OLD WIVES TALES--CIGARETTES

With everything we know about tobacco and cigarette smoking today, it’s almost impossible to believe that anyone ever believed these old wives tales.

One old wives tale that has a reasonable explanation is that it was once thought that it was bad luck to light three cigarettes off the same match. This tale came from times of war when armies would attack at night. Lighting three cigarettes off the same match gave the enemy enough time to spot the flame in the dark, making the smokers very easy targets. There’s one down, who knows about these other ones.


During the 1800s, tobacco was thought of as a cure for almost anything. It was used to dress wounds and it was also used to ease pain.


It was also believed that you could relieve the pain of a toothache by chewing on tobacco.
It was later thought that tobacco would cure anything from bad breath to cancer.


In the late 1500s exhaling smoke through the nose became very popular. Also in the late 1500s, there was a dramatic increase in the number of patients suffering from cancer of the nose.


Thomas Harriet encouraged smoking cigarettes in 1588 so that people could obtain their daily dosage of tobacco.

Spanish doctor, Nicholas Monardes wrote a book on the history of plants used for medicinal purposes. In the book, he stated that tobacco could be used as a cure for thirty-six health-related problems.

In the 1600s tobacco was often used as a form of currency. At $4.10 a pack, it IS currency. Odd how a person who never buys cigarettes is willing to pay .25 per cigarette. These folks can say they "don't carry". Do you know anyone like that?

My dad smoked a carton every two days. That is a five pack a day habit. I would guessamate cartons cost less than $2.00 a carton. He smoked Chesterfields.

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