You could smell it on their clothes. In junior high the most outwardly scandalous things someone could do would be smoking. Occasionally I would see someone pull out some cigarettes in class while the teacher was out of the room. It was mostly for the shock value to it. But I never saw anyone smoking at school. Never. Sure, there was plenty of other bad things going on in the junior high. But all I ever saw…or smelt rather, was the stench on their denim jackets. I guess if they ever got caught at school with it, they were suspended.
Where did they get the cigarettes? Did older siblings/friends buy them for them? Stealing them from their parents? Cigarette vending machines? I had no idea. I suspect they got older friends to buy it for them. Or there were some corrupt gas station attendants who sold cigarettes to 14 year olds.
In high school chewing tobacco and dip became more apparent. Seeing a big wad of dip in the school’s water fountain was a common site.
So there was a certain amount of shock value in “Stand By Me” seeing the kids smoke. “They’re smoking????” I thought to myself. But then again now, the shock has worn off somewhat.
How do they start smoking? Well obviously they start sometime in school…either junior high or high school. I did have one friend who started smoking in college. I rarely visited him because of it. Actually I never visited him.
I don’t know if smoking is a problem in school anymore. Rarely do I see anyone smoking. Its pretty much become the old school rule. Surely there are younger people smoking these days…or the cigarette companies would have been out of business by now. But I guess the crowd I run around with don’t have that nicotine addiction problem these days.