I don't remember when I
first became infatuated with the concept of smoking. I was raised in
a family where smoking was forbidden. I was brought up in a religion
where smoking was forbidden and I suppose that is where my desire to
smoke originated. Being born in the 50s I was right in the middle of
America's fixation on smoking. R.J. Reynolds and the boys were just
getting a good handhold on the population. A country which was just
minimally smoking following World War I really got the habit in the
second great war as did those who produced cigarettes and push them
on the soldiers in Europe and elsewhere.
I didn't have a chance.
Smoke laced every television show I loved from from I love Lucy to My
Three Sons everyone smoked. Granted, Fred McMurray just smoked a pipe
but smoke is smoke and I wanted to smoke every chance that I got. My
best friends, the Cantrells were Roman Catholic and their dad smoked
which I thought was the coolest thing ever. I love the smell of his
pipe which permeated the house and overwhelmed me each time I
entered. On those nights I slept over on weekends we would lay on the
floor and watch the color TV (they are the only people in the world
had a color television) Mr. Cantrell had this great green overstuffed
recliner. A pipe rack sat next to the chair with four or five pipes
waiting to be filled, lit and puffed. There was a lamp just over the
right side of the recliner and when Mr. Cantrell lit his pipe I was
mesmerized by Jets of blue smoke leaving his face.
John Cantrell, my best
friend, and I read Mark Twain's greats Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
Finn both documents illustrating the joys of kids smoking. The
characters smoked corn cob pipes we made corncob pipes, we cured
cornsilk and hollyhock leaves since we did not have access to
tobacco. Cornsilk smokes quick and hot and rather do hollyhock leaves
and if you don't have hollyhock leaves any dried leaf will do. Mr.
Cantrell smokes cigarettes and he worked we stole cigarettes with it
we could. In the old days cigarettes were sold right from the grocery
store there always rows of cigarettes right behind the cash register
easy pickings. I had to be careful many of the cigarettes is not
almost all that I could get a hold of were non-filters and the
tobacco would always get on your teeth which is a dead giveaway to
parents who are hypervigilant about the kids smoking. I always got
caught so I did not smoke that much the penalty was too high.
Once I was away from home
is not often on over the decades of my life. My last bout of smoking
occurred with my last marriage. I smoked off and on a little before
we got together but afterwards we smoked a lot. We were often on and
towards the end of the marriage I had given up smoking again
primarily because I was fairly addicted (which I hate addiction of
any sort) and when I would smoke too much I would get this rattling
in my chest which scared me. It came across a number of folks as
emphysema and of course lung cancer which are great deterrents. The
chest rattling seem to me the greater of the two deterrents – – I
can see smoking leading directly to emphysema which I think has most
helped me quit.
I got on this tangent
about smoking because yesterday somewhere I remember telling somebody
how much I love to smoke. This is true, after everything I've
written, I love to smoke and I would still be smoking is not for the
chest rattles and fear of the rattles becoming more significant and
deadly. I know smoking is stupid and I doubt that I will smoke again
but still the fascination with the chest full of blue smoke jetting
from my nose lingers on…
No comments:
Post a Comment