Secret 1: I was a smoker

Spudballoo recently finished up her 30 Secrets in 30 Days and I have to admit I'm tempted to try it. I think I can come up with 30 anyway. I've been weighing this all day because, while I can come up with LOTS of secrets, I wouldn't actually share most of those with, well, anyone. So here we go!

Secret 1: I used to be a smoker. I was 6. (6 years old, not a size 6 because if I wore a size 6 that wouldn't be a secret). And not candy cigs either. Both of my parents were smokers and my oldest sister as well (she was 18ish). My younger sister (age 5) and I wanted to know what was so cool about smoking. They all seemed to like it and wouldn't stop so it must be great, yes? I had even come home from school and given them a pretty great lecture about the health issues and they just laughed at me. So my little sis (Little-Little) and I devised a plan. One of us snatched a pack of cigarettes and the other grabbed lighters. We hid them in a band-aid tin and headed out to the back porch of the workshop because, well, if you're going to light something on fire then of course you're going to do it next to a building full of sawdust, right? Right.

So we sat down and each got out a cigarette. We grabbed the lighters and sucked in just like we had seen it done... Well, not quite like it was done but more how we thought it was done. Unfortunately we didn't realize that you aren't supposed to swallow smoke and we turned green and choked on them. I think there might have been crying involved. The upshot to all of this is that I never smoked again. The bad side is that we then got bored and turned to lighting bits of paper on fire and then blowing them out and that's what we actually got busted for later. Luckily, we did not burn down the house, the workshop or the forest we lived smack in the middle of (oh, yes, we were smart ones!...).

And in regards to the picture above: Did you know that candy cigarettes are still sold!?! I didn't think you could buy those anymore but obviously I was wrong as these were purchased quite recently. I was SURE they had been banned as being "marketed to children". As a child who was obviously suckered by that marketing I am very disappointed in our law makers.