Posted on 03/18/2002 11:05:04 AM PST by Just another Joe
Norm LeBrun remembers the days when he could light up at his work station. Then came the new rule: no smoking anywhere but the smoking room.
That lasted for several years. Then the tiny room became too expensive to ventilate. Lebrun and anyone else who couldn’t go eight hours without a cigarette were forced out back.
Ever since, they have gathered here in the middle of a windy alley in downtown Lewiston.
Two, three, four times a day, no matter what the weather, they leave their offices and desks at a local financial-service company to satisfy their cravings for nicotine.
It happens every several feet in the alleyways behind Lisbon Street. Smokers come and go, huddling around ashtrays and buckets filled with sand.
Most of them don’t want their names used and they are reluctant to have their pictures taken. They insist that they are not ashamed of their addiction. But some admit that their spouses, children and parents don’t know about their habit or still believe they’ve quit.
Many have bosses who don’t mind their short absences. They get a certain amount of time each day, and they can split it up any way they like. One woman takes two 10-minute breaks, usually at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Her co-worker, a 27-year-old man who has been smoking since his early teens, takes his allotted 20 minutes in four five-minute intervals. That is what his habit – one and a half packs a day – requires.
Some don’t mind being pushed outside to smoke. “It gives me a chance to get outdoors in the fresh air,” says a 42-year-old telemarketer named Bill.
Others hate it. They are tired of being told when and where they can smoke. They’ve been banned from malls, restaurants, even their own homes. And they don’t think it is fair.
“I think there should be restaurants for nonsmokers and restaurants for smokers,” insists LeBrun.
A block away, Bill takes a drag, thinks for a second, and says, “They should make it illegal if it is that bad for you. Until then, they should just let us smoke.”
Despite the frustrations that come along with being part of a shrinking minority, local smokers say there is camaraderie in the dark, cold alleyways. People who work for maintenance get to meet people in the data-processing department. Salesmen chat with social workers.
They complain about work. They share weekend plans and vacation memories.
For 21-year-old Melissa Bolduc, who is too young to recall the days when smoking at work was as normal as drinking coffee, having 15 minutes a day to escape her cubicle at a local bank seems perfectly reasonable.
But she could do without the lectures that come when she returns.
You were the one wanting them to 'let it all hang out"--like there's nothing to hide nor be ashamed of.....just seems like that other shoe should fit on your foot! Regards.....
Fill your boots, we will be laughing when they tax junk and fatty foods......... those taxes are just around the corner.
Hope you don't wear perfume........ IT STINKS.
Thats just the trouble, it isn't the company making the rules, it's THE GOVERNMENT, companies making the choice...... is fine with all of us.
But my dear, all restaurants are not yours.
Depends on what they consider 'humor,' don't it? Amazing how many folks don't consider insults flung at smokers to be insulting at all, then get all bent out of shape when we square off. What was it Pudgy O'Rosie said: "You can never be too rude to a smoker." Well, yes you can.
One thing, though, the smell of tobacco smoke washes off; the smell of bigotry is to the bone. Live with it.
Polluting non-smoke air? Give me a break! Look around you and count the cars, trucks, busses, aircraft, not to mention smokestacks and fumes from every single manufactured item in existence today. You're a control freak, pure and simple, and delight in abusing those who partake in something you don't like.
When the desire to quit becomes stronger than the desire to smoke, then and only then will the smoker quit smoking. And he'll quit without any other aid or assistance, just as millions of smokers have quit before him. (Let's see: The earliest price I can remember is 23 cents a pack and at the time I was earning $1 an hour; now I pay nearly 80 cents and make considerably more than that even though I'm retired. I can stand it.)
You ain't from around here, are ya? If it were up to the owner of said company or mall, we wouldn't be discussing this. As it stands now, the gubmint has decreed I am not ALLOWED to open my own smoking ANYTHING, including private clubs in some places.
My local courthouse went NO SMOKING.
They recently revisited their decision and established several smoking areas.
Seems it looked bad to have all those jurors standing on the street corner with the defendants and lawyers.
It also drove the security guards nuts having to rescreen people.
But don't tell the self-rightious - let them wonder how I got the promotion, while they were campaining for a better workplace.
Idiots.
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