Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • August 20, 2014 Twenty-one? Make it 60! Englewood recently became the first town in Bergen County to raise the tobacco purchase age from 19 to 21 -- a very small step in a very good direction. Think about it. Who still smokes? Obviously some people do, since the residential and commercial side- walks in northwest Bergen County still feature stubbed- out cigarette butts. The Surgeon General decided in the 1960s that smoking was related to cancer and heart disease, but kids kept buying cigarettes. Some of them defied death, which at their age was an abstraction. Others were into denial. “It might happen to other people but it will never happen to me.” “I can quit whenever I want to.” Read “John Barleycorn” by Jack London to meet a guy who felt that way about whiskey, and said so end- lessly, until he died of nephritis, possibly as an assisted suicide. These people who can quit whenever they want to are often the same people who never make out a will because they see it as ominous. Lung cancer was once so rare that some physicians had never seen a case. People who took chances with their health before the 20 th century and died before their time usually died of cirrhosis, sexually transmitted dis- eases, or that ol’ American killer, over-eating, also very big among the British upper classes in tandem with too much drinking. Death by smoking was sort of “new wave.” In German history, 1888 was known as “The Year of the Three Kai- sers” because Wilhelm I was succeeded by his son Frie- derich III, and Wilhelm II succeeded Friederich III, his father, after a reign of about 100 days. All three died of cancer of the lungs or throat, though both Wilhelms lived into their 80s. Wilhelm II asked Paul Ehrlich, who had discovered the cure for syphilis, to devote the rest of his life to finding a cure for cancer, the Hohenzollern family disease. Ehrlich never found it, but if Wilhelm had quit smoking cigarettes, he would have died more comfortably. Everybody thinks F. Scott Fitzgerald died of alcohol- related diseases, just as they often think he graduated from Princeton and fought in World War I -- two ideas he subtly encouraged. In fact, Fitzgerald flunked a number of courses at Princeton. He claimed football injuries, but he actually resigned due to pneumonia when it became obvious he would not graduate with his entry class, and probably would not have graduated in any case. Fitzgerald, a descendent of Francis Scott Key, patri- otically enlisted voluntarily in the U.S. Army by taking tests that qualified him as a “90-Day-Wonder” second lieutenant after three months of training. He served as a supply officer during World War I, but never served overseas and was still stateside at the time of the armi- stice. Fitzgerald undoubtedly aggravated a family ten- dency to heart disease with chronic intoxication. People who knew him said he got drunk boisterously but quite easily, and his actual intake was not enormous, but his chronological death cycle began when a physician dis- covered a lesion on his lung in 1939 and he had to spend two months in bed. He had quit drinking by then, but he kept right on smoking. He also took digitalis for his heart disease, but lung troubles famously aggravate heart troubles. In 1940, at the age of 44, with cigarettes and ash trays filled with cigarette butts all around the bed, America’s poet laureate of the Lost Generation suffered three heart attacks, the last of which was fatal. Fitzgerald actually died of a combination of too much early drinking; too much smoking, which aggravated his intermittent prob- lems with tuberculosis; and a degree of depression due to a troubled career and concern over his wife Zelda’s mental health troubles. He was not killed by drinking alone, but the tobacco industry never stepped up to the plate to share credit with John Barleycorn. John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, and a number of supporting players and extras are said to have died of cancer after making “The Conquerer,” a dubious adventure movie that was filmed downwind from the site of previous nuclear tests. Some of the sand was dug up from the site and used on the indoor sound stages where “The Conquerer” was completed in Hol- lywood. Pointing to the guilt of the bombs, a number of the horses used in “The Conquerer” also died of cancer. Almost all of the human victims were heavy lifelong smokers. As with Scott Fitzgerald, the death of John Wayne looks like a split decision between cigarettes and fallout. To round things out, Humphrey Bogart, America’s favorite urban actor and another indestructible screen icon, died of cancer of the esophagus after a lifetime of heavy smoking and celebrated drinking exploits. He was 57. Demographically, cigarette smoking has prematurely killed more Americans than all the wars in our his- tory, and since most Americans before the 20 th Century smoked pipes or cigars, if they smoked at all, cigarettes played a great game of competitive homicide. Cigarettes need to be gotten rid of. They kill too many worthwhile people at too young an age, and the strain on the medical insurance is staggering. Responsible people tend not to smoke, and many heavy smokers are unin- sured -- which means the rest of us pick up the tab. Raising the legal age for tobacco purchase to 21 is a very, very small step in the right direction. Most kids learn to smoke from other kids and most kids can locate a 21-year-old friend to buy for them if they really try. At 18, some kids can pass for 21, especially if they have a friend at the cash register. We should really raise the age of purchase to 60. People over 60 may have gotten hooked as teens before the cancer factor in cigarettes became public knowledge. Quitting “cold turkey” could take real determination. Not starting to smoke cigarettes to begin with could take an act of Congress, but nobody in Congress or the White House is going to take on the cigarette lobby, so we had better do it at the state level. We had better do it soon. In the meantime, anybody caught throwing cigarette butts on public property or private property that is not their own should be slapped with a $100 fine for each butt. This would be a great source of revenue, along with speeding tickets for people who do over 40 in residential neighborhoods -- but that will be a future topic. Wyckoff Roger E. Clarke Golf Classic set Participants in the Oct. 2 Roger E. Clarke Golf Classic will enjoy a round of golf while they support the spe- cial needs programs at the Wyckoff Family YMCA. This year’s event will be held at the Hackensack Golf Club in Oradell and will feature a lunch buffet, a shotgun start at noon, an auction, prizes and giveaways, and an evening cocktail reception. This year’s honorary co-chairs are Tony and Mary Yorio. Mary has dedicated her married life to her six children, her husband, and service to the community. She is a graduate of the school of nursing at Pace Uni- versity. After working at Phelps Memorial Hospital, her career turned to raising her six children and serving the community. Those efforts include volunteering at the Pro-Life ministry at Saint John’s R.C. Church, assisting in fundraising efforts at the school of Saint John’s, vol- unteering at Eva’s Village soup kitchen, and serving as a driver for Meals on Wheels. Anthony is a graduate of Pace University’s business program. His career evolved from sales to management to ownership of a small business in Westchester County, New York. Also involved in community service, he has coached girls’ softball, youth baseball, and Special Olym- pics basketball. He also volunteers at Eva’s Kitchen. Married 34 years, the Yorios have six children, one grandson, and two grandchildren on the way. Two of their children are active participants in the Wyckoff Y’s 21+ and Shining Star Express programs. This year’s Roger E. Clarke Golf Classic sponsors include Phelps Construction Group, Inserra Supermar- kets Shop Rite of Ramsey, Columbia Bank, Big Color, the Brian Saxton Family, and Marlow Park Storage. For details, or to register for the outing, call Nancy Addis at (201) 891-2081 or nancya@wyckoffymca.org.