Smoking costs both $ and health

To the editor:

I could just scream, but more on that later.

My name is Larry Chittum. Earlier in life, I considered myself to be a pretty good athlete.

I started playing football in the third grade and was all-conference in high school.

I played semi-pro fast-pitch softball at age 14, and I was good at it. 

I played baseball the first year of Little League and semi-pro at 14. I was adequate.

I carried a 190 bowling average bowling one day a week and was a darn good “C” in any golf scramble. 

Boxing in the Golden Gloves and playing industrial league basketball filled the rest of my time.

I almost forgot, I held the school and county record for the half-mile run and, along with three others, the mile relay record that stood for 10 years.

With the exception of the high school years, there was one constant.

I smoked.

Back then, if you were a boy who live on the west side of Meridian Street, south side of the bridge, you probably smoked.

Back then, smoking was cheap. We smoked coffee, corn silk and crumpled up elm leaves in the corncob pipes we made or what we rolled in a sheet of toilet tissue. Once in a while, someone would spring for a pack of Marvels at 11 cents a pack.

Today, smoking isn’t cheap. At $7.50 a pack, you can save $2,500 a year by not smoking.

Pulmonologists are not cheap, and the medicines they prescribe are not cheap.

Despite being the athlete I was, a brisk walk to get the mail now leaves me breathless and dictates I sit or use my Albuterol, one of those costly meds I carry.

Try this: Hold your breath for as long as you can. Then, imagine you can’t inhale.

My purpose for writing this letter is to dissuade just one person from lighting up. Just one.

If I’m successful, I’ll just scream, if I can get my breath.

Very sincerely,

Larry Chittum

Portland