You are making a lot of assumptions about me when you don’t know me at all. I’ve tried to be gentle in trying to explain the situation, but you have chosen to ignore me. I submit this this man would smell bad to ANYONE. But, I’ll probably never see him again. I just feel sorry for people who do not realize how they affect those around them.
People who are smokers do not smell it on themselves, or on other smokers. I know that because I was a smoker 50 years ago and grew up in a house full of smokers. But after you are no longer a smoker, the stench is awful and quite noticeable.
As I mentioned, I quit after the first Surgeon General’s report in 1963. Since then, I have never nagged anyone about their smoking. I have worked in offices where you could cut the smoke in the air with a knife. As a business owner, I’ve put up with (without complaint) employees who took smoke breaks constantly, leaving their work for other people to finish. (I’m sure that they wondered why raises for them were not forthcoming too often and that nobody fought to keep them when they decided to resign.) I even put up with a smoking employee who is now dead and who used to preach to his co-workers that “smokers are more efficient than non-smokers” and should be paid more (his reasoning was so obtuse that I cannot explain it to this day.)
I’ve had to hang my coats and my wool clothes in the garage overnight to air the smoke out of them after working in an office all day with a couple of chain smokers. I’ve put up with the extra dry cleaning bills without grumbling to the folks who caused it. I’ve had to empty the filthy ashtrays that these folks leave on the outside of the building too. Ugh! But I never whined.
I live in a state where all work place smoking is now outlawed. And all restaurant and bar smoking is now outlawed. In some cities, all outdoor smoking is outlawed. (Madison) You can drive by bars and hospitals and see a small cluster of employees huddled out in the snow, puffing away. I did nothing to pass these laws, nor promote these laws, but I really appreciate them. As a consequence, almost everybody who can possibly quit has, so you seldom encounter anyone who smokes any more. That is why the smelly man buying cigarettes in the pharmacy was so startling.
To YOU - not to everyone. Why is it so difficult for you to get that simple concept?
I did nothing to pass these laws, nor promote these laws, but I really appreciate them.
By your silence you allowed the infringement of the property rights of others. By your appreciation of such infringement you accept the idea the government knows best.
As a consequence, almost everybody who can possibly quit has, so you seldom encounter anyone who smokes any more.
You obviously live surrounded by people who are incapable of thinking for themselves and must be forced into conformance. I have never met a former smoker who had difficulty quitting when they decided it was time to do so. The ones who had problems are those who didn't want to but had this need to conform to the PC and they have become the newest generation of the anti-smoker brigade.
That is why the smelly man buying cigarettes in the pharmacy was so startling
I will repeat it again - he was smelly to YOU.