How old would your children need to be before you started buying their cigarettes?

Like a furnace. Her doctor and parents and husband and son are all after her to quit, but it's like she doesn't hear any of them.

@MaryJanine She must really enjoy her habit.

She does. There's no other explanation for it.

When my mother used to work in a restaurant as a waitress, there was a bar next door where my dad used to go. In the reaches of my memory, I recall, just inside the doorway, was a row of cigarette machines. This was in the early 60's, so I guess this was a longtime thing. (The restaurant and bar are no longer in operation.)

@MaryJanine Those machines still exist; although they are few and far between

@thisguy20 I suppose you are right, though I never took up the habit.My dad used to grouse that "that stupid machine" didn't carry or else always otherwise out of his brand of cigarettes (Camel.) I once walked a Camel for a mile..old joke from an older commercial.

@SW-User 🙌🏻

@flamingoqueeeeen Sounds like a cool family, especially the grandparents!

Mom's not here anymore, so I can't ask her if she ever smoked another brand and then switched to Camels. I know back in the good old days, when kids were allowed to get cigarettes for their parents with a note, Mom would send us to the store to get an ingredient for dinnertime with the note saying, "(Child's name) is permitted to buy cigarettes for me" and sign it. But a few times, my sister came home with another brand or two, and Mom would say, "I don't want those. I want Camels!" And she would send her back to get the right things. I don't remember when they made it the law that you couldn't get the kids to do that any longer, but I remember carrying that note a few times myself.

@MaryJanine From what I understand kids being able buy cigarettes with a signed parents' note was never a law, although considering how laws have varied from one place to another with regard to smoking over the years (and still today) it is certainly possible that was a law in some location(s). Before there were minimum age to purchase laws some stores required the note as a way to not get on the bad side of parents who didn't want their kids to smoke. Until relatively recently (the past 20 years give or take), most of the minimum age to purchase laws weren't enforced; so stores used the parents' note as a way to comply with the law most of the time, but still sell to kids whose parents wanted them to buy.

I evaded the minimum age to buy laws completely by getting my cigarettes (and cigarettes for a number of friends) from cigarette vending machines

I don't think it was an actual LAW. I just remember there were a lot of stores or gas stations, or both, when I was growing up, and they sold you cigarettes for a parent (!) with presentation of a note. One of these was a little old lady that had one of those newsstands-inside-a-story (you know the kind, the ones with candy counters and cigarette counters behind the register.) She was very strict about selling these last, note or no note, to kids that were ALWAYS in her store (we often bought the early Sunday edition of the daily paper there to check the ads out). There were also two gas stations who wanted to see and read the note before they would hand over the merchandise. There was also a bar on the near corner next to the old lady's store, but they chased kids out of there. They had a automatic machine just inside the place of business.

@SW-User They give you pleasure though.

@fumialari and destroy your lungs..

@SW-User You might shave a few years off your life, but the years you will have will be filled with pleasure.

@Mikado maybe depending on your perspective.

@Thanos why would you get your child addicted to coke? That's disgusting.

@fumialari why would any parent buy their children cigarettes? That's disgusting

@Starcrossed Really? How come?

I feel for you.That is a terrible feeling. My mom, and later my dad, both smoked and had to give it up because of their heart conditions (my mom had diabetes and that didn't help any).

What I hate about cigarettes is the nicotine aftermath - it stays on your teeth, breath, clothes, hair, windows and curtains - long after your latest one. Also, the air in a smoker's house or car holds in the smell. I didn't notice this until I moved out of my house into my own apartment. I don't smoke, but my sister-in-law does and my brother (her husband) says he can tell the difference between their apartment and mine. (If you have window blinds, the nicotine coats them, too.)