Mary Diane

Okeene, OK

There is a great story in my family about how my parents met. My fathers last name (and my maiden name) is Durham. My father anonymously called my (later to be) mother and said “This is BULL DURHAM would you like to go out with me?” My mother was a very proper lady and hung up on “BULL”. They later made amends, dated and married and had three children. Lo and behold when I was in high school the football boys teased me with the nickname BULL DURHAM (and they didn’t even know the above story). When I got away from home and went to OSU, curiosity set in and I tried to smoke a “BULL DURHAM” cigarette. It was disgusting and I never learned to inhale so that ended that. I am the only member of my family who has never had cancer. The others never smoked and all had unrelated forms of cancer and are deceased from cancer except one brother. The legend of how my parents met will continue, as will the abstinence of any form of tobacco. We apparently have enough risk factors already…