In some ways, either you do like or do not like tobacco. And if you do like it, chances are you really like it.
Unfortunately, and for better or worse, I am a life-long tobacco lover. For as long as I can remember, I have had some form of tobacco at my side for which to enjoy, and “what were once vices are now habits” (Doobie Brothers).
When I came along as a youth in the 1970s, tobacco use was widespread and popular. Smokers and tobacco users were unafraid and unapologetic. And no wonder. Absent were the warnings that adorn every package of any tobacco products these days. “No Smoking” signs were seldom seen and few and far between. More people smoked in public places than didn’t, and if a non-smoker had a problem with it, they really didn’t have the law behind them.
My first experience smoking cigarettes was intense, but short-lived. I would smoke packs of cigarettes with my friends down the street behind the post office in broad daylight (as early as fourth grade). We thought we were cool, but did not inhale. Health-wise that was a good thing. The bad thing was that our clothes surely reeked. I realized that one day upon arriving home and giving my mother a hug. That was the end of that, and I didn’t smoke again until high school.
However, leaf tobacco products like Red Man and Levi Garrett, among others, were prevalent, and by the time junior high school rolled around, there was another product by which to be tempted. Chewing tobacco in the form of snuff (smaller and chopped up/minced sizes of tobacco) became popular, and my friends and I were not immune to its social pull from peers and advertising. If it was cool enough for professional football player Walt Garrison (“Just a pinch between your cheek and gum”), it was cool enough for me. After lunch one day in seventh grade and before English class, I decided to emulate an eighth grader who was known for packing in a big “dip” and do the same. That meant about a half-tin of Skoal between my cheek and gum. Twenty-five minutes later my head was on my desk in English class and the room was spinning. And that was the end of that.
For a few years.
In high school, smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco became intertwined. One might be available when another was not. Rules and regulations around tobacco use had stiffened slightly, but still it was widely accepted, especially smoking. High schools had “smoking blocks,” and whether you needed permission to smoke or not, the convenience of it was superior to chewing. To “smoke a butt” might take you five minutes tops. Yes, it smelled and the smoke was a dead giveaway to your vice, but it was a quick fix if and when you needed it. Dipping and chewing tobacco was more tolerated in some cases, but took longer, could be messy, and your location to indulge was somewhat limited. Chewing tobacco in boarding school was a second resort for me since my parents would not give me smoking permission. That was a mistake: the trouble you could get into if you were caught smoking far outweighed the potential health risk posed when you were 15-18 years old. Dipping was tolerated in class and we would use make-shift Coke cans with the tops fully cut open so as to be used as a spittoon. My friends in the dorm room next door had spittoons galore and newspapers spread throughout the floor, though it was a good thing they had a brown rug due to potential and often spittoon spillage. Still, though, I would sneak a cigarette every now and then.
The tables turned during my long tenure in college. While I still dipped every now and then (mostly as a way to temporarily quit smoking), I smoked all the time. Short of being addicted, I was a big nighttime smoker. Since cigarettes are to me and others the perfect compliment to a beer or drink of your choice, it’s no wonder I would walk into a fraternity party with two packs of cigarettes and, by the end of the night, walk out with not a single one. Some of those might be given or “bummed” and many times I was bumming. Maybe I took after my brother, who used to say people would dive in the campus hedges to hide when they saw him coming for fear of being hit up for a smoke, or “tube.” To this day, I have fraternity brothers who still say “Bum a tube, dude?” when my name is mentioned. Laughable, but I’m not that proud of that. Chewing tobacco was mostly relegated to at-home use when sitting around watching a ballgame or something else on TV.
As the years have passed, I have continued to smoke and chew tobacco. When it comes to smoking, I am probably in the “social smoker” rank. At a party, on a weekend trip, at the beach or anywhere else where I might be drinking a beer or cocktail, I will probably light up if I can. To this day, a good cigarette is enjoyed in this manner. Chewing tobacco has gradually evolved from dipping products like Copenhagen and long-cut Skoal to tobacco pouches, mostly to preserve any kind of gum disease which could happen. The same can be said for my current vice of choice, ZYNs. “Dipping” is, I like to say, the lesser of two evils compared to smoking and damage to your lungs.
Of course, today there is another tobacco product that is popular and widely used: tobacco vapes. They are convenient in that they produce not smoke but vapor upon exhaling. There may be what appears to be more smoke, but the vapor disappears in the air faster and is much more inconspicuous. They say tobacco vapes can cause “popcorn lung.” Whatever that is, it does not sound good at all. So when I vape, I do not inhale, but rather puff on it like a pipe or cigar.
Cigars are another tobacco product in and of themselves. They typically take a while to smoke, are so strong that smoke is not inhaled, and the odor of the smoke is unmistakable and annoying. When you smoke a cigar, I think more thought is put into where you smoke it due to environmental limitations. You also need a good, long while to smoke a cigar. They burn slower and are bigger than cigarettes. With that said, when all of the requirements align to light one up, a good cigar is hard to beat. Particularly when it comes to a celebratory occasion.
Smoking and tobacco use of any kind is prohibited these days on airplanes and other modes of public transportation, and it is a wonder it was ever permitted considering the pervasiveness of smoke in an enclosed area. I remember being on flights and relegated, I guess, to the rear of the plane, but you could smoke all you wanted on CONUS and OCONUS flights. Not anymore. And it is probably a good thing.
I am in no way espousing, recommending, or glorifying the use of tobacco. If you have never smoked or quit at some point never to smoke again, here’s a huge “Good for you!!!” from me. It is a bad habit, and one of the most unhealthiest ones out there.
So hey! Do me a favor, would ya? Pass the Nicorette gum.
Credit: The Doobie Brothers. “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits,” Warner Brothers, 1974.
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