I grew up during the 1950’s, which were for the most part, my formative years. In those days I was very impressionable. I would imagine and dream as any other small boy would of my heroes. Some of these were movie stars, cowboys or even sports figures. It was not unusual for me to lose myself in a movie or even a radio program. To say that kids are not influenced by personalities in those mediums is ludicrous. I recall sitting in front of the radio, enthralled with a very suspenseful program. When the villain jumped out from behind a curtain, I stabbed myself in the shoulder with a pair of scissors. This was not a scratch. It was a deep wound, which created a scar that I have carried to this day.
It was not unusual for children, especially young boys, to emulate persons that they saw on movies or television. For the most part, this was a harmless pastime. Most celebrities understood that they were role models and accepted this responsibility. Also, movies were made that were acceptable for viewing by family audiences. As a result, the most violence that might reasonably be expected from what we viewed might be a game of cowboys and Indians or G-men versus the bad-guys. This was never more than harmless fun. There was never a thought that this might cause kids to be violent. Parents bought cap guns for their sons. I have never seen a connection made which showed that these kids had a higher propensity for violence in later life.
One thing that did have a big influence on me however, was the use of the fragrant weed. I first heard this term used by Jesse Stuart in his book, “Hie To The Hunters.” This was a story about a city boy who ran away from home and lived with a mountain family. The fragrant weed referred to was tobacco. All the characters in the mountain family used tobacco. They rolled it into homemade cigars and pipe tobacco, and they smoked it. They also chewed it.
At this time, little was known about the dangers of using tobacco. It was very popular and socially acceptable to smoke or use tobacco. All the movie stars smoked. In fact, movies glorified smoking. The most famous part in the Bette Davis movie, “Now Voyager” revolved around her lover lighting two cigarettes at once and giving one of them to her. There were no warning labels on cigarette packs. There were few restrictions on the use. You could smoke almost anywhere. It wasn’t unusual for people to smoke in public. Almost everyone did. There was no stigma attached to smoking as there is nowadays. So it is easy to see how a young boy might want to give it a try.
I remember that we played games that sometimes involved smoking to appear more grown-up. Most parents didn’t want their kids to pick-up smoking too early. I don’t think they were concerned that they might eventually smoke, but that they might start too early. This then required that we use covert means to further our smoking. We would hide and smoke. Cigarettes were hard to come by without stealing them from our parents. Unfortunately, my mom didn’t smoke. We generally didn’t have the money to buy them, so were tried substitutes. This ran the gamut from corn silk to rabbit tobacco. I remember the first pack of cigarettes that I ever purchased. It was a pack of Cavalier. I paid 25 cents for the pack. Little did I know what lay in store for me as a result of my later acquiring the habit.
I continued to flirt with cigarettes off and on until I was 13. That year I spent the summer in Louisville visiting with my aunt and uncle. While there, I was taught how to inhale by my cousin. I returned to Wallins Creek with a cigarette habit. I smoked regularly for many years after that. Even though a pack of cigarettes sold for 25 to 50 cents a pack through that time period, it was hard to come up with the money for a pack. Many times I used lunch money to buy cigarettes instead. There were lots of other boys in similar circumstances, which led to a lot of bumming. Most everyone bummed. It was hard to refuse someone when they asked for a cigarette. To do so would have resulted in your being considered stingy. After all it was hard to conceal the fact that you had cigarettes. A quick glance would usually reveal if you had them. The most popular places to carry them were in your shirt pocket, rolled up in the top of your shirtsleeve or inside the top of your sock. If you tried to carry them in your pants pocket, they usually ended up getting crushed. The only other really legitimate reason to refuse someone was if you only had one left. It was socially acceptable to never surrender your last one. Bumming got so bad that I sometimes carried a small string tied sack of tobacco with the papers. When someone asked you for a cigarette, you could give him the makings for a roll-your-own. This was very rarely accepted. There were too many other fish in the sea.
Another commonplace practice was to ask someone smoking for “Ducks.” I don’t know how that term came to be used. I found out only after leaving Wallins that the correct term was “Butts.” Either way it was a nasty practice. Someone smoking a cigarette would be required to save the last of his cigarette for the one calling “Ducks.” When doing this you sometimes had to watch the smoker to be sure that they didn’t forget. Sometimes more than one person would share a cigarette. When that happened, you had to be alert to keep the other smokers from hot-boxing it. This was taking too many long quick drags, which caused the fire to grow long and make the cigarette very hot.
Some of the brands that I smoked were the strongest. A couple of these were Camels and Lucky Strikes. As you probably know, these were non- filters. Remember the game you played with the Camel pack. Under the label at the top of the package was a hidden letter of the alphabet, usually an H or a C. We called these “Hits or Cracks.” You would challenge someone to hits or cracks. The person with the correct guess got to either hit or crack the other person on the arm. Do you remember what the letters LSMFT meant, that were on the Lucky Strike pack? There were also a few unauthorized versions of what the letters stood for. Since this story is intended for general audiences, I won’t elaborate. I finally kicked the habit at age 30. I have happily been a non-smoker since then.
Chewing tobacco was a different story. I first started chewing when I was a little kid. I recall the first chew I ever took was Apple plug chewing tobacco. Unfortunately for me I managed to swallow it while playing baseball. Do I need to describe what happened next to “Old Lightning?” You guessed it. Everything started spinning, my stomach turned inside out, I turned green and I puked my guts out. You might have thought that I learned my lesson then and there. Not so. It would take more than that to keep “Old Lightning” from being one of the boys. I recovered, and eventually tried it again. This time I managed to keep from swallowing it. Soon I was a regular chewer. Chewing turned out to be the hardest habit to break. I chewed off and on for many years. What a nasty habit. I eventually quit a few years ago. I haven’t missed smoking, but I still sometimes crave a chew. As it turns out, “The Fragrant Weed” in reality turned out to be, “The Unfriendly Weed.”
