smoke that cigarette

 As a resident of The Greatest City Inna World, I am of course quite aware of those issues that are news to Beagles.  Michigan can well be proud of having a citizens committee redistricting the wolverine state.  I am guessing this is the work of some sort of referendum as I cannot imagine that the Trumpist legislature would allow such a thing.  Maybe at last Gutsy Gretchen can rule with the dignity she deserves instead to being hounded by those mental midgets and their militia cohorts.

I seem to remember that at Dear Old Gage Park students were not allowed to smoke anywhere near the school, and I am not sure if this was true but the rumor was that they sent teachers out on patrol for students smoking east of California and west of Western and between 55th and 59th streets.  If that was the case I reckon they drove to the nearest alley and pulled out their smokes and lit up, and maybe pulled that pint of Jim Beam out of the glove box and had themselves a healthy snort while they were at it.

At college we were college men, and as such we were expected to do adult things like smoke cigarettes.  There were these little cardboard flats that could be folded into ash trays on the various tables that we might be expected to gather around when we discussed Nietzsche, or more likely who had the biggest dick.

What started me on this cig kick is there was an article in fb about Gauloises, wasn't sure of how to spell it so I googled what did Sartre smoke, and there it was.  The cool existentialists smoked these but not for more than a pack or two because (cough cough) they were really strong.  There were other exotic cigs to select from the tobacco store, but nobody smoked any of them too long because they were expensive and pretty weird.

I had gone through a variety of cigs. For awhile I smoked Camel shorties, and felt pretty he-man about that.  If I had to bum a cig I would make a show of tearing off the filter so that I could taste the rich taste of fine tobacco.  Eventually I had to give them up when I developed a heavy cough. I went through a few different brands and then I noticed that people who smoked Kools always knew who else smoked Kools and would bum only from them, and then I switched and never looked back.  

I quit out of nowhere in the mid eighties though I would bum cigs at the bar when I was drinking.  The two and a half years that I was in Texas I didn't know anybody who smoked and I never smoked any either.

Back in Chicago I got back to bumming while drinking, then I'd sometimes buy a pack and then I was up to two packs on a weekend, but that got too strong and now I am on one pack every two weeks, and later this afternoon I will buy that pack and the first cig I light up will be fantastic, after that not so much and by the time I stub out my last one Sunday morning I will be thinking good riddance.

Sometimes I think that I smoke so little why bother at all.  But if I ever thought I was stubbing out my last I would feel so deprived that I'd be buying a pack within an hour.  But if I know that I can smoke again in two weeks, it's not near so bad.

Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette