Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Jogging helped Mike Baram quit smoking in 1978 and he has enjoyed a running career ever since.

Free at last

South Sound ex-smokers share their success stories

JIM CARLILE, THE OLYMPIAN

About 10 years after you quit smoking, your chance of having a heart attack is that of a nonsmoker. To make it to 10 years, though, sometimes you have to get creative.

If South Sound residents can claim to be anything, it's creative.

Combine that with a health-conscious community and you've got a lot of ex-smokers with great stories to tell.

The following smokers are locals who had great stories to share. Some talked about going through hellish withdrawals or not even noticing that they've quit. Others put down cigarettes by making themselves incredibly uncomfortable or rewarding themselves greatly. But they have all been smoke-free for several years.

-Name: Laura Lowry

-Age: 57

-How long smoked: 28 years

-Quit: Jan. 1, 1989

-Method: After trying various methods of quitting (laser therapy, hypnosis, cold turkey, etc.), Lowry devised her own plan for quitting. "I made myself a deal," she said. "The only place that I was going to smoke was in my bathroom in my home with the fan on in the nude. It took me six months to finally quit. I worked close to my home so I would run home at lunch and smoke in the nude. I'd run home for dinner and a smoke then run back out again. In the evening I'd smoke one more. Finally, I just said, 'This is it. I can't do this anymore,' And I quit."

-Name: Neal Butler

-Age: 79

-How long smoked: Since he was 12

-Quit: 5,244 days ago

-Method: "I got a kick out of seeing all those ads. Wear a patch here and chew some gum there. I just grabbed a pencil and put a '1' on the calendar. That was 5,244 days ago," Butler said.

-Name: Jerry Knox

-Age: 90

-How long smoked: Started at about 12 years old

-Quit: 1949

-Method: Knox was smoking four packs a day when he quit. "One night, I came home and I was reading the paper and my daughter came up with one of my cigarette butts in her mouth. She was about 4 and was just trying to emulate me," Knox said. "That started me thinking, 'I'm going to have to quit this stuff.'

"I realized that I had trouble getting up and down the slope we lived on. That was caused by smoking. I realized my fingers were yellow from the smoking. When I perspired, I simply stunk. I knew I'd have to get rid of the stuff. I woke up one morning and reached for a cigarette and thought, 'I'm not going to do it today.' I got to the breakfast table without one and thought, 'By gosh, I'm not going to have one after my coffee.' I went like that all day long. Every time I got to a point where I usually had one, I didn't have one."

After a few days of misery, eating pounds of hard candy and wanting to have a cigarette again, he hit upon an idea that almost guaranteed he wouldn't buy more cigarettes.

"I went out and bought a boat. It was a reward for myself before I even really quit. That way, I couldn't afford to smoke. One year later, I smelled apple blossoms and tasted raspberries again. That was my real reward."

-Name: Nanette Moss

-Age: 27

-How long smoked: Less than two years

-Quit: 1992

-Method: "Three things helped me quit," Moss said. "One is finding something else to do during habitual times. For me, sometimes that meant writing a letter or trying to relax and think. The second thing that helped a lot was taking a licorice root the length of a cigarette and keeping it in my mouth when I wanted one. The third thing was paying close attention to how quitting was affecting my body -- how my lungs felt, that sort of thing. I also kept a good attitude."

-Name: Howard Winkler

-Age: 56

-How long smoked: Started at 15

-Quit: April 26, 1988

-Method: Winkler went through a smoking cessation workshop at Providence St. Peter Hospital. "Two things happened in my life that made me quit. One -- I met the woman I'm now married to. The other is I got a letter from my daughter expressing concern about my health. My grandfather and father both died from smoke-related illness. I knew that, genetically, it would catch up with me and I'd be sucking oxygen and that wasn't much of a gift to give the woman I was about to marry," Winkler said. "One thing that really helped was something that someone told me about wanting a cigarette. They said that the urge to have a cigarette will go away whether you have one or you don't."

-Name: Paul J. Robischon

-Age: 44

-How long smoked: Started in 1971

-Quit: Nov. 16, 1996

-Method: After years of trying to quit, "I finally gave up trying and decided that smoking would be a part of my life until the day I died," Robischon said. "On Nov. 16, 1996, I was praying before I went to church. I was to begin teaching a different Sunday school class that day. I was praying for the students I would be teaching and for wisdom and guidance as I taught. There was a sweet, sweet presence of the Lord as I prayed. I remember it like it was yesterday ... Out of the blue he told me he would give me the victory over cigarette smoking and I would never desire another cigarette as long as I lived ... It has been four years since I quit smoking and not a day goes by without me thanking God for this victory. I have not had any desire for a cigarette in all those four years."

