Bills Pride-Ages Nine On Up
Chapter 1: Introduction
Just a summary of this book
This a simple short story I wrote to keep children from the ages of nine on up to never try tobacco, will it work? We’ll see.
The author would like to dedicate this book to
not only his family, but, to Pleasant Hill’s
D.A.R.E. Officer Terry Foreman, and to P.E.P. and other organizations statewide.
Chapter 2: The Smoking Habit From Within
I started smoking from the middle of sixth grade until I was thirty-five years old in 1999.
I won’t tell anyone how, but I will tell you why.
My grandma smoked and I wanted to see what it
was like. By the time I was in the ninth grade,
fifteen of my friends smoked. I was caught twice. Once when I was thirteen and once when I was
Seventeen years old. The first time I was caught I was put on restriction for one month.
The second time, my mother told me she would
rather me smoke in front of her instead of
hiding it from her. She never smoked, but a lot of her friends did.
In 1998, I tried to quit. I only lasted six
days. My grandma is now seventy-five years old
and has had triple by-pass operation and breast
cancer. She quit smoking about four years ago.
It could have been linked to her smoking for many, many years.
In 1998, during the month of June or July, my mother was diagnosed with kidney cancer and had to have one of her kidneys removed. This is when I wrote my first poem titled, “Smoking.” In September of 1998, my wife was diagnosed with asthma.
During the month of October, she asked me to quit smoking for a Christmas gift. I was selfishly meeting my own needs instead of considering the fact it was not only killing me, but, hurting my wife also. My smoking could have caused my wife to get asthma.
On December 1st, I wrote my second poem titled, “Dare-To-Say-No.”
I dedicated that poem to Gregory Gardens Elementary D.A.R.E. graduates of 1999. I showed Pleasant Hill’s D.A.R.E Officer Terry Foreman this poem and I requested I read it to the fifth graders at their graduation on January 27th, 1999. Officer Foreman asked the principal, Mr. Bob Corritone, if it was OK and Mr. Corritone told him that it was OK with him. Officer Foreman said it was fine. That same week, I thought of an idea of writing this book.
A DARE officer goes around to the 5th grade classrooms and teaches students not to do drugs, tobacco, and other things that are bad for you. They spend about 45 minutes in the 5th grade classrooms a week and after they talk on an issue, they give a test to see what they have learned.
Chapter 3: Why Help Others?
Why would any one like to help others?
Why help others to say no? For me it’s easy.
I feel I should since I was a poor role model and a bad example as a staff member at a school. I was always smoking off campus by a church next door. I would say that least 98% of the students have seen me at one time or another. Now that I have quit smoking, I can help to reverse the bad influence I had on others.
Gregory Gardens was closed for twelve years.
It reopened as an Elementary school in 1994-1995. Since that time, a lot of students have passed through my campus, either by graduating or moving away. There’s nothing I can do to change that fact, but it’s never too late to try to help in such away as to keep other children from trying it. All I could do is try. It’s better than doing nothing about it. The only way to really know if I helped is by having a former student, many years after graduating from high school, tell me that I made a impact on their life and they chose not to smoke or use drugs. This would make me feel proud! It would make anyone proud. Until then, I’ll continue to try, knowing that I did my best.
Gregory Gardens was an Elementary School I worked at a little over 8 years ago. This story may help too all who read it.
Chapter 4: Dare To Say No
Dare To Say No!!!
Today is January 28th, 1998. a day after the D.A.R.E. graduation Last night, I did one of the most important things I think I could ever do, I joined D.A.R.E.
On January 27th, at 6:45pm, my family and I showed up at the D.A.R.E. graduation. My wife Lisa, my seven year old son Chris and my five year old daughter Amanda were there. I was very nervous.
I was up from 3:00am to 5:00am trying
to make sure my speech was perfect. At 7:00pm,
the graduation started. Officer Terry introduced
Mr. Bob Corritone, Pleasant Hill’s Police Chief, the Mayor and others.
Officer Terry
announced that for the first time in D.A.R.E.’s history, the class of 1999 all
passed their D.A.R.E. test at a whopping 100%,
and their spelling test at a 100%. He further stated that until this year, he thought that last year’s class was best. However I do not know their names. About 20 minutes into the program, I was called up to the stage to read my speech, reading from my personal notes.
This is how my speech began. “Hey Gators”, how do you feel? I’ve got something to share with you tonight. Since a lot of students have seen me in the past, smoking off campus in the church parking lot I feel that this was a bad example I was setting as a staff member of Gregory Gardens Elementary School. By joining D.A.R.E I will be trying to help others from making the same mistakes I have made. I hope I can help make a difference for today’s youth. I would like to take this time to thank D.A.R.E. Officer Terry Foreman and Mr. Bob Corritone for letting me be here tonight. Thanks also to the students and to the staff for their daily support.
