Smoke On The Water

They say that there's nothing worse than a reformed reformer.  For almost two months, I've been guilty of being "that person".  I am proud to report that I quit smoking and, amazingly, had very little trouble doing so. 

I always believed that I was horribly addicted to nicotine and would need to serious rehabilitation or hypnosis in order to overcome the urge to smoke.  I was happily surprised when I discovered the book , The Easy Way To Stop Smoking by Allen Carr.  Not only did this book make me want to quit, it actually made me happily anticipate how good I was going to feel after I did so.  Since it was so easy for me, I want to shout it from the rooftops and try to get the world to quit smoking.  For now, I'll start with promoting it from my little blog!

Now that I am a non-smoker, I can smell nasty cigarette smoke from a mile away - especially when I'm sitting on the beach.  Nothing is worse than having the wonderful smell of salt air and sand interrupted by cigarette or cigar smoke.

In Old Timey Days, smoking on the beach was so cool!

Fortunately, the DE/MD resort towns all have new laws when it comes to smoking in public.  For those of you who choose to smoke, here are the rules:


Ocean City, MD:  Smokers must smoke within 15 feet of the 153 designated receptacles on the beach and 15 feet off of the boardwalk.  The entire OC boardwalk is a smoke-free zone.  The smoking ban applies to cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, pipes, or any matter or substance that contains nicotine.  Fines of up to $500 can be imposed on violators.




Ocean City's fancy new orange smoking barrels

Fenwick Island, DE:  By Ordinance, The Town of Fenwick Island does not allow
the burning of a cigarette, cigar, pipe or other matter or substance that contains tobacco on its beach or in its parks.  There is a $100 fine for each violation.

Bethany Beach, DE:  This was the first resort town in the area to put a no-smoking ordinance in to place.  You cannot smoke anything anywhere on  the beach or boardwalk.  Violators can be fined by Bethany Police (lifeguards don't usually police smoking on any of the beaches).  It looks like smoking is still legal on the beach in South Bethany Beach (for now), but they're asking that you kindly pick up your butts when you leave the sand.

Dewey Beach, DE:  Smoking is banned from the beach and town parks.

Rehoboth Beach, DE:  No smoking anything (cigarettes, cigars, e-cigs, pipes, etc) on the beach except in designated areas (not sure where they are), the bandstand, town parks, or on the boardwalk.  You're also not allowed to feed the seagulls (never knew that).

I would just assume that you shouldn't be lighting up anything on any beach or boardwalk in DE/MD, unless you see a sign telling you that it's o.k. to do so.  And, although these towns threaten hefty fines for violations, most of them admit during press interviews that they will give people verbal warnings and expect smoking visitors to be "self-policing". 

Now - if only the resort towns could ban these:

Enjoy the sunny and warm weather this week.  As they say on the boards (usually on a camouflage print T-Shirt), "Suns Out Guns Out"!