To the editor:

Here are my two cents worth on the smoking ban:

1. I can’t tell you how pleased I am and how wonderful it is to be able to walk into a restaurant with my husband and two small children, be able to be seated with minimal wait and have a meal without smelling like smoke afterward. We go out to eat an average of once or twice per week, and it is a pleasure not to have worry about someone else’s smoke ruining our dinner.

2. As for the Hereford House doing poorly, my opinion echoes that of all the other letters this week in the newspaper. So I have a feeling that the decreased business does not have much, if anything at all, to do with the smoking ban.

3. My husband enjoys playing poker, and it has been great to have him come home from an occasional foray to the poker pub not smelling like he rolled in an ashtray.

4. On a date with my husband last Friday evening we walked down Massachusetts Street, and I looked everywhere for the supposed mess that smokers are leaving behind. Granted it was only 10 p.m., but around all the throngs of people standing around smoking, I failed to see the heaps of butts I was expecting. The bar inside the restaurant we were in seemed to be doing good business regardless of not being able to accommodate smokers.

So keep up the good work, Lawrence, and support the smoking ban!

Melanie Farney,

Lawrence