? she asked.

"Not that hard," I answered.

"How long ago did you quit?" she asked.

"It was a while back," I said.

She stepped up really close to me and grabbed my coat lapels. "Listen, buster, how old were you when you quit?"

"I was seven. Mom said I was never going to live to see eight, if I didn't quit."

She said, "I knew you had never smoked!"

I think that woman had probably smoked more years than I had lived, and she could tell that I was a non-smoker. Clellie will fill in the rest of the story about my smoking. (Right, Clellie?)

I never did smoke cigarettes. After college when I was working in the Chicago Loop, I had smoked a pipe for a little while, but it was a pain in the neck, having to wrestle with tobacco and cleaners, and not enjoying it very much. One day i walked into a smoking shop and was looking at pipes.

The clerk said, "You look like a 250 pipe man." She meant a $250 pipe. No way!