Hey there aliens.

Yup there is intelligent life near by as you can see by the small plots of earth that are set out in a uniform way.

Of course it may be intelligent but it sure ain't smart in the way of agriculture. What pathetic gardens. At the end of this season I will get neighbor John over with his roto tiller to make the garden bigger then spread cow manure over the whole darn thing so it will have more nutrients to pass onto the plants next year......John and Geneva spread cow do do on their garden and their garden is gone wild. Veggies love their cow.

All this gardening has caused me to flash to a childhood memory that I will share.

How Gardening lead me to Smoking.

It happened the summer before grade three....what would that make a person about 7 maybe 8 years old. My family had moved to the neighborhood we lived in about two years before so I was a couple of years into being the kid everyone called "stinky" and who with whom it was considered a very big disgrace to play with. So by this time was very used to being on my own and actually did not know how to meet other kids let alone play with them. I was kinda lonely but everything was as it is.

One day early on in the summer I was walking down the back alley headed towards the park that had a pool well a wading pool but it was wet and cool.


I always traveled along the back alley ways...it was way more interesting than the front walkways. In the back alleys one had access to all kinds of fruit trees, such as apple, pear, cherry, plum not to mention blackberry bushes. In addition one could sometimes cop a bean, pea pod, carrot or cob of corn from someones garden when no one was looking. I always felt the the back alley property lines were less defined than the ones in front. Like if the item was within arms reach or not more than two or three steps in, the item that one wanted to eat was up for grabs so to speak....one had to supplement ones diet somehow when you could only count on one meal a day at home.

It was a four block walk to the park with a pool. Within this four blocks by the way there was a corner store that had bars affixed to the door and windows. If one wanted to enter the store to buy something one pushed a button that would ring a bell. Upon hearing the bell the owner would look out the glass of the door to see who was there. If he recognized you and did not fear you he would push a button that would disengage the lock on the door and you could enter.  Just to set the atmosphere.


So on my walk to the park with the pool at the begining of the fourth block on the corner lot a new family had moved inhere. It was as a large house with a large garage that backed upon the back alley way. It was a large  four bedroom house but it seemed even larger to me because only four people lived in it. A mom a dad and two brothers.

At home we had me my three brothers my four sisters and mom and dad and grannie who hated everyone. Our house was a two bedroom house of which my parents had one bedroom my grandmother the other and the basement was divided into the girls side and the boys side.
The boys area before being declared the boys bedroom had been  a garage under the house. The doors that had let in the car were nailed shut and the one window that was rotted beyond repair had a piece of plywood nailed over it. In this boys bedroom there was a set of bunk beds and a couple of single beds. It was a luxury seeings as a short time earlier three of us boys shared one bed.

Back to the new peoples place. On side of their garage was a fairly large area that shared a fence with  the alley. The day I discovered them there i stopped to peer between the pickets of the fence at the dad digging over the earth next to the garage. It looked like a good thing to be doing and when he was near me and he did not tell me to get lost i started asking questions....like whatcha doing....He was making a garden. I could always talk to adults cause they did not seem to be as put off by me  and seemed to treat me ok.

While i was watching him dig up the earth his two kids...both boys one my age named Willard and one younger whose name I cannot remember came over to talk to me. It surprised me that they did that because at school and in the neighborhood no kid would be caught dead talking to me unless it was to taunt me or to pick a fight well not really a fight more like they would say some things that would make them feel ok about punching me.

It seems that these new kids did not yet know that I was off limits. It was probably because they had only just moved to the neighbourhood after school was out for the summer and the other kids in the neighborhood had not yet put themselves out to meet them.

Well that was my good luck it. It seemed I had a couple of kids that I could hang out with for a while anyways.

Even so by this time in my life i was already used to spending my time alone or with adults and so was really much more interested in the garden being created on the other side of this fence. So I would go there on the pretense of playing with the kids but I was way more interested in the garden and I would pitch in to help, well as much as their dad would let me.....oh yeah the other incredible thing was that they had a couple of chickens.

