Gene Watkins Tried Everything for 40 Years. Walgreens Patches Finally Worked at 63.

Gene Watkins has quit smoking more times than he can count. By his best estimate, he’s made at least 15 serious attempts over four decades. Cold turkey, three separate times. Nicotine gum, twice. Hypnosis, once. A support group through his church. An herbal supplement his sister-in-law swore by. A self-help book. An audiobook. Willpower. Prayer. Desperation.

None of them stuck. Not for more than a few months, anyway. He always went back.

Then, at 63 years old, a retired high school history teacher in Tampa, Florida, he tried Walgreens brand nicotine patches. And for the first time in 40 years, he stopped smoking and stayed stopped.

“If you told me five years ago that a drugstore patch was going to be the thing that finally did it, I’d have laughed in your face. I’d tried so many things. I figured I was just one of those people who couldn’t quit. I’d accepted it. My wife had accepted it. I was going to die a smoker.”

Gene has been smoke-free for 22 months. He’s sitting on the screened-in porch of his house in Seminole Heights, a neighborhood just north of downtown Tampa. There’s a ceiling fan turning slowly, a glass of sweet tea on the table, and zero ashtrays anywhere in sight.

“Donna made me throw them all out. The ashtrays, the lighters, everything. She said, ‘If the patches work this time, I never want to see smoking paraphernalia in this house again.’ So I took them to Goodwill. I wonder if Goodwill even wants old ashtrays.”

Forty Years of Smoking

Gene started smoking at 23, in 1986. He’d just started his teaching career at a high school in Plant City, east of Tampa. He was coaching JV football and teaching American history.

“The coaching staff all smoked. The head coach smoked a pipe, which I thought was distinguished at the time. A couple of the assistant coaches smoked cigarettes. We’d have Marlboros after practice in the parking lot while the players ran their cooldown laps. Different era.”

He smoked Marlboro Reds for the first decade, switched to Marlboro Lights in the mid-’90s when he started thinking about his health, and eventually settled on Pall Mall Blues because they were cheaper.

“By the 2000s, I was spending real money on cigarettes and my teacher’s salary wasn’t keeping up. Pall Malls were about half the price of Marlboros. Same addiction, lower overhead.”

At his peak, Gene smoked a pack and a half a day. He sustained a steady pack a day for most of his adult life. Some rough math: 40 years, a pack a day, average cost maybe $6 over that entire span. That’s about $87,000.

“My wife did that math once and showed me the number. I told her to stop doing math.”

The Comprehensive History of Failure

Gene is methodical about his quit history. He taught history for 35 years, and he treats his own past with the same analytical rigor. He remembers dates and details of every serious attempt.

Attempt 1, 1992, age 29. Cold turkey. His wife Donna was pregnant with their first child, a daughter named Kayla. He figured fatherhood would motivate him. “I lasted six weeks. The longest I’d ever gone at that point. Then Kayla was born, and the stress of a newborn, the sleep deprivation, I broke. I stood in the hospital parking garage at 3 AM smoking a cigarette while my wife and baby were upstairs. Felt like the worst person alive.”

Attempt 2, 1997, age 34. Cold turkey again. Donna asked him to try once more. He made it three weeks. “I was so irritable that my students complained to the principal. A 16-year-old told me I was ‘being a jerk,’ and he was right.”

Attempt 3, 2001, age 38. Nicotine gum (Nicorette). “The gum helped with cravings but I chewed it wrong. You’re supposed to park it between your cheek and gum, not chomp on it like Dubble Bubble. I was getting too much nicotine at once and getting hiccups and nausea. Lasted about a month before I threw the gum away and went back to cigarettes.”

Attempt 4, 2004, age 41. Nicotine gum again. He learned to use it properly this time. Made it almost three months. “I replaced cigarettes with gum, but then I couldn’t stop the gum. I was chewing 15 pieces a day. When I tried to drop the gum, the cravings came roaring back. Went back to smoking because at least I knew how to manage that addiction.”

Attempt 5, 2007, age 44. Cold turkey, third time. New Year’s resolution. “I lasted 11 days. The worst 11 days of my life. My body ached, I couldn’t concentrate, I was sweating at night. My wife slept in the guest room because I was thrashing around. On day 12 I bought a pack from a gas station at 6 AM on my way to school.”

Attempt 6, 2009, age 46. Hypnosis. Donna found a hypnotherapist in Clearwater who specialized in smoking cessation. Cost $300 for two sessions. “The sessions were relaxing. The therapist was nice. He told me I’d leave his office and not want cigarettes anymore. I left his office and wanted a cigarette immediately. I smoked in his parking lot.”

Attempt 7, 2011, age 48. Church support group. “Our church offered a ‘Freedom From Smoking’ group. Eight weeks, met on Wednesday nights. Good people. We prayed together, held each other accountable. I quit for about ten weeks through the group. Then summer hit, school was out, and I was bored at home with nothing to do. I picked it back up.”

