My Story – I Left The One Thing Had Gotten Me Through

I started chewing at the age of 12. You all know how the story goes, me and a buddy “hey look what I got”, “you do it like this”, “don’t swallow it, gulp”. I puked and the next day I was figuring out how to get my own. Well here I am 31 years later. 31 years, 75% of my life that I have chewed that shit.

I didn’t write an intro, I didn’t post very often other than roll, so here is my story. I was going into 7th grade when I started, by the end of 7th grade most of my friends were chewing Hawken. Throughout high school I chewed skoal, and dabbled in leaf tobacco. I had tried most types and brands and had settled on Cope.

After high school I started working with my father doing construction, chewing like a madman. I met my first wife had a daughter. I moved jobs, I started working at a cutlery in the forge room, still chewing like a madman. Started thinking about quitting then, and along came my first divorce. Cope got my through that, it got me through becoming an every other weekend dad to my 1 year old daughter. Rough years!!!

Shortly after my divorce I started working as a full time EMT. That was a great job, chewed all the time. Met my second wife, rebound, ended badly several years later. Cope got me through it all. No matter how bad my life was, no matter how low my self esteem, fucking Cope man, it was always there like my best friend. Problem was my gums were falling apart, and it has gotten expensive. .65 cents when I started now almost $8.

Well my dream job came along, career firefighter medic. I also met my present girlfriend, well now fiance. When I started at the FD I switched from Cope to Griz it is about half the cost. My fiance really got on me about quitting when we met. I made it clear to her that, that wasn’t gonna happen, no matter what happened to me throughout the years my tin had always been there and I had no intention on quitting. Now we have been together a few years, I’m a bad boyfriend I don’t know how long, but a few years. We got engaged and decided to have a child before getting married due to my age. I still remember sitting in the hospital holding my newborn son, big chew in my lip, trying to hide my spitters because the hospital is tobacco free. My sons 1st year birthday was coming up, he had been crawling for some time. One day he crawled up to me in my chair and he was covered in the shit that I was putting in my lip. It was all over his clothes and hands, in his mouth, on his face. Well, I gotta tell ya, if that doesn’t open your eyes, I’m not sure what will. My buddy otherwise known as Wnnr78 HOF 12/7/12, he sent a link to KTC to my boss, who forwarded it to me.

On Sept 15th I joined KTC and on my sons 1st birthday 9/18 I quit chewing. I left the one thing had gotten me through the last 31 years. The one thing I could turn to any time of day, any type of weather, no matter what my mood, it was there. Breaking the bank, making my breath smell like a dirty ass, ruining my gums, killing my taste buds, KILLING ME!!!!!!!!! Here I am 100 days into my quit. For my fiance , my daughter, my son and FOR ME. I quit!!!!!!! I quit forever, this is my promise to all my family and my fellow DFD’s on the DEC Crew, never again will I put that shit in my mouth. For Christmas my 15month old son gave me a gold KTC coin with my quit date engraved on the back. I almost cried. Best 100 days of my life, thank you Wnnr78, thank you KTC, thank you Dec Crew and thank you very very much to my family.

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member P56