It helped a lot. Before I read my poem, welcome to “BILL’S P.R.I.D.E.” I want to dedicate this poem to Officer Terry; it was at this point that I began to get very sad and nervous. I paused for only a millisecond, then took a deep breath and continued on.
I then began to read the first poem that I wrote last year entitled, “Smoking”.
Smoking, smoking, what a sin, I tried to quit, but the tobacco did win. Second hand must not be a joke. My mother has cancer and she has never taking a toke. It’s simple to start but impossible for me to part from this habit. From filter to tip a cigarette has a lot of toxins within.
I should know from the cough that I get. As we all know tobacco does take it’s toll. Whose to say, so don’t even try it. Just stay away and you’ll live for many more years, and you won’t have to live in fear.
Just then, a tiny tear developed in my left eye.
I then dedicated my second poem titled, “Dare to Say No”. To the D.A.R.E. graduates of 1999, Dare To Say No! As I should know tobacco was taking its course and very slow. From my mother who lost a kidney to cancer and to my wife who came down with asthma a few months ago. It’s a crying shame at a very young age, as I was 11 to be exact. For 23 years I was trapped. Then my wife made a wish. She asked me to quit for a Christmas gift. Out of all of the ideas of a gift this was the hardest wish to give. I can happily say
her wish became true. Not only for her, But for my kids to, and as I’m talking to you, I now join D.A.R.E. I hope this message will last in your minds.
I am now through smoking. Today is the 27th day that I have been smoke free. I would like to thank my family for being here. At this point I was very sad. But I got even sadder when the skits began. The song, “turn around blue eyes”, began to play and the students walked out on stage wearing cardboard attached by string on their shoulders. Different names of drugs were written on each side of the cardboard. The drugs were tobacco, heroin, pcp, and a few more. As the words, turn around blue eyes. Were being sung, all the kids turned around in a 360 degree turn.
I was located in just the right spot, just to the right of the stage where a sign with Bill Sawyers, written on it was placed. As the students wearing the tobacco sign walked by me, I was thinking of all the people I may have hurt by smoking around them: My mom, wife, children, and relatives. Boy, it made me really sad. I kept on thinking to myself why am I so sad? No body died. My mother’s cancer has been cured for now. My wife is doing fine and her asthma is under control. Maybe it’s a guilt trip from the more powerful feelings I have.
Chapter 5: How I Did It?
The way I started to quit was to set up a time
to quit in advance.
I wanted to quit before Christmas day. I quit on December 15th. Every
time I had a craving, I ate chocolate and a lot of it!! I want to first point out that you must want to quit bad enough before trying to.
In my case it was my family getting sick. I lasted until around December 17th when a person gave me a cigarette, since I was in a very crabby mood. 30 minutes later, I broke down and bought a pack. Stupid me! I smoked the whole pack.
Between the hours of 9:00pm and 11:00pm that night and between the hours of 9:00am and 12:00pm the following day, Bad! It only took me five hours to smoke an entire pack of twenty cigarettes. I quit again until December 31st, 1998. I had my last cigarette at 11:45pm. as a reminder of my last cigarette.
I remember eating a lot of chocolate, at least two pounds a day for the first seven days. From December 31st to January 15th, I gained nine pounds. Today, February 2nd, 1999, I still get Cravings off and on, but not as bad as the first
7 days. I’m still biting my fingers till they bleed, but not as often.
Chapter 6: The Bad Results
I can truly remember the first time I started smoking, but I can’t remember anything related
to the following:
Lack of energy. I can’t remember what it was like to have energy. Did I have it back then and
lost it? I should have had energy back then since I was in my teens.
Sense of smell, I lost most of it. I can’t remember. For example:
I went to a garden awhile back and my wife asked to smell the beautiful roses. I told her I couldn’t smell any thing. I was able to smell it when I put it right under my nose. Then my son told me he loved the smell of cut grass after I mowed it. I told him that I couldn’t smell it. He got mad and grabbed a handful of grass and told me to sniff it. So I did. I could smell it then.
The worse time was one day last year when a rubber spatula was burning up in the dishwasher. My son asked me what was burning. I told him nothing was burning since I couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary. Not until a couple of minutes later did. I notice a darkish haze across the ceiling of the house and then I noticed a little smoke coming from the dishwasher door that I couldn’t smell. The stick of the spatula was burnt to a crisp and the rubber part was burnt too. Smelling burnt rubber up close stinks really badly.
Then there’s taste. Another thing that had gone bad was that I couldn’t taste things unless it was super tart or super sweet. For example; I had to rely on my wife and kids to tell me when my milk was spoiled since I couldn’t taste well. For my first sip, my wife and kids sure could.
But now, since I stopped smoking, I wonder if I will ever get senses back? Are they damaged
forever? If not, how long?
