When Dad Quit Smoking

In Glen's own words:

My Dad used tobacco by smoking a pipe or a cigar and sometimes chewing tobacco but he was also able to quit it and leave it alone for a few months. Therefore, as I grew up I would try to use Dad's pipe and smoked a little, but it made me sick, so when I started to smoke as a kid about 13 I rolled some cigarettes and smoked some. Dad was surprised and indicated to me that he would prefer that I didn't smoke but not much was said about it.

I had quit the smoking habit when I dated my love, Helen and did not smoke any the first years of our marriage when we lived in California.

However, when we went back to Kansas to live, it seemed our lives were sometimes stressful so I began to smoke and use tobacco, even chewing some but we were not religious at the time.

That all changed when we began to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Helen's sister Ethyl and family had joined the church and helped us to understand about how wonderful it was. But they never stopped smoking but they sure helped us to repent and be baptized. Many of the first years of Helen and I on the farm the country was in World War II and we were some what limited on things we could do.

However, when the war ended, the church sent the missionaries to our small town of about 1500 and they stayed there for a long time. I have always felt that they were waiting for us to belong to the church so they could leave someone in charge of the church in Scott City. I believe, Helen was converted first and we were baptized on the same day. So we went to work for the church and to make life better and Helen was really good to see that things worked. I quit working on Sundays and we cleaned the old building we rented and continued to have meetings. The missionaries were allowed to stay until they turned the operation to me.

One day prior to our baptism date I was driving the tractor that did not have a cab or any protection from the wind or dirt. It was in the evening. I began to realize I had to change my ways. Thus as I rode along I was smoking a cigarette, I took it out of my mouth and threw it on the ground. Since I carried a pack of cigarettes in my shirt pocket I also threw them away to be covered up by the tool I was pulling. So I never smoked again. We also had to give up on coffee and tea to never use them again.

Then we were also taught to never drink alcoholic beverages---so no beer or anything like it. Thus we needed to change and I did so. Sometimes, I would dream about me smoking but that only lasted about a year. So that taught me an important lesson. I never smoked, chewed, or drank again.

(Mostly in Dad's own handwriting)