My First Smoke

On the latest YOUNG SHELTON tv show two adults who had quick smoking backslid and as they smoked they talked of when they had their first cigarette. Their discussion on their first cigarette took my memory back to when I first smoked. I don’t remember the first cigarette but I remember when I first started smoking. We lived in the Clay Homes. I was either age 4 or 5 years old. I think I was 5, because my buddy, Carol Joe Clayton was one year younger, and he was apt and able to scheme and swipe lit throw away cigarettes just like I was. We watched people smoking in the Clay Homes. When a person tossed his or her cigarette it was usually still lit and good for a few more puffs. So we would grab it, almost before it hit the ground, or pavement. Under our system they were free and came even lit. Then someone told my mother. She bought a pack of cigarettes, probably from Steele’s Store across the street. If I remember correctly it must have been a Pell Mell pack of cigarettes. The pack was solid red. Mama told me to sit down and she handed me a pack and told me to smoke. Truthfully, I thought for a short time I was very lucky, my parents were letting me smoke. Then after I finished that one and told me to smoke another one. I smiled and lit up another one. After that I told her I didn’t want to now, I wanted to go out and play. She shoved the pack of cigarettes in front of me and said “smoke another one.” And another and another. I got very dizzy and ran to my bed crying, I did not want any more cigarettes, ever! And I did not, for the next 11 or 12 years. Unfortunately, Carol Joe Clayton died as a young man in a wreck on the covered bridge on Valentine’s Day about 1963 or 64. In our formative years, in he Clay Homes I had a speech defect. I think I had my Rs and Ws confused. Carol Joe understood me perfectly translated to whomever couldn’t understand me.