When I was about 14 or whatever age you are in 9th grade my mom discovered my cigarettes in my sock drawer. Back then my socks were stored ball shaped and I suppose the rectangle shaped pack of cigarettes stashed in them was easy to spot when she put clean socks in the drawer. I suppose I'd been smoking a month or two. Both my parents smoked.
My friends with non smoking parents went into orbit when they found out their little darlings smoked too. My parents just said not to steal them and I was to support my own habit. They didn't like it, but also knew everybody except my grandmother smoked so they figured it was natural I did at some point. But rules were a lot looser back then. Yeah we weren't supposed to but nobody really enforced it back then.
Back then 2/3 of my teachers smoked inside the school in their break room. Cops didn't hassle you, and they were cheap…like a quarter a pack. A soda was 15 cents then. The packs had some kinda warning on them but us kids…… we knew better. Yeah right.
Back then smokers lived to their 60's as a rule. Non smokers their 70's and some into their 90's. Heart attacks were usually fatal back then, but heck even the flu still took out a few people in our community each winter.
At some point while I wasn't paying attention society turned against smoking cigarettes. No smoking on airplanes and certain buildings began. One could no longer smoke in their hospital room after a surgery. Yup, after my first knee surgery I was still blurry eyed from the anethesia when I lit up one in my room. The nurse brought me an ash tray. I was around 15 years old, perhaps 16. Anyway in time it became normal to not smoke in buildings anymore.
I always thought that was good because folks don't smoke as much. Now people don't smoke in their own home. Or their cars. So society as a whole has largely reduced smoking greatly. Now days vaping is no longer a novelty like it was just a couple of years ago. It has become pretty main stream these days. And quickly.
So in my view it's just history repeating only now kids use vapers instead of cigarettes to a large degree. If not for vaping, would they smoke like we did?
