Many folk tales have been generated about how young boys began smoking. It seems that boys in the country always began smoking by experimenting with the dried leaves of a weed called “rabbit tobacco.” Some boys smoked, or said they smoked, a dried piece of cross vine. I tried smoking cross vine once – and only once. When I inhaled the smoke, it felt as if I were on fire from my nasal passage to the last lobe of my lungs.
A boy progressed from smoking rabbit tobacco to copping a cigarette or two from an open pack left around the house by an unsuspecting uncle or older brother. As the story is often told, those smoking behind the barn were usually caught by a mother of father or were “told on” by a younger child who was not included in the surreptitious smoking. When the story of “behind the barn” smoking is told, no one ever escapes punishment. Privileges were denied or whippings were administered.
It is not an exaggeration to say that 50 or 60 years ago cigarettes, or any other form of tobacco for that matter, could be bought and used almost anywhere. Smoking areas were even designated on school grounds. High school boys usually gathered during recess to have a quick cigarette around the “smoking tree.”
And they call those the "good old days." Looking back I wish I had never been exposed to some of the evils I experienced as a youth. I don't think snoking was totally the caause for my by-pass, but it was a contributing factor. Smoking can surely be linked to my wife's COPD and her being tied to an oxygen tank. I am sure the kids of today will look back later in life and have simular thoughts.
