It’s funny how something as simple as a piece of trash can give me pause. I was getting out of my car at Walmart in Moundsville recently when I spotted it. It wasn’t hard to miss as it was literally placed at my feet.

There it was — an empty package of Marlboro Lights cigarettes. I recognized the package immediately. After all, it was the brand of cigarettes I once smoked.

It’s been over 40 years since I quit the dirty, unhealthy habit. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed smoking, as did many of my friends and family members back in the 1970s. However, I wanted to start a family, and I had to do it smoke free.

It wasn’t easy to give them up. That nicotine craving is one tough cookie, but I simply threw them in the trash and haven’t looked back. It doesn’t mean that on occasion I don’t think about them. It haunts me sometimes just like when I spotted that empty pack of Marlboros.

I grew up in a household in which our dad smoked non-filtered Raleigh cigarettes. He had smoked all his adult life — even getting free smokes while serving in the Army during World War II. Sadly, the habit brought about his early demise via strokes and a compromised circulatory system.

When I first began working at the newspaper 40-plus years ago, I quickly learned that nearly everyone smoked. Even if you didn’t, you inhaled smoke all day as the newsroom was filled with it. Only after the local health department officials campaigned for smoke-free workplaces that things changed for the better.

It was difficult for many of the longtime smokers, but clean air inside the newspaper building won out. Today, I can safely say that the majority of my large family, friends and former coworkers are non-smokers. Personally, I can’t understand how anyone can afford the habit these days.

Smoking and vaping can and will cost more than just money in the end. And just so you know, I stepped over the cigarette package on the ground at Walmart and didn’t give it a second look. Someone else can throw away his or her habit.

Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.