108-year-old man starts smoking again
Sep 27, 2004
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A 108-year-old man has taken up smoking again, encouraged by gifts of cigars from as far away as London. Retired railroad worker Walter Breuning spoke at his birthday party Tuesday of how he reluctantly quit smoking cigars at the age of 99 because he couldn’t afford them.
After his story was widely distributed, the Great Falls man heard from people like the English cigar fan who sent two Havanas.
“They were $12 cigars and they were good,” Breuning said. “You can’t get good Havana cigars like that out here.”
He also got a birthday note and a few more cigars from a former Great Falls resident now living in Oregon.
“They were pretty good cigars, too,” Breuning said.
Fred Aimi, of Lolo, was reading newspaper stories to a group of blind neighbors when he came across an account of Breuning’s birthday. “That hurt,” Aimi said. “I like a good cigar myself.”
Aimi said he sent a box of two dozen cigars on Friday to Breuning. “At 108, they can’t do him much harm,” he said.
Cigar gifts rolling in for 108-year-old aficionado
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor
Cigar smokers around the world are responding to the plight of Walter Breuning, who reluctantly gave up smoking at age 99.
“Good cigars got so expensive I couldn’t afford them,” Breuning told the Tribune on his 108th birthday Tuesday.
“But I sure loved those cigars,” he said.
Within a couple of days, Breuning received two Havana cigars from an online reader in London.
“They were $12 cigars, and they were good,” he said. “You can’t get good Havana cigars like that out here.”
Then a former Great Falls resident, now living in Oregon, sent a couple of choice cigars with a birthday note.
“They were pretty good cigars, too,” Breuning said judiciously.
A radio station in Kansas City called to interview him about his longevity and the secrets of good living, not knowing that Breuning was jettisoning his recent good habits.
At about the same time, Fred Aimi of Lolo was reading the Tribune to a group of blind neighbors, as he has for nearly 20 years, when he came across the story of Breuning’s birthday.
“That hurt,” he said. “I like a good cigar myself.”
By Friday, Aimi also had mailed Breuning a birthday present: a box of 24 fine cigars.
“Walter got lucky,” he said. “I received a box of fine cigars to try, and I sent it on to him today (Friday).
“He should get it tomorrow and have a wonderful weekend smoking them,” said Aimi. “At 108, they can’t do him much harm.”
Breuning’s face lit up at that news.
“I guess I’ll just have to smoke them,” he said with the doleful look of a man forced to do his duty no matter how painful.
And, after nine years of good living, how did that first cigar taste?
“It was good,” he said. “Oh man, it tasted good.”
?
National attention, more stogies swamp Great Falls man, 108
It’s been quite a birthday celebration for Walter Breuning, but a little overwhelming for the no-nonsense 108-year-old.
For example, he told the Tonight Show thanks but no thanks.
It all started with sympathetic cigar smokers, touched by Breuning’s plight.
Breuning reluctantly quit smoking the same year he retired, when he was 99. “Good cigars got so expensive, I couldn’t afford them,” he told the Tribune about a week ago.
Word spread, and boxes of good cigars — and some not so good — have rolled in from all over the world.
“A cigar company in Philadelphia called and said they’d like to send me some good cigars,” Breuning said.
“Great, I said, if they’re really good. But if they’re not, don’t bother.”
The media attention has also been a little overpowering.
He’s done telephone interviews with Canadian Public Radio and with stations across North America.
“Yesterday, I talked to a gal at a radio station in Los Angeles,” Breuning said Friday. “I thought she’d never give it up.”
Jack Cafferty on CNN’s American Morning mentioned Breuning on his television show, and Rush Limbaugh remarked about the cigar-smoking centenarian on his national radio broadcast.
“And the Tonight Snow called and wanted me to come on at 10 o’clock at night,” Breuning said.
“But I wouldn’t do that.”
— Eric Newhouse
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20041003/localnews/1347100.html