These two chickens were the first animals that I met that were not a dog or a cat.

I got to experience collecting eggs and sometimes they were huge oh yeah not only that but they were still warm from the nest. The dad would sometimes give me some eggs to take home. This probably was the beginning of my deep set work ethic. I connected early with the immediate gratification of work equals incredible rewards......these eggs were not only unique to me bringing something into the home but they could also be eaten. The only other person within my family of eleven people that was doing anything like this was my dad. I imagine in a small child's mind this had to be huge.

So anyways I could talk a lot about the things that went on that summer like my discovering that there was a thing called dessert, or how I bite into cantaloupe for the first time and cannot describe the sensations that i felt at the taste.Oh yeah on top of all this wealth I got to see first hand that existed not four blocks from my house but the two brothers shared a bedroom and within that bedroom was a tv. How could one even believe their own eyes. I am sure if i had someone to tell they would not have believed me.

But No the memory I write about here now is how I had my first cigarette. I was at their house early one Saturday morning helping in the garden. (helping in my mind but probably more of a hindrance in the dads mind). The older of the two boys Willard came over to me and behind his dads back showed me that he had stolen a whole package of cigarettes from his parents. Oh man I sure did not want to go there. I just wanted to work the garden....what a dweeb. Willard kept saying lets go and I would say no I gotta get this gardening done. His dad said nope you go play have fun. In my life arguing with an adult was not an option so off i went.

Well now i was hooked I had to go. Down to the nearby empty lot we walked. It was an over grown lot covered with tall weeds, bushes trees and even a puddle that we thought was a lake. To me it was the country.I was not feeling excited to be doing this no it was not my idea but here I was caught up in it.


I was going to have to do this though. I wanted to keep these kids as my friends as long as I could. If for no other reason than to have a reason to come to their place to work with the garden.

So entered the empty lot. Walked along a path that cut through the lot and then about half way through veered off and broke through the weeds so we could get off the beaten path and have some privacy. This was taboo after all.

Yup here we were in this dry dusty over grown junk lot and we were about to do something only adults and all my older brother and sisters did. Well everyone but me but it was new to me.

We found a batch of tall weeds and stomped an area flat so we could sit and be concealed. I am sure you  all can remember the first taboo you broke. All senses are on alert. You can pick out every smell hear every sound see every detail as it unfolded before you. I believe mine were this heightened and then some because it was not my idea to do I was not in control.

The sound of Willard taking the cellophane off the package was deafening, and as it was removed I caught my first whiff of tobacco. I knew that smell well as my parents both smoked over two packages of cigarettes per day each.


The cellophane off and the seal broken he opened the lid. It was one of those pouch packages. When open the golden filters are packed in tight. I remember that sight even now a half a century later. There they were  and this event was indeed going to happen.


Willard worked three cigarettes out of that package and then lay the package to one side. He passed one to me one to his brother and kept one for himself.

What a strange foreign feeling that was. This thing that was only to be handled by other people, suddenly here it was between my fingers.....hey look at that it went right to its place between the index and middle finger do you think the cigarette is somehow programed to go there.

Well we got this far and it is not too bad. Opps now out of his back pocket Willard has produced a book of paper matches. Things started to speed up and take place in a tighter space.

Willard decided I should light up first. Who was I to argue. Just say no. Yeah whoever coined that phrase was not facing a gigantic wall of peer pressure on one side and a wave of unfolding events on the other.


The event of the match being struck stayed with me for life. The smell of sulfur being struck on a match to this day will make me crave a cigarette. Yup he lite the match and put it to the end of the cigarette at which point I drew in as if i had been smoking for years, inhaled and slowly let it out after a few seconds.  I guess you could say i got my very first buzz on that day. Between the nicotine buzz and the hyperventilation it was quite the trip  and i quite enjoyed it.


Well to make a long story short (too late eh) we smoked our brains out . I did not quit smoking until I was 25 years old.

Now If some kid wants to help you with the garden whats the harm let em for frack sakes.