Posted by Paul on 6/7/2012, 10:44 am, in reply to "Re: Chaining mother of asthmatic boy"
75.34.199.117
I remember the way my mom used to smoke in the car. Always with the windows up, and especially in the winter we would go out every cold morning so she could start and warm up her old Ford Galaxy. She would always light a cigarette before walking out of the house. We would get in her car, I had to always get in the back, and she would sit there for a few minutes pumping the gas pedal with her Marlboro 100 dangling from her lips, it would bounce in rythm with her pumping. She would take long deep drags. She would always keep the cigarette in her mouth because the car had a manual choke so she had to turn the key and pull the choke out at the same time, only stoping to ash the cigarette in the always overflowing ashtray. After about 5 minutes of her trying to start the car, the inside was so full of smoke. She would put her first cigarette out in the ashtray, push in the lighter and get another cigarette out. This ususally went on for about 15 minutes, and she would smoke atleast 4 cigarettes before she got the car started, more on really cold mornings because the car took longer to start. One morning it was below zero, and she smoked more that day. The car just would not start and she would talk to me with that cigarette dangling from her lips that it will start it will start, but this morning she couldn't get it going, she smoked 6 cigarettes, the whole time pumping and cranking it. The ashtray was so full the butts were falling on the floor, and there was so much smoke inside the car my eyes were watering. Later that morning she told me to get my coat on, she was going to to try and get it started because she needed to go to the store because she was running low on cigarettes. Again cigarette in her mouth we got in the car and she started her routine of pumping the gas pedal, this time more aggressively, and I could tell she was getting nervous because she was double pumping that cigarette with each drag. After a while she turnd and looked at me in the back seat, cigarette in her mouth and said that she had flooded it really bad, and that it might not start. She tried a few more times inhaling deeper and deeper, ashing in the ashtray, pumping the pedal as hard and as fast as she could. Even with the smell of the cigarette smoke I could smell the gasoline from the engine inside the car. She really flooded it this morning. The next day she got me up early and we made our way out to the car. As soon as she opened the door the stale cigarette smoke from the day before hit you. I kind of liked that smell along with the perfume she wore. This day she did her same routine again, but this time she did not use the choke so she was turning the key, it was on the left side of the steering column, with her left hand and holding her cigarette with her right hand, taking long deep drags while cranking, she even ashed into the ashtray as she was pumping and cranking. After about 5 minutes it was acting like it wanted to start, her pumping and smoking were again aggressive, and all of a sudden she got it started. She looked at me with a smile lit another cigartee and said how lucky we were, you see she was down to her last 7 cigarettes, the day before she smoked over 2 packs, usually she smoke around 2 packs a day. While the engine was warming up she said to wait in the car whild she dumped the full ashtray, lord knows it would be overflowing again in a couple of days.
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