When I finally stopped smoking....

When I did finally quit smoking in 1968, I motivated myself with money! My wife and I quit and saved about 50 cents a day, $15 a month.

The first month or two we used the money by spending it on frivolous stuff, just so we would stay motivated to stay the course. I have no idea what we did, but probably went out to dinner, and in those days, $15 would do it!

In order to generate more significant funds, I involved about 10 to15 or so of my "best friends", and started a stock club. I thought that it seemed like a good idea, and because I knew a diverse group of people, maybe I could get them together and we’d make some money and have some fun.

We met monthly and everyone put in $15 a month. We found a broker that one of the guys knew, and we were off and running.

I had some teachers who had worked with me in Howard County, MD, a few activists from an inter-racial group I belonged to (and founded) plus a few others, not quite in my memory. I don’t think we had any women involved with the club, but we did some dinners and parties with all the spouses somewhere along the way.
There is no great lesson to be learned here except we kept going for about three years and had the most diverse membership I could ever imagine.

In the end, we split the funds and came out a bit ahead, and I remember I bought a nice camera and some other great stuff.

Now I realize we should have kept it going!