Since everyone in my home smoked cigarettes except my mom (too busy and there was the cost), the urge to smoke or at least try increased as the time moved forward.
This was about the time the Marshall brothers moved into the neighborhood and, being of the same age, we seemed to have the same urge. We had a problem though. We were not close to a store or old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes, so how were we gonna know if we really were interested or not? I am not sure who came up with the plan but we did the following. We would go out into the woods and look for dried out rag weed stems of good size. Then we broke the stem into the approximate length of a cigarette, hollow out the pithy part and find a very dry leaf and crumble it up and stuff it into the stem. Then with a book of matches that one of us would borrow and light our home made smoke. This was done many times as we were having trouble finding a leaf that didn’t cause us to feel sickly. When we used a dried tobacco leaf we decided it was the worst we had tried, and we tried every leaf we could find.
Now this procedure neither enticed us nor deterred us from wanting to smoke. As we grew older we found ways to obtain some smokes and discovered that other than coughing a lot smoking wasn’t so bad and it made us feel very mature. Before I was 17 my dad set me down one morning and gave me the smoking is bad talk. He did this with a cigarette in his hand and the smoke swirling above his head. Honestly this killed any effectiveness that was in his speech. Not only did I take up smoking I was a very heavy smoker and reached 4 packs a day before I one day told myself it was time to stop. Fortunately I did and glad I did but I do understand just how a good smoke can be.
Now over all these years I will tell you I have tried all forms of tobacco use except dip as I don’t remember it being around when I was a teen. I smoked cigars and a pipe, which really gave me that distinguished look. I tried chewing tobacco (Beechnut as it was the sweetest in taste) but didn’t like it at all as I was afraid that I would get to focused on the sweet taste and forget and swallow and I have seen what happens to someone who does that. I did chew long green when we were stripping tobacco. A stripping room becomes very dusty when in use and chewing a leaf straight off the tobacco plant would help in cutting the dust out of my throat. Also it was bitter and harder to chew into juice and greatly reduced the chances of swallowing.
As for dip I just don’t understand why a person wants to do it. The difference between dip and chew is chew is shredded and must be chewed to extract the flavor where dip is shredded and all one has to do is put a pinch between the cheek and gum. A person doesn’t have to work to get the nicotine out like all the other mentioned products. Ah today’s generation I guess is wanting everything to come to them easier.
I am talking about tobacco because I have used it and raised it and in my case quit using it. Yes, there is a calming feeling when in use. I just had to have a smoke after a meal. Relaxing, I guess. My excuse is I started before they put the surgeon general’s warning on the side of the packs. With smoking comes all the paraphernalia needed, such as a lighter and ash tray, and there is the ashes and the odor left after the smoke is done and I never noticed this until I quit. As for chewing there is no way anyone can honestly say it isn’t a dirty habit. I guess I grew up around too many old farmers that chewed and there always was spit around the mouth and down the chin.
One of the biggest recollections was of my grandpa Houser. He loved to chew and in those days big time wrestling came on at noon on the TV. Grandpa never missed it and even though he claimed it to be fake he almost pounded the arms off of the chair. Grandma Houser never said a word but when he was done with the newspaper she covered the floor under and all around his spittoon. He was a poor aim to begin with but during Big Time Wrestling he never hit the spittoon at all. This is just my strongest recollection of why chewing ain’t cool these days.
Now there are many anti-smoking organizations out there and I do not belong to a one of them. I am just looking back and recalling that in the 50s 60s and even the 70s things were so different then as they are now and it is very hard to argue a positive case for tobacco usage in this day and age. But as long as we live in a country where freedom is still here a person still has that right to make the decision for their self. So enjoy either direction you choose but please be sure to place a lot of newspaper around a spittoon!
Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and likes to tell stories about his youth and other topics. He may be reached at houser734@yahoo.com.