Smoke in the City

I battle the smokes constantly in this city. I have taught my daughter how to hold her breath when she sees a cigarette in her path. I try to walk widely around smoke-infested doorfronts or groups of people lighting up. As much as I dislike it, I don't let it get the best of me, I just make do. I am also SO grateful that cigarettes are no longer permitted inside restaurants, that I am less inclined to complain when more and more smokers hit the streets.

This changed during a playgroup outing on Tuesday.

It was our first free concert of the summer season. We sat on the grass and watched a band perform and then proceeded to the Shake Shack for the most fattening and gut-wrenching food in the city...well, that's what it felt like that day, as I was STILL feeeling my burger HOURS later.

Anyway, since we were the stroller brigade, we moved some tables and chairs around so that we could negotiate our strollers and our little people. We were a large bunch....8 kids and 5 moms...1 dad joined us too. We had a long table and we were a bit isolated from the rest of the Shakers.

Towards the end of our meal I smelled smoke. I looked around for the source, and about 10 feet away, seated at two round tables were two men reading the paper and smoking cigar-like cigarettes. It would have been alright, but there was a strong breeze blowing the smoke into the faces of our pregnant mom, 3-month-old baby, and the rest of us.

I wondered if the men even noticed all the strollers, all the kids, the reproductive belly nearby...I figured if they held such little regard for themselves that they were destroying their bodies through the habit of cigarettes, that they probably didn't care about us either.

I asked kristie: should I say something? She encouraged me to with very little enthusiasm, force or expectation. I quickly jumped to my feet.

Very nicely I pointed out that we had a pregnant mom and a small baby with us and that the breeze was blowing their smoke into our lungs. I then asked if they would mind just moving their table a little farther away, and I also offered to assist in doing that. The older of the two gentlemen didn't say anything, and the younger said: "Wow."

He said it in that way that I say WOW when a bus almost (seriously almost) hits my daughter while crossing at a crosswalk with a walk sign, the way I say WOW when a pedestrian in a hurry almost (seriously almost) knocks over my 3 year old as she is doing her best to negotiate the subway stairs...the way I say WOW when I feel like one of my children is in genuine danger.

"Wow." He moved the table and I think they might have even put out their cigarettes. As much as I wanted to return the WOW (with THAT tone) to him for putting our future generation in danger, I did not, and instead we actually got up and left just a few minutes later.