American Maven Lady: Lung Cancer Epidemic Mystery

1978 Virginia Slims magazine ad. The image at the top is a photograph of a woman hanging laundry outside. The ad text reads: "Back then, every man gave his wife at least one day a week out of the house. You've come a long way, baby. Virginia Slims – Slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke." Wikipedia

Elle in her riding gear with a cigarette

Part of Marv's attraction to Elle was their love of athletic endeavors, adventure and activity. As a young woman in high school and afterwards Elle maintained her interests in anything she could from swimming to riding horses. Although she grew up in the center of the city with plenty of cement she was exposed to horses when she was a little girl. Her mother Mildred made an effort to take Elle to the country and anyplace where Elle could experience new activities. Elle loved animals especially horses and dogs.

The young girl Elle riding horses

My mother Elle preserved her love for animals and athletics and continued riding well into her adulthood. The photo above shows her in her riding pants with the proverbial cigarette in her hand. My recollections growing up were that most of the adults in my world smoked cigarettes. It was the thing to do and there was never any mention or apparent consideration that smoking could be detrimental to one’s health.

Adults smoked and the only scandal was if a little kid was caught smoking because it was an activity reserved for adults. Adult conversations across tables or rooms were laced with puffs, inhales and the stream of smoke blown out of their mouths between sentences. Everyone carried a pack of cigarettes and matches the way someone carries their glasses or contact lens case. It was fashionable for women to have leather clutch containers that held a cigarette pack inside and had a separate front pouch where a book one could slip a book of matches or a lighter. I’ll never forget the rituals of opening the case, removing and lighting a cigarette and observing the pleasure revealed as the first taste of smoke came through the lips. It was accepted, classy and the norm.

Another reason so many people smoked was because most Hollywood stars did it on the movie screen and later on television. The regular sitcoms showed stars like Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnez lighting cigarettes. The cool macho guys like John Wayne nearly always had a cigarette in their mouths. My dad smoked at least a pack of Pall Mall's every day. Pall Malls and Camel were manly brands without any filters. They were just the tobacco in a wrapper similar to the home rolled kind.

I remember my own family and the people I saw in movies and on TV cherishing their cigarettes. That was part of everyday life and social rituals like having tea or coffee. There was a barage of television commercials advertising the pleasure of smoking. When the women's movement started taking hold in America in the seventies there were commercials targeted to the newly liberated woman who had come such a long way that she had her own long, slim feminine cigarette. I can still sing the jingle "You've come a long way baby to get where you got to today. You've got your own cigarette now baby...you've come a long long way!"

Nowadays the #1 cancer for American women is not breast but lung cancer. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason to many forms of cancer but especially lung cancer at epidemic levels in women who never smoked themselves. I wonder if we adult women may be experiencing the repercussions of growing up in environments where second hand smoke was ever present.