nicoteens

There was a (very) brief time in my late teens when I thought that smoking was glamorous. Fortunately I never got to like the taste of tobacco or the smell of it on my clothes, hair or fingers. I'm so glad that I never became addicted to it.

I was walking through an alleyway on my way to work this morning and I came upon a group of young boys from the local high school, smoking very furtively indeed. It was obviously near the end of their morning break, so they extinguished the cigarettes and then passed around a can of Lynx with which they liberally sprayed their clothes. It would have been funny if it wasn't so tragic.

I can't imagine how anyone nowadays can see smoking as cool or glamorous, except that maybe it's being forbidden in school uniform makes it more exciting. I was certainly shocked when I picked up this bit of litter. No longer a slim gold packet of B&H or the red and white cool-as-cowboy Marlboroughs, but a nice close-up pic of a cancer of the mouth. Interestingly, there is one documented case where this definitely saved a man's life.

Ironically for those teenage smokers, smelling of body spray is probably even less attractive than reeking of tobacco.