The Three Brands and the Rollies
4/13/2010 11:42 AM – 12:10 PM
It’s been 70 hours since my last cigarette. It’s mostly just really annoying but I have had odd little flashes of anxiety that I haven’t really experienced in many months. I’ve been listening to David Sedaris. The day after I quit, Ben and I drove up to Rochester to meet up with Ben’s parents and pick up the dog. We listened to “When You Are Engulfed…” up and back.
I have not listened to most of the book, so, happily, I’ve had something to distract me for the last couple of days. In my experience, there are really only three brands of cigarettes – Marlboro, Camel and Newport’s. Everything else was just decoration. I smoked Camels, as did most of my smoking friends – artsy, hipster, weird kids. Marlboros were smoked by frat boys and the assorted white people that didn’t want to pretend they were poor urban black kids but weren’t hipster kids. Newport’s were for poor urban black kids or those that wanted to pretend they were poor urban black kids.
But those were just the brands – the packaged, pre-rolled, filtered cigarettes. There is a little more variety in the hand-rolleds. On the low end were Bugler, Tops, Kite and Roll Rich. The Roll Rich has been harder to find lately, but Bugler and Tops have been moving in a big way since the State decided to help us help ourselves even more. On the upper end were Drum, Samson and Bali Shag. Drum was my tobacco of choice, its normal, boring blend. It was in the middle in terms of its moisture. When you got it, it wasn’t overly moist like Samson or dry like Bali tended to be. I learned how to roll cigarettes by watching a kid (actually, the kid that I bummed my first cigarette off of) roll joints. I spend a lot of time thinking about cigarettes. This is the first time that I haven’t relied on a “you’ll be able to smoke in X amount of time.” There are benefits. But costs too. Day three of the rest of my life. Goddamn I hate clichés.
It’s been 70 hours since my last cigarette. It’s mostly just really annoying but I have had odd little flashes of anxiety that I haven’t really experienced in many months. I’ve been listening to David Sedaris. The day after I quit, Ben and I drove up to Rochester to meet up with Ben’s parents and pick up the dog. We listened to “When You Are Engulfed…” up and back.
I have not listened to most of the book, so, happily, I’ve had something to distract me for the last couple of days. In my experience, there are really only three brands of cigarettes – Marlboro, Camel and Newport’s. Everything else was just decoration. I smoked Camels, as did most of my smoking friends – artsy, hipster, weird kids. Marlboros were smoked by frat boys and the assorted white people that didn’t want to pretend they were poor urban black kids but weren’t hipster kids. Newport’s were for poor urban black kids or those that wanted to pretend they were poor urban black kids.
But those were just the brands – the packaged, pre-rolled, filtered cigarettes. There is a little more variety in the hand-rolleds. On the low end were Bugler, Tops, Kite and Roll Rich. The Roll Rich has been harder to find lately, but Bugler and Tops have been moving in a big way since the State decided to help us help ourselves even more. On the upper end were Drum, Samson and Bali Shag. Drum was my tobacco of choice, its normal, boring blend. It was in the middle in terms of its moisture. When you got it, it wasn’t overly moist like Samson or dry like Bali tended to be. I learned how to roll cigarettes by watching a kid (actually, the kid that I bummed my first cigarette off of) roll joints. I spend a lot of time thinking about cigarettes. This is the first time that I haven’t relied on a “you’ll be able to smoke in X amount of time.” There are benefits. But costs too. Day three of the rest of my life. Goddamn I hate clichés.
posted by Spike at 9:12 AM
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