Smoking

We smoked whenever we could get cigarettes and not get caught with them. I don’t understand why, but I smoked just as much as the boys did and they got the habit and I didn’t. I was too stubborn I guess. I don’t think I ever inhaled it in my life. I don’t remember it ever making me sick.
Burl was a lot younger… he wasn’t in on that, that was Dale and I. And I don’t think Rosemary had much to do with smoking.
We’d steal them from Daddy; we never got a chance to steal them from anybody else. hehehe
I was 14 or 12 or 11 - something like that.
I had to have someone with me. I never just went and smoked by myself. I didn’t inhale it. My brothers did, but I didn’t. I didn’t get the habit. I could leave it alone or smoke it. It didn’t make any difference. I didn’t care whether I smoked it or not. And Dale got so he just had to have it.
I don’t think we had a chance to get the cigarettes all ready to go. I think we had to make our own. You remember Bull Durham. Oh, we thought we had fun. We thought it was wonderful. I smoked all I could find to smoke when I was a kid.
It didn’t stick with me. I never did smoke steady, like after a meal, have to go get a cigarette. I never did. It was more fun to sneak out behind the barn and smoke Dad’s cigarettes. It got Dale but it didn’t get me. I never smoked as an adult. I thought I was pretty smart that I could get along without it. Anybody else could smoke to their hearts content and I didn’t want to do it with them. If I took a notion I wanted to, I’d puff at it. In fact I don’t remember ever liking to smoke. I didn’t want my tongue burning. It just wasn’t something I liked to do. I just did it because other kids did. I couldn’t see any sense in smoking. And I couldn’t afford it. It cost money to smoke. I didn’t want to spend what money I could get a hold of on something like that. Now I don’t approve of it. But gee it was good when I was a kid.

Advise to my grandkids – LET IT ALONE. LET SOMEONE ELSE KICK THEIR LUNGS TO PIECES.