Land of Oz

Cigarettes

I've been watching DVDs of some older television shows and one that stands out in many of them is the amount of smoke and smoking that happens. A lot of scenes in Peter Gunn take place in nightclubs and the clouds of smoke seem almost unreal now.

This all brings to mind my smoking days - which I stopped doing about 20 years ago. At the time I quit I was up to about 3 - 4 packs a day. Back when I started, cigarettes were about 30 cents a pack (and gas was around 25 cents a gallon). Now I see cigarettes around $4-5 a pack. Cigarettes were everywhere. My desk in the USAF had a big round, amber colored glass ashtray on it. The seat rests in airplanes and buses had ashtrays in their armrests. Zippo lighters were ubiquitous and boxes containing books of matches could be found on many checkout counters in restaurants and drugstores. (And what would a gumshoe film be without the matchbook clue found at the scene?)

For me a big reason for smoking was just another useless part of trying to be cool. I can remember rolling my pack into the sleeve of my t-shirt (how cool was that?) and the occasional chemical burns on my thigh when my trusty Zippo leaked. The disastrous fling with Silva Thins and a cigarette case ala 007. Was the Marlboro man cooler than the urban hip of Silva Thins? (eventually to me, yes). And of course, who could get drunk without a pack of smokes on the bar?

And there were other mysteries and odd stories about smoking. Smoking a Lucky (LSMFT) and getting tobacco in your mouth (filterless remember). Were the cigarettes in Marlboro hard pack really different from the cigarettes in the soft pack? How cold did it have to be before the cigarette started to taste really strange. Drinking a beer or Coke that had had a butt put out in it. Putting out your cigarette in the mashed potatoes at the end of a meal. Dropping a cigarette between your legs while driving. Why did English Marlboros taste so bad compared to the US version. The "friend" who was always bumming smokes. Playing pinball with the cigarette balanced on the chrome strip at the bottom of the table. Long cigarette burns on the upholstery, rugs and clothes. Knocking a full ashtray to the floor. The mess of water socked butts in an outdoor ashtray.

And you know? Twenty years later without a smoke and I still the get the urge now and then.