Barbara J. Hamby

sign-up for our email list

Neighborhood Activities

My eyeballs are exhausted from the people watching all day out our front windows. There was an estate sale across the street, and for seven hours eager shoppers streamed in and out. I wanted to trade cars with the people in the cute little PT Cruiser convertible. Not really, but twenty years ago I would have. Tomorrow the sale prices may be lowered and the traffic will probably be heavier.

Even though I didn’t know the lady who died very well, it is always sad to lose a neighbor. It is even sadder to know that cigarettes killed her. When she had oxygen inside the house to help her breathe, she came outside to smoke. In the last months, I heard that the lung cancer had spread to her brain.

I notice some of the tobacco companies are climbing on the bandwagon to prevent kids from starting to smoke, or at least claiming to do so. I doubt that it’s because their executives can’t sleep at night. More likely, they need the good public relations that such a program generates.

The couple next door to us, who are both chain smokers, looks much younger than we are. I hope that means we won’t outlive them. We listen to them cough a lot, already.

Every death that’s attributed to lung cancer or emphysema may not be due to smoking, but many are. I can’t claim that I had the good sense not to become addicted to cigarettes. It was just an expensive habit I couldn’t afford.