The "Caught in the Act" Story

It was an ordinary day. Sitting at a stop light watching some kids smoking in an alley near the intersection. Brought back memories of when I did the same thing. I used to ride my bike to the local Acme Supermarket with a wagon tied to the back of it so I could pick up lettuce leaves for my guinea pigs that I was raising in the backyard of the my house on North Queen St. Would take a cigarette with me that I had taken from one of my parents. They both smoked at the time. Since I was in the alley, I figured no one would see me, or if they did, wouldn't know who I was anyway. I was right! Worked for years. I also would sit in the basement outdoor cellar way with the cellar door closed and the basement door closed and smoke cigars that my grandpap had growing in his back yard on a tree. They weren't really cigars, but looked like them. Only did that one or two times because they tended to make me sick. Then high school came and all my friends in the neighborhood were smoking. Had to fit in, didn't I? My friend Dick W. would pick me up to go fishing and offer me a smoke. Boy, we were cool!! Went to school dances and had to smoke before you got there so the girls could smell the smoke on you and think you were a rebel. That really never helped me land a girlfriend, though. Then one day I was moving items around on my book shelf in my room and realized that something wasn't in the proper place. Some one else had been moving them around, also. MY PARENTS! I panicked. What did they find. The box with the couple of cigarettes in it and the matches. Jeez, I hope not. Wasn't too long after that, that my mom said something to me. Said she would rather me smoke a pipe than cigarettes. Her and dad had decided to quite smoking. Was it my smoking that led them to this decision? My grandpap smoked a pipe and I always like the odor of the cherry tobacco he used, so that's what I tried. A few years later I met my wife who worked in a cytology lab and did cancer screening and was told by her on our first date that if I wanted to keep dating her I would have to stop smoking. She saw the results of smoking everyday in the lab. That was the last time I ever smoked. Matter of fact it kind of turns me to smell cigarette smoke today. And, I wonder how long the kids in alley that I am watching will smoke before they realize the hazards. You know, they really don't look that cool anymore! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.