Today I have 5 days free from the ball and chain that has been trying to kill me for the last 38 years.i had my first chew when I was 5 years old walking to kindergarten . My buddy and I used to chew red man/beech nut that we would steal from his older brothers.this was a daily ritual for awhile until they figured it out and put an end to it.I experimented off and on after that but didn't really become a hardcore dipper until 15 or 16.Being a football player it was the cool thing to do and accepted even by the coaches.At 18 I got myself into a little trouble and the judge thought it would be a good idea if I joined The US MARINES. In the corp I was an 0331 - which some of you marines know is a m60 machine gunner- I spent 4 years in the SUCK and had a chew in every waking moment (no joke).Today I am 43,married and have 4 beautiful daughters.In Jan my wife was diagnosed with very aggressive breast cancer. We went through 4,mths of chemo and now she is almost done with radiation .The reason I bring this up is interesting .When we foundvout what type of cancer it was and realized we were going to have to bring out the BIG GUNS as we told it to our daughters(ACT chemo treatment) she asked me to quit chewing.Being the addicted,nutless,scared punk I refused!iI told her oh ill do it later I promise.The same BS I've been telling her and my kids for the last 3yrs .Its pretty mind boggling to me that someone who's wife is getting ready to go through Hell is not willing to do something for her to make her happy . Copenhagen wintergreen ruled my life! I fell in love with the devil 5 yrs ago when they came up with that SHIT.I have a friend of mine who stopped by my house 2weeks ago to see how I was doing.He informed me that he had over 3 months of the chew Nd asked me what my plan was. I did my usual told him sep 15 and I was really going to do it this time.He reminded me that I will be coaching 2 different sports in sept and that I was full of shit.He said how about now. Something happened to me at that moment . For the first time in my life I really wanted to quit!Thank you Bronc!I have 5 days today and things are getting better slowly but surely. Things are actually going great accept for the fact that I keep on waking up around 2:00am and can't go to sleep(they told me this would happen:-)For me what I basically have is a daily reprieve based on my honesty with the men in this special privileged club of people who have freed themselves from the NASTY BALL AND CHAIN of nicotine.If you aren't willing to quit and don't really want to quit your wasting our time! Thank you for letting me have an opportunity to be apart of this Group. JOE
