Dayy XLlV

 A lady's butt

      I was pissed, upset, and angry, you name it. That whole mess forged my attitude towards the military, and it stayed with me for the next four years.  Smokes helped me to deal with it, the anguish, nicotine soothed my anxiety, calmed me, and my habit grew. Tobacco is now believed be as addictive as booze, cocaine, heroin, and morphine.

     After boot camp, I was sent up the road to Randolph, Air Base, not far from San Antonio. I spent the next two years there. Butts were cheap at the PO, (Post Exchange), where it was something like five bucks a carton, or .25 cents a pack at kiosks all over the base. I think 9 out of 10 airmen smoked, or maybe it was more like 95 out of 100.

     In the mornings the first thing I did was light up, even before washing up. I remember young guys smoking 3 or 4 packs a day. I guess I was lucky, when I was discharged four years later I was only smoking 1-1/2 to 2 packs a day. Everybody smoked, and I don’t remember anybody who didn’t. There may have been some who didn’t, but he or she would have been an odd ball, and I don’t remember anyone like that.

     Sergeant Hacker, a good old country boy from Georgia, was a four pack a day man. He smoked Pall Malls, and said anything else is a

     “Sissy smoke, a lady’s butt!” he used to say.

    He respected guys who smoked, Camels, or Lucky Strikes, but his taste ran for Pall Malls. They’re like Camels or Luckies, except they’re longer.