Oh, the wickedness of it! Tobacco companies attempting to lure little children to form the tobacco habit.

Thursday, August 23, 2001

Oh, the wickedness of it! Tobacco companies attempting to lure little children to form the tobacco habit. I wonder if there’s anyone besides me who’s been around long enough to remember the efforts made to get women in the smoking market.

I don’t remember when it started, but certainly before I was in my teens. I’m not sure that the ads were carried in the women’s magazines that my mother subscribed to, but they were certainly in my father’s magazines, &uot;Saturday Evening Post,&uot; &uot;Liberty,&uot; and the like.

The first of the advertisements as I remember showed an attractive couple sitting on a moonlit beach, ever so romantic. The man is smoking a cigarette and the woman says wistfully, &uot;Blow some my way.&uot;

Once the public was used to seeing women in a cigarette advertisement, the pictures moved on to more sinister suggestion. A woman, slim, graceful and beautiful, would be shown diving off a diving board. Around her, though, would be an outline of a grossly fat creature. &uot;Coming events cast their shadow.&uot; The message beneath the warning picture would read, &uot;Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.&uot;

This particular ad had to be changed when a candy company sued the cigarette company. Afterwards the caption simply read, &uot;Reach for a Lucky instead.&uot;

It is not to be supposed that all this did not excite protest. I had my own magazine, I think it was &uot;The American Girl.&uot; It had along with stories, both short and serial, an advice column.

About cigarettes the columnist said, &uot;You may see in the movies a beautiful actress holding a cigarette temptingly close to her mouth? But actually in her mouth? Can you look at a woman with a cigarette actually in her mouth and think of her as truly feminine and wholesome?&uot;

It was said that my Great-great-Grandmother Lowe, dead long before I was born, had smoked a clay pipe. Since her husband and sons raised tobacco for a living it is not impossible. She was my father’s maternal great-grandmother.

My mother’s half-sister’s daughter, and another niece, both about 14 years older than I, were the only women in my family who smoked as far as I know. Both were beautiful, married and convent-educated. The one when she visited us took her cigarette to the bathroom lest she set me a bad example. The other one spoke harshly of women who smoked in public.

Smoking in public was a no-no for any woman. A young and competent school teacher almost lost her position because it was reported that she smoked.

My father and his brothers were all chain smokers from their teens. This despite the fact that they played football, swam and went in for sports in general. My father when he was in his 40s gave up smoking entirely and without any apparent effort. Although he was the eldest in his family he outlived all of his siblings except the youngest in the family, 14 years younger than dad. He survived my father by less than a year.

My neighborhood was happily filled with children, most of them my age or older. The Hefley twins were older by two or three years. They were fraternal twins, looking nothing alike. The taller and stronger of the two was wonderfully imaginative in a sinister sort of way.

Shortly after I had disgraced my family and my school by refusing to promise that I would not smoke before I was 21, the twin announced her plan for the future.

&uot;I’ve always wanted to choke someone,&uot; she said. &uot;Just put my thumbs in the little hollow of the person’s throat and squeeze and squeeze until his eyes popped out.&uot;

It was a little too graphic for me. I was not the youngest in our group, but I was the smallest and had no ambition at all to be choked until my eyes popped out. Neighborhood gatherings usually started at my house and when it was noted that the twins were missing it was suggested that we go and find them.

A suggestion I promptly vetoed. &uot;I don’t want to play with Marge anymore,&uot; I said. &uot;She wants to grow up and choke someone.&uot;

There was a long silence. Then one of the other girls, turning a reproachful look on me, said, &uot;But, Love, we all want to play with you. And you’re just as bad as Marge. You want to grow up and smoke cigarettes.&uot;

Love Cruikshank is an Albert Lea resident. Her column appears Thursdays.