Progress Comes To Nashville

WooHoo!!!!!!!

Nashville's restaurants and workplaces are now smoke-free, courtesy of the Tennessee State Legislature!

When I first moved to the Nashville area in 2002, I was shocked at how many people smoked. I previously had lived in Memphis and North Mississippi, where most of my co-workers and friends had given up smoking years before.

In Nashville, seeing people walking down the street smoking was quite common, but I was amazed at the sight. Then I realized--I was now in tobacco-growing country instead of cotton-growing country.

I am a non-drinker but I do enjoy listening to live music. Here I am in Music City USA and my listening pleasure has been curtailed because of cigarette smoke. I have asthma and am seriously affected by smoke to the point that just smelling it on someone's clothes can send me into an hour-long coughing frenzy. Not to mention that sometimes my eyes swell shut from it, too.

Now I can finally go to Robert's Western World on Lower Broadway, home of traditional country music in Nashville!

Thank you, Tennessee State Legislators, for the gift of health and enjoyment!