No rules
Our Parents Smoked So Much Ashtray’s Were Accepted as Gifts from Little Kids
It was a common everyday thing
I found an ashtray my son made for my mom when he was ten.
What were we thinking? Can anyone tell me why adults thought it was a good idea for our children to make ashtrays as gifts? My son was excited to give my mom the ashtray he had made at school with his own two little hands.
Then all of us — she, me, and him — along with my five younger brothers and sisters — all sat together in the living room while my mom smoked cigarettes and extinguished them in her new gift ashtray, one after another.
The room was full of smiling people breathing in second-hand smoke. I am going to bet we also sent my ten-year-old to the store to buy the cigarettes my mom was smoking. Ma smoked Kools. I would buy my mother Kool cigarettes on my way to visit her. She was a chain smoker and always needed more cigarettes.
Back then, kids could buy cigarettes for their parents. Hell, cigarettes were in vending machines everywhere. Our corner store would also let the children buy liquor to take home if they had a note from their parents. My mom had a standing note at the corner store. Any of her children could buy her beer as needed. That also meant we…
