Today’s word is penchant which is a noun that means inclination; decided taste; a strong liking.
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She never actually liked smoking, although she started at 17. To her it was a normal, grown up activity, since her parents and every single adult relative she came in contact with smoked, and since her parents disapproved of her starting, it was a most acceptable way to be both cool and defiant.
A pack of Marlboro’s, the cigarette of choice for most of the kids her age, were not especially costly in the 70’s, and it took quite some time to smoke an entire pack, but she liked being part of a group, albeit smokers, and she found she could always ingratiate herself to others in the group if she had cigarettes available to “borrow”, even though she knew they would never pay her back.
She had been smoking several years before she actually started inhaling the fumes, and not long after, the drill sergeant’s “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” helped firmly entrench a penchant for nicotine in her brain. But by then it wasn’t just a group activity with friends as much as something she did while doing other associated things, like drinking coffee, or driving, or while typing at work, or drinking at bars.
By the time she finally quit, 13 years later, for the third and final time, she was smoking at least two packs a day, and possessed a hacking, unrelenting cough and raspy voice that reminded her of her grandmother, a woman who had been smoking all her life.
A pack of Marlboro’s, the cigarette of choice for most of the kids her age, were not especially costly in the 70’s, and it took quite some time to smoke an entire pack, but she liked being part of a group, albeit smokers, and she found she could always ingratiate herself to others in the group if she had cigarettes available to “borrow”, even though she knew they would never pay her back.
She had been smoking several years before she actually started inhaling the fumes, and not long after, the drill sergeant’s “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” helped firmly entrench a penchant for nicotine in her brain. But by then it wasn’t just a group activity with friends as much as something she did while doing other associated things, like drinking coffee, or driving, or while typing at work, or drinking at bars.
By the time she finally quit, 13 years later, for the third and final time, she was smoking at least two packs a day, and possessed a hacking, unrelenting cough and raspy voice that reminded her of her grandmother, a woman who had been smoking all her life.
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