| My Mother was a Saint; she must have been to have | | | | Then there was my friend Edward whose Dad |
| put up with me and my smoking. Yeah, I was a hard | | | | worked at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store. His Dad |
| core smoker when I was around 11-12 years old. | | | | smoked an old pipe that he usually filled with crushed |
| Cigarettes? Oh no, could not afford them, but there | | | | cigars that had grown stale enough to be given to an |
| was other good smoking materials just laying around | | | | employee or thrown away. |
| for the taking. | | | | Edward would borrow, without his Dad's knowledge, a |
| Dry cedar bark crushed and rolled up in a cigar shape | | | | box of those cigars and hide it under a large rock on |
| in a piece of newspaper or printed circular worked just | | | | the hill behind his house. We would manfully light up and |
| fine. However, there was one teeny little problem that | | | | puff away, not inhaling of course, but we never |
| was a dead give away. | | | | acknowledge that fact. I don't think we ever finished |
| Take a puff and the cedar bark and newspaper | | | | smoking one, three or four puffs served to show how |
| wrapping flared up; usually slightly singeing my eye | | | | tough we were. |
| brows. | | | | Back in the 1930's almost everyone smoked. I doubt |
| When Mother saw my burned eye brows, she would | | | | the tobacco was as bad for our bodies as is that of |
| kindly ask if I had been smoking. | | | | today where so many chemicals are used. Doesn't |
| Of course I said "no", and then the fire works began. | | | | matter of course, smoking is a bad thing. |
| First she wanted to know why I had told her a fib. | | | | I quit smoking, cold turkey, in 1973; it seemed I grew |
| About the same time she also delivered a powerful | | | | tired of coughing up that yellow stuff in the morning. Or, |
| slap on my rear end with her hand, leaving me | | | | perhaps I just decided enough was more than too |
| wondering how she knew I lied. (Years later I figured | | | | much in the case of tobacco. A letter my son in junior |
| out the eye brow singeing bit). | | | | high wrote was primarily responsible for my decision to |
| Dried grape vines were also a source of smokes. Just | | | | stop smoking. |
| break off a small piece of vine about 6 inches long | | | | In late 2005, I found myself with a good case of lung |
| and light up for a strange experience. The core of the | | | | cancer as a direct result of my excessive smoking. |
| vine was hollow which allowed the heated smoke to | | | | After two thirds of my right lung was removed, |
| enter your mouth. | | | | followed by chemo, I find myself in remission for these |
| Grape vines would also flare up at times, giving Mother | | | | past two and a half years. |
| another shot at my behind. (She later told me how | | | | But as a teen ager, I really, really thought I was hot |
| much spanking me hurt her hand because many times | | | | stuff with that cigarette dangling from my lips. Too bad |
| there was some type of hard object in a rear pocket.) | | | | it takes us so long to get over that thinking! |