Remember those mechanical cigarette machines where you’d put in two dimes, and there’d be three pennies under the cellophane of the cigarette pack?
There was a little grocery store in the small town where I grew up and the old man owner there would sell single cigarettes for a penny each, you didn't have a choice of brands, just whatever he had open, usually Camels. He sold mostly to kids and no parents blew a fuse over it. Back then it was the parents responsibility if they didn't want their kids to smoke.
I started smoking when I was 12 years old and quit when I was 62. I consider myself one of the fortunate ones, in that I'm still kicking.
There also was a tavern in our town that wasn't particular about the age of their customers. I started going in there for a beer when I was a freshman in high school. They had 3 sizes of glasses of draft beer, 5¢, 10¢ and 15¢, I could usually only afford the nickle one so I could have enough money for cigarettes.
We sure are old!