Attempts 8 through 13, 2012-2019. A blur of shorter attempts. The herbal supplement. The audiobook. A few more cold turkey runs that never made it past a week. “By this point, I’d started thinking of myself as someone who fails at quitting. That was my identity. The guy who can’t quit.”

Attempt 14, 2020, age 57. During COVID. He tried quitting during the pandemic because he’d read that smokers had worse COVID outcomes. “I was terrified. A 57-year-old smoker with high blood pressure. I was the exact profile for a bad outcome. I quit for about two months, then the isolation and anxiety of lockdown got to me. I started smoking again and hated myself for it.”

The Grandkids

Gene and Donna have three grandchildren. Kayla has two kids, ages 8 and 5. Their son Brian has one, age 3.

“The grandkids are what changed everything. Not in a Hallmark movie way where I looked into their eyes and was suddenly healed. It was more gradual than that.”

It started when his granddaughter Lily, who was 7 at the time, asked him why he always smelled different from Grandma.

“She said, ‘Grandma smells like cookies. You smell like outside.’ She meant smoke, but she didn’t have the word for it. ‘You smell like outside.’ I thought about that for weeks.”

Then his grandson Mateo, who was 2, started coughing whenever Gene held him after a cigarette. Donna noticed and started making Gene wash his hands and change his shirt before picking up the grandkids.

“That was the moment. Not that I smelled bad. Not that I was killing myself. The moment was Donna handing me a clean shirt and saying, ‘Put this on before you hold Mateo.’ The look on her face. Forty years of patience running out.”

Gene sat on this porch, the same one where we’re sitting now, and looked up “nicotine patches” on his phone. He drove to the Walgreens on Florida Avenue, bought a box of Walgreens brand 21mg patches for $38, and started the next morning.

“Why patches this time and not all the other times? Honestly? I’d never tried them. I know that sounds crazy after 14 quit attempts. But I’d gone from cold turkey to gum to hypnosis to groups to books, and somehow never tried the patch. It was the one thing I hadn’t done.”

Why This Time Was Different

Gene has thought a lot about why attempt number 15 succeeded when the first 14 didn’t. He’s a history teacher. He analyzes patterns.

“Three things were different. The motivation, the method, and the timing.”

The motivation was external and specific. In previous attempts, his motivation was abstract. “I should quit because it’s bad for me.” Abstract motivations fade when cravings hit. This time, his motivation was concrete: Mateo coughing when Gene held him. Donna handing him a clean shirt. Lily saying he smelled like “outside.”

“I could picture their faces when a craving hit. That’s way more powerful than a statistic about lung cancer. Sorry, but it is.”

The method was right for his psychology. Gene is a low-maintenance guy. Cold turkey required too much active willpower, and he’d proven 15 times that his willpower had limits. Gum required constant attention to technique. The patch was passive. Put it on in the morning, forget about it, get steady nicotine all day.

“I’m a ‘set it and forget it’ type of person. My thermostat is on a timer, my bills are on autopay, my lawn gets mowed by a service. The patch fit my personality. Stick it on, go about your day. No chewing, no timing, no technique.”

The timing aligned with retirement. Gene retired from teaching in 2023 at age 60. By the time he tried patches, he’d been retired for about a year and a half. He wasn’t in the school building where he’d smoked in the parking lot for 35 years. He wasn’t dealing with the stress of grading papers, managing a classroom, and coaching. The environmental triggers were gone.

“Teaching was stressful in ways people don’t understand until they do it. Thirty teenagers in a room, all with their own problems, all needing something from you, for eight hours a day. Smoking was my pressure valve. Without the pressure, I didn’t need the valve as badly.”

The Walgreens Patch Experience

Gene used Walgreens brand nicotine patches because that’s where he happened to drive. He didn’t comparison shop. He didn’t research brands.

“I went to Walgreens because it was on the way home. The patches were on the shelf behind the pharmacy counter. I asked the pharmacist which strength to use and she said 21mg since I smoked a pack a day. She was helpful. No judgment. Just matter-of-fact. I appreciated that.”

The 21mg patches cost $38 for a 14-day supply. He bought one box and figured he’d see how it went.

“Day one, I put the patch on my shoulder and waited for something to happen. I’d built this up in my head as a big dramatic thing. It wasn’t. The patch sat there. I went about my day. I wanted a cigarette but I didn’t need one. There’s a difference and the patch is what creates that difference.”

He describes the first week as “surprisingly manageable.” The cravings were there but muted. The patch delivered enough nicotine to prevent the worst of the withdrawal symptoms.

“Compare that to cold turkey, where I’d be a trembling mess by hour 36. With the patch, day three was easier than hour three of cold turkey. I kept thinking, ‘Why didn’t I try this 20 years ago?’”

Side effects were minor. A little redness at the patch site that he describes as “no worse than a Band-Aid mark.” Some difficulty sleeping the first few nights, which he solved by removing the patch an hour before bed.