-Name: Dale Corbins

-Age: 71

-How long smoked: Started smoking in the early 40s

-Quit: September 1991

-Method: In March 1991, Corbins had a heart attack. He could barely wait to get out of the hospital so he could smoke. "My wife worked at the hospital and told me about a support group for quitting smoking," Corbins said. "In the first meeting of the group, they told me to pick a special date to quit. I picked the 15th of September because it was my wedding anniversary. I was so proud of myself I went and told my wife and she said that our anniversary is on the 25th. I went right outside and lit up."

-Name: Jack Weeks

-Age: 67

-How long smoked: Since he was 14

-Quit: December 1991

-Method: Weeks took a class at St. Peter's Hospital and followed it up with more than a year of support group meetings. "I have finally reached the point where I do not think about smoking at least once each day," Weeks said 10 years after he quit. "The smell of cigarette smoke is nauseating and I don't care to be around those who smoke. It took a long time to reach where I am now, and I don't think I will ever smoke again because I know that if I smoke even one cigarette, I will be addicted again."

-Name: Holly Harmon

-Age: 49

-How long smoked: 22 years

-Quit: Nov. 4, 1991

-Method: Quit through the smoking cessation program at St. Peter's Hospital. "I had tried to quit only once before, about five years earlier on a Great American Smoke-out day. I lasted until lunchtime," Harmon said. With the others in the cessation group, Harmon went outside to smoke her last cigarette. "The follow-up sessions were all very helpful for me. To this day, I carry in my wallet a photo I was given at one class of a living man who no longer has any throat due to the cancerous effects of smoking and the surgery he needed to get rid of it. It's a remindful, gruesome photo and I save it -- just in case," she said. "The first two weeks post-smoking were nothing short of pure hell on earth for me."

After 18 months of no cigarettes, Harmon had gained 100 pounds. "But here's the good news -- and there's lots. My life no longer revolves around cigarettes. It's a huge relief only a former smoker or anyone with an addiction can understand. I'm really proud of myself for succeeding in quitting smoking. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. I don't worry about how long a meeting is going to last or when the next break is so I can go out and have a smoke. I don't check to see if I have enough cigarettes to last me through an evening out if I can't get to a convenience store to buy more. I don't check out the location of the smoking barrel wherever I go.

"I can't begin to add up the amount of money I've saved by not smoking. My hair doesn't stink. My clothes don't stink. My house doesn't stink. My car doesn't stink."

Harmon recently enrolled in a program to lose all the weight she gained after quitting.

-Name: Mike Baram

-Age: 56

-How long smoked: Started at age 17 and smoked for 17 years.

-Quit: August 1978

-Method: When Baram was in the Navy, it was standard for him to finish four cigarettes before breakfast and smoke while shaving. When he quit, "I had visited a friend in the hospital who was dying of lung cancer and that was the psychological push I needed to get serious once and for all. A few days later I mentioned to a co-worker that I really needed to quit and he suggested that I try jogging to overcome the withdrawal symptoms. The next day I put on comfortable shoes and went for a mile run. It was not easy and I was pretty disgusted with the shape my lungs were in, so I threw all the cigarettes I had in the trash and that was the end of my smoking. I started running every day. Within a month I was running three miles a day and soon started running in the fields for extra distance." Baram was living in Israel at the time. That December, he competed in his first marathon.

-Name: Phyllis Danforth

-Age: 81

-How long smoked: Started at age 35

-Quit: 17 years ago

-Method: "About 16 years ago my husband passed away. The day he died I had my first heart attack," Danforth said. The doctors told her it was from smoking. "The nurse said, 'I'll fix you up.' She took a white straw, cut it the length of a cigarette and put it in my hand. I puffed on it but it didn't feel like a cigarette so I took a white Kleenex and stuffed it into the straw so just a little air would come through. I quit smoking that way in three or four months. I had those little things in every room of my house. To this day I keep one in my chest of drawers."

Jim Carlile writes for The Olympian. He can be reached at 357-0204.

About this series

Today's story is the last in a six-week series about quitting smoking. Three Olympian staff members quit smoking and wrote about their experiences each week of the process. The covered topics related to successful quitting.

- First week: Quitting isn't the problem, it's staying cigarette-free.

- Second week: Withdrawal symptoms.

- Third week: Teen smoking.

- Fourth week: Lifetime smokers who persist despite health problems.

- Last week: The image of smoking in society.

- This week: Free at last: Smokers who have quit for years share how they did it.

More to come

We will update this series at three months, six months and a year to let you know how our nonsmokers are doing.

The Olympian Copyright 2000

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