Give Me My Place to Smoke!

Unit 2
Give Me My Place to Smoke!

III Listening, Page17

MICHAEL:My name's Michael, and I've been smoking for fifteen year.
PEGGY: My name is Peggy, and I've been smoking for probably thirty

to fifty-five year.
KATIE DAVIS:Peggy and Michael sit in a smoky neighborhood bar in

Washington,D.C. a cigarette perched in each of their hands. They

say there are fewer and fewer places like this, where they feel

completely comfortable lighting up, and they expect the EPA report

on secondhand smoke to contribute to further restriction on

smoking in public place. They both say they are keenly aware of the

reception they get when they smoke, and how that has changed

over the years.

P: Thirty-five years ago you really didn't give a lot of thought to

smoking . Now you do. And of course you're finding that it's much

less acceptable, much less popular, shall we say, to be a smoker.

And I don't know how much of that is basiclly political , and how

much is apolitical. I don't like the atmosphere today, not only for

smoking , but I find that that's true in many other areas of freedom.

DAVIS: How do you experience it ? How do you get that feeling

from other people?

MICHAEL: Well , fifteen years ago you didn't  think about it. You

walked into someone's house and they would offer you an ashtray.
You don't do that anymore. "Is it OK if we smoke?" because for a

while there it was.
"Well, I really wish you wouldn't."
DAVIS: And that was awkward?

MICHAEL: No, it wasn't awkward; it's just that you learn not to ask

anymore, and just assume that it's not right.

PEGGY: I found it awkward.
M: You go to parties now . You know, where it used to be that

everybody was standing around with a cocktail in one hand and a

cigarette in the other and blabbing , and now you see the smokers,

kind of ... if it's an apartment, furtively standing around an open

window, or if it's a house, standing outside in groups. It's pretty

common.

D: Has it changed your smokingn habits in any way?

P: That's hard to say. I will say this: I Know that I'm much more

cognizant of my surroundings. For example, if I walk into someone

else's office any more, I would never think to take a cigarette. And

like he said, in someone's home, your wouldn't automatically sit

down and have a cigarette. So in that regard, yes.

M:Yeah, I mean, I've developed a whole body language about

smoking in groups and in places where it is permissable to smoke.

P: Oh yes.

M: It's ... you take a drag.

D:As you're doing right now.

M:Rigth. Blow it straight up in the air so that it doesn't get in

anybody's face, then try to hold your cigarette so that the wind

catches, whatever wind there is catches it so, that it goes away

from the group. So after a while, you look like a factory. You're

blowing smoking smoke straight up, and you've got this cigarette

flying out in the air there. It's a whole body language.

P:And you do look a bit strange; you're right, now that you say that.

Do you feel any defiance?

M:I don't think I do. I've never felt a desire to inflict my habit on

anybody else.
P: I guess I don't mean inflict your habit. I think when I mean

defiance , what I mean by that is if you are in an area where it is

totally acceptable to smoke, that... but you know that there is

someone there who doesn't really want you to smoke.
M:Yes yes. Actually, one afternoon I was coming home from work. I

was walking up Connection Avenue and I had my Walkman on. It had

been kind of a rough day, and  I was puffing away on a cigarette and

walking up the street, and someone came around in front of me and

pointed behind me. So I took my Walkman off, and turned around,

and there was this man standing there, and he was going, "Excuse

me , your cigarette is in my eyes."
P:And you were outside.

M:I was outside, on the sidewalk, And I looked at him, and I said,

"Well , then walk in front of me." And I just felt like he was his own

private smoking patrol. It had nothing to do with my kind of physical

discomfort I was causing him.

P:And did you wonder if , the next day, he was part of the fur

patrol?
That's what I think I mean about the defiance. I find that in myself,

that when they make a judgement, and that's basically whtat they're

doing, they're makeing a judgement on my behavior.

D:Do you understand at all, though, this strong feeling that people

have about smoking. that if they're not a smoker, they don't want to

be around it , they don't want to inhale the smoke?

M:Yes I can understand it . Sure , I mean I've really knuckled under...

I have changed my habits to respect the rights of people who don't

want smoke around them, and I'm much more cognizant of how my

smoking might be affecting the general area. If I'm in a smoking

section. I feel that I'm entitled to smoke , If they take away that

smoking section, I won't smoke in there anymore.

P: I wouldn't go there anymore. If it's a matter of spending my

money in a restaurant, for example, I wouldn't spend my money

there.But in regard to that, yes, I understand it , but i also feel again,

back to equity. Give me my place to smoke. That's all I ask.

D:Peggy and Michael both live in Washington, D.C.