I was passing through the office supplies aisle at the dollar store the other day when I saw these colorful plastic pencil boxes they sell for school kids. I never had anything like that. At the beginning of each school year, we would ask a tobacconist for an empty cigar box. He usually had bunches of them stacked up since other kids were also asking for them. Sometimes, we’d be too late and they were all out. Then we had to find another tobacconist. I don’t know how, but more often than not, it seems like I ended up with King Edward. Perhaps those are the most popular cigars, and would therefore have the most empty boxes available. It’s the only brand I can remember at all.

They wouldn’t allow a kid through the front door with one of these today. This weird insistence on political correctness makes it much harder to live in today’s world. We have to walk on eggshells. What would it really matter? I used those boxes pretty much every year until junior high.

Some might argue that associating cigars with my pencils and crayons might lay down a path in my subconscious brain that would eventually lead me to smoking. This argument is full of bachelor of science.

In addition to the box, I grew up with a mother who smoked. I used to buy her cigarettes! Benson and Hedges menthol 100s, in the pretty blue box. She would pull up to a place and send me in to the cigarette machine. After all that, I’ve never smoked unless I was on fire. I’ve never wanted to. I did enjoy the nice boxes. They were very durable, they were useful for everything, they were nice looking, and they were FREE! How can you beat that?