“I didn’t get the wild dreams everyone talks about. Maybe because I took the patch off before bed, or maybe my brain is just boring. Either way, sleep was fine after the first few days.”

The Step-Down and Finishing

Gene’s timeline with the Walgreens patches:

Weeks 1-8, 21mg: “I stayed on the full dose longer than the box recommended. The box said 6 weeks. My pharmacist said 8 weeks was fine and sometimes better for heavy long-term smokers. I trusted her.”
Weeks 9-10, 14mg: “Barely noticed the difference. A slight increase in craving intensity, maybe from a 2 out of 10 to a 3 out of 10. Nothing dramatic.”
Weeks 11-12, 7mg: “Same. Easy. By this point, the habits were the hard part, not the nicotine. My body had adjusted.”
Week 13, no patch: “I forgot to put on a patch one morning, got to noon, realized I hadn’t put one on, and decided to see how the rest of the day went. It went fine. I never put another one on.”

Total cost for patches: about $155 across all three strengths over 12 weeks.

“I spent $155 to end a 40-year addiction. I was spending $200 a month on cigarettes. The math is offensive.”

Donna’s Perspective

Gene insisted I include something from Donna. She was in the kitchen when we started talking and came out to the porch when she heard what we were discussing.

“I’ll tell you what’s different this time. He’s not white-knuckling it. Every other time he tried to quit, he was miserable. Snapping at me, pacing around the house, going to bed early just to stop himself from driving to the store. This time was different from day one. He was calm. He was himself. The patches took away the suffering.”

She pauses.

“Forty years I watched him try to quit and fail. Forty years of hope and then disappointment. I stopped asking him to quit after the COVID attempt because I couldn’t take the disappointment anymore. When he came home from Walgreens with the patches, I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to jinx it. I think I waited about three months before I believed it was real.”

She made him throw out the ashtrays at the three-month mark.

The Grandkid Test

About four months into his quit, Gene picked up Mateo without changing his shirt first. He waited. Mateo didn’t cough.

“That kid sat on my lap for an hour watching cartoons and didn’t cough once. I had to leave the room because I was getting emotional and I didn’t want to scare him.”

Lily, now 8, told him recently that he smells like “Grandma now.” Like cookies. Donna bakes a lot.

“That one got me. I taught history for 35 years. I’ve given thousands of lectures. That six-word sentence from an 8-year-old is the most meaningful thing anyone has ever said to me.”

What Gene Thinks About His 14 Failed Attempts

“I don’t think of them as failures anymore. I think of them as data. Each attempt taught me something. Cold turkey taught me I don’t have the willpower to white-knuckle it. Gum taught me I need something passive, not active. Hypnosis taught me I’m not susceptible to that kind of thing. The church group taught me that accountability helps but isn’t enough alone.”

“All of that data pointed toward patches, and I just didn’t see it until attempt 15. Sometimes you have to exhaust the wrong answers before the right one becomes obvious.”

He also thinks his age played a role. Not in a negative way.

“At 63, I have less ego than I did at 30. At 30, quitting was about willpower and toughness. I was going to quit cold turkey because that’s what tough guys do. At 63, I don’t care about tough. I care about effective. The patch is effective. It’s not dramatic or impressive. It’s just a little beige square you stick on your arm. And it works.”

Gene’s Advice

“If you’ve tried to quit and failed, keep trying. Different methods, different combinations, different timing. I failed 14 times. The 15th time worked. You don’t know which attempt is going to be the one.”

“Try patches if you haven’t. Especially if you’re a long-term smoker. The steady nicotine delivery is what my body needed. None of the peaks and valleys of gum or lozenges. Just a constant, slow drip that kept the withdrawal at bay.”

“The Walgreens brand worked fine. I’m sure NicoDerm CQ works fine too. I’m sure the Amazon ones and the CVS ones all work fine. They’re all delivering the same nicotine. Don’t overthink the brand. Just buy a box and start.”

“If you’re older and you’re thinking it’s too late: it’s not. I quit at 63 after smoking for 40 years. My doctor says my lung function has already improved. My blood pressure is down. My resting heart rate is lower. The body recovers at any age. It recovers slower when you’re older, but it recovers.”

“And find your Mateo. Find the specific, concrete, personal reason that hits you in the chest. Not ‘smoking is bad for me.’ That’s true but it’s not motivating enough. Find the thing that makes you feel something. For me, it was a toddler coughing when I held him. Find yours.”

For more about nicotine patch options for long-term smokers and how to choose the right quit method, check out our other guides. And if you’ve tried multiple methods like Gene, our article on why previous quit attempts failed might help you figure out what to try next.

Gene finished his sweet tea while we talked. Donna brought out cookies. The porch smelled like baking and Florida humidity. No smoke.

“Forty years. Fifteen attempts. One little patch from Walgreens. You just never know what’s going to be the thing that works.”