I have one last question on this matter. My blind aunt told me that when a person loses a sense, another sense is stronger than the other. Is this true? It
couldn’t be hearing since I listen to my music way too loud. It’s a hobby of mine. I have a
medium sound system in my car and an awesome system at home. I would have to say that it can’t be the ears so it must be the touch. Yes, it must be the touch.
And then there’s the topic of health. From smoker’s cough, bronchitis, and colds. They all last weeks longer than for those people who do not smoke, Instead of just days, the list is endless. It just gets plain gross.
If you really need examples of this, here’s a couple: Let’s say that 90% of all sneezes result in a discharge of a thick colored substance like a loogie. It might come out the mouth when you sneeze or it might come out the nose or even both. The color of it is sickening. It can be a blackish color down to a yellowish greenish, color depending on just how sick you really are.
This is the truth. Most of the time we have a Kleenex or something just in case of things like that. And, if you didn’t have time to get a Kleenex (this will gross you out) the stuff you see from this discharge is dead lung tissue. Sometimes it has tiny little veins. But that’s the life of a smoker… oh well. It’s a part of life as an addiction to nicotine. And that’s why
people can’t stop.
Chapter 7: Addiction Fact or False?
Take it from an-ex smoker, for all it’s worth, it’s a fact. Let’s put this way,
the worse case scenario is running out of cigarettes. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, I would do one of the following: I’d bum a cigarette from a person or a friend or ask for money so that I could buy a pack. I’d bum a cigarette from a complete stranger at a store or a gas station, and so on. Go far away to a relative’s house in Pittsburgh, Martinez or Walnut Creek to get a cigarette.
Addition is fierce folks. That’s no lie.
The worse case is having absolutely nobody around and you start pacing, biting your finger nails until they bleed. You go through this until you get your dose of nicotine.
I was smoking two and a half packs a day. Sometimes three different brands, I’d rather not mention their names since I do not want to endorse any company. I especially do not want them to make any more money than what they already made off from me.
Here is an example of how much money I spent: Are you ready for this one? I went through $120.00 weekly and $1,200 yearly. That’s $65,000 in a course of twenty for years. Just think what I could have bought with that much cash? Perhaps a house, or a car.
“Many a time I’ve reflected about the beginning of my addiction to cigarettes”. A lot of smokers out there are still thinking about it. I can remember smoking the first one. It was so gross. It burned my throat and me cough so badly after the second puff. I also felt light headed. I felt as if I needed to sit down. A person who quits smoking for three days and lights one up knows about this feeling.
I believe that it is the second cigarette that gets you addicted. When you try to smoke the second one to see if it makes you cough again or not, you don’t cough. You feel less light headed too. At this point you think that this couldn’t be that bad for me. And boom! You’re addicted,
Smoking more and more, I know this from my own experience. The more pressure from parents, homework, your job, and your boss, the more you will smoke. As you inhale the smoke, it cuts down on oxygen in your lungs and along with the nicotine; it gives you a calming effect. It isn’t fun either. Maybe at 1st when I was a kid and I was able to hide it from my little sister, she tattled on everything I did. Oh, don’t forget the smoke rings. I could blow two rings thru one making three altogether. Big deal!
Was it really worth the pain it caused others and to myself? I did it all my self. I deserve what ever I may get from this habit, years down the road. Even though I quit, I’d rather it happen to me than to my own family, especially my kids. They didn’t do any thing to deserve to be sick later.
Chapter 8: The Assembly
February 1, 1999, I again made a speech. This time the 5th grade class was putting on a performance for the 1st through 5th graders. I was last. Again, both classes did a fantastic job.
I could tell that Katrina and Kristen worked very hard with Officer Terry Foreman since I had seen them rehearsing several times right after lunch. I was told by many people that they heard the Performance much better this time than on D.A.R.E. night. It was also easier for me to speak this time. I felt less sad.
Around an hour later, Room 15 asked me to come to their room in three minutes. When I arrived there, two students were standing and holding a sign that read, “Congratulations”. Each student told me, in their special way, how proud they were of me that I was able to quit smoking. I thanked each of them after their speeches.
I posted the sign in my office up high, and filled out a class high five and posted it. In there room on the overhead screen, it was the least I could do. A lot of students thanked me, including the teacher. A special thanks to all.
THE End
If you are someone who might be interested in neat things, ask your local D.A.R.E. Officer to show you a cigarette under a black light that is twelve inches in length. It’ll show you the hidden chemicals that are used to keep the cigarettes from becoming stale and to keep it burning all the time. Even when it’s sitting in a ashtray.
Coming soon!!! Bill’s P.R.I.D.E part two. This is the beginning of a new approach to fighting drugs. Can this work? The first step of helping has been conquered by joining D.A.R.E. Dare to make a difference in your community! Dare to be different! Dare to do your best! Second step Write a book based on my experience of smoking.
Can this story really help? I’ll wait and see.