All this uproar over smoking amazes me.

When I was a young lad growing up in south St. Louis, I attended Immaculate Conception School on Lafayette and Nebraska. Back then, smoking was a thing you just took for granted.

If I happened to have a penny in my pocket and wanted a cigarette, I could just walk a couple of blocks down to California and Henrietta to a small mom-and-pop confectionary, plunk my penny on the counter and was handed a cigarette. That’s right, the store sold cigarettes a penny apiece, no age limit, you just had to be tall enough to reach up and hand the clerk a penny.

Of course, for us attending Immaculate Conception School, we had to walk two blocks. But the lucky kids attending Hodgen School had it made. Their school was right across the street from the confectionary, just a hop, skip and a jump. Lucky buggers.

If that confectionary were still in operation, mom and pop would be hauled to court, and by today’s standards, would be tried, convicted and burned at the stake, using their penny-apiece cigarettes as fuel for the fire.

Harvey Meyer

Green Park