I am convinced that quitting smoking is mostly a head game and that once you've got your head in the right place you've already got it mostly beat. In 1985 I was 42 and had smoked for 25 years. I had attempted to stop smoking a number of times. I was able to handle it for up to a couple of months before caving in. Then one weekend we were visiting my wife's parents. They informed us that my father-in-law had just been diagnosed with lung cancer. He was a lifelong nonsmoker but had worked for 40 years in a room that was known as the "blue room" because of the constant haze of tobacco smoke. He was a victim of 'Other Peoples' smoke. I was devastated --- I had smoked in his house and in front of him. I felt that in some way I was at least partly guilty for his condition. My wife and daughters stayed on for some extra days while I drove home to go back to work. When I got home my head was in the right place. I took all my pipes, pipe-stand and humidor into the back yard and smashed them on a rock with a hammer. The rest was actually remarkably easy
