Started smoking when I was 12, everybody else did so why not. Told myself that I really liked smoking. Between 20 and 25 years, I tried to quit many times and there was never a day that I didn't want a cigarette. Even quit once for 6 months but the desire was still there. Went to the ENT Dr on Jan 2, 1982.  He saw something in my throat and sent me to another ENT. That one took one look and said that a biopsy was necessary. Went into the hosp early on the morning of Jan 7, 1982 and was wheeled into the surgery room. When I woke up in a hosp room, my wife leaned over the bed and told me that I did have cancer. 37 years old and had 4 kids at home. Had never heard of anyone living over 6 months after being diagnosed with any type of cancer. Scared the he double L out of me. I reached over to the small table beside the bed and raked my cigarettes into the waste basket. Yes, back then we could still smoke in the hospital rooms. Was sent directly to MD Anderson and they removed my voice box on Jan 27, 1982. Kinda ironic, from the day I raked the cigarettes into the waste basket, I have never had any desire, longing, or withdrawal symptoms from the nicotine. Personally,it is my opinion that it is all philological. nicotine addiction has nothing to do with it. At any rate, after the surgery, the rooms in the house were all repainted, the curtains were trashed and replaced and my house, cars, and tractor has been smoke free ever since.  Someone comes to visit that needs a smoke, I'll be glad to sit outside on the porch with them. Got a little plastic tube in my throat that I use to talk with, sometimes it hard to understand me but it sure beats a tablet and a pencil.