Tuesday, 5/30

Sure, it was a highly unscientific survey. But the results back up a theory I have, and that's okay with me.

I'm often surprised when I come across people smoking on the streets of Marquette. As a county, we have the lowest percentage of people who smoke in the state (17%, I believe), but that probably goes along with the fact that we have huge groups of people living here who love exercising and spending time outdoors. Smoking usually doesn't go along with activities such as those. Therefore, it always comes as a shock to me when I'm outdoors exercising that I come across one or more people puffing away on cancer sticks, usually exhaling right before I pass them. On occasion, the number of people I see smoking doesn't jibe with the small percentage of county residents who say they light up tobacco.

Hence, my theory, and the highly unscientific survey I used to prove it..

I've noticed that when I'm out and about and come across smokers that they tend to be younger, and they often tend to be in groups. So for three weeks before NMU ended for the year I counted the numbers of smokers I came across. And then for the three weeks after NMU ended (a period that included being out & about with my in-laws this weekend) I once again counted the number of smokers whose paths I cross. And you know what?

Once NMU students left, the number of smokers I came across dropped by half.

Now like I said, it was a HIGHLY unscientific survey. I didn't have a control group, I wasn't in the same places for both legs of the survey, the weather wasn't the same, and I didn't have any kind of proper sample size. And the whole premise—that NMU students smoke—could have been totally, 100% wrong and could have been based on some kind of “bias” that exists only in my brain. So my little survey doesn't prove anything scientifically. But I, at least, chose to infer this fact from the “survey”. It's NMU students who make up, well, half of the smokers in Marquette.

I guess I find that kind of funny, especially because it seems smoking rates have been going down for younger generations for several generations now. But who knows—maybe these are kids, on their own for the first time, who want to experience all the forbidden fruits they can. Lord knows I see enough piles of vomit on the sidewalks while out running to prove that. Maybe it's just a rite of passage for them. Or maybe these students come from a place where smoking is a more accepted part of the culture than it is here. I don't have the answer for that. All I know is that there seem to be more smokers on the streets when NMU is in session. And maybe that's just because college students tend to use their feet and their bikes more than adults, and I share that space with them. Maybe the full-time Marquette County residents who smoke do so in their cars, and I just don't notice them that much.

I don't know.

Like I said, it was a highly unscientific survey that probably left more questions unanswered than answered. I just found the information that it did provide interesting. Very, very interesting.

(jim@wmqt.com), who, for whatever reason, notices weird stuff when he's out & about.