I remember my Dad smoking 40 a day Senior Service (he'd been in the RAF, not the Navy). When he got a really good job he started smoking Dunhill International. And that's what I started smoking at the age of 14, because he had to smoke shedloads of them to get the same kick he used to get from Senior Service!! By 15 I was into Rothmans (which were OK and relatively cheap back then - 27p for 10, and I was earning 35p an hour in my part-time job at the Wimpy Bar). Then my parents realised I smoked. Dad said, very earnestly, "Just don't smoke anything that doesn't come in a packet." Too late by half, eh.
My maternal grandfather smoked. He was the only person I knew who chain smoked and about whom one could also say that he chain-drank tea. He would sit just outside the kitchen with a big brown betty tea pot and drink the contents while smoking and telling stories. He was a chef, so never smoked in the kitchen itself. My grandmother kept the cigarette cards in an old plastic bread bin. It had a white body and pale blue lid with a handle moulded in it. My younger brother and I played endlessly with the cigarette cards - there were animal pictures and pictures of native trees as well as sportsmen of yesteryear (they were less interesting as with one or two exceptions such as the cricketeer Don Bradman no-one knew who these sporting heroes were). We sorted out decks of cards to play snap or to play a memory game where you turned over the cards, with the aim of getting a matched pair. I'm struggling to recall the brand my grandfather smoked, but I think it was probably Embassy - a white packet with a red strip on it. I hated the smell of the cigarette smoke, but loved the smell of the unburnt tobacco in the empty cigarette packets. Years later my grandfather developed emphysema and allegedly gave up smoking - but my grandmother and I (we both never smoked) could smell the smoke on him, after he'd nipped outside on some spurious errand or other.
I grew up in a house where everyone smoked. Sadly most of them died from smoking related diseases , all only in their early fifties. If only we knew then what we know now. Smoking was advertised as being trendy and sexy with Bette Davis declaring her love from behind a cloud of cigarette smoke. Great days though.
I remember my Dad smoking 40 a day Senior Service (he'd been in the RAF, not the Navy). When he got a really good job he started smoking Dunhill International. And that's what I started smoking at the age of 14, because he had to smoke shedloads of them to get the same kick he used to get from Senior Service!! By 15 I was into Rothmans (which were OK and relatively cheap back then - 27p for 10, and I was earning 35p an hour in my part-time job at the Wimpy Bar). Then my parents realised I smoked. Dad said, very earnestly, "Just don't smoke anything that doesn't come in a packet." Too late by half, eh.
An evocative article that brought back happy memories of my family life when a child.
Beautifully written
Fantastic bit of writing and very reminiscent of my own childhood. I'm buying the book!
lovely piece of insightful writing by Robert Edric-the gradual reduction of smoking in society shows that we have moved on in this direction at least
My maternal grandfather smoked. He was the only person I knew who chain smoked and about whom one could also say that he chain-drank tea. He would sit just outside the kitchen with a big brown betty tea pot and drink the contents while smoking and telling stories. He was a chef, so never smoked in the kitchen itself. My grandmother kept the cigarette cards in an old plastic bread bin. It had a white body and pale blue lid with a handle moulded in it. My younger brother and I played endlessly with the cigarette cards - there were animal pictures and pictures of native trees as well as sportsmen of yesteryear (they were less interesting as with one or two exceptions such as the cricketeer Don Bradman no-one knew who these sporting heroes were). We sorted out decks of cards to play snap or to play a memory game where you turned over the cards, with the aim of getting a matched pair. I'm struggling to recall the brand my grandfather smoked, but I think it was probably Embassy - a white packet with a red strip on it. I hated the smell of the cigarette smoke, but loved the smell of the unburnt tobacco in the empty cigarette packets. Years later my grandfather developed emphysema and allegedly gave up smoking - but my grandmother and I (we both never smoked) could smell the smoke on him, after he'd nipped outside on some spurious errand or other.
I grew up in a house where everyone smoked. Sadly most of them died from smoking related diseases , all only in their early fifties. If only we knew then what we know now. Smoking was advertised as being trendy and sexy with Bette Davis declaring her love from behind a cloud of cigarette smoke. Great days though.