The R. J. Reynolds salesman was at the cash register with the Bluff Park grocery store owner. I was asked if I was getting cigarettes and I answered no, I don’t want any.
I was 17, but the store owner didn’t care and the RJR salesman certainly didn’t care. I added, “they are too bad” or some such phrase as that. This was 1969 or 1970 and memory fades; it was my high school senior year.
9
The building still houses a grocery store in Bluff Park on Shades Crest Road. Fifty years ago, it is where an R. J. Reynolds salesman gave me my first pack of Doral cigarettes.
The salesman said, “oh no,” as he hands me a pack of cigarettes. “See, this is low tar and it has a plastic baffle system that collects all the bad ingredients,” or something to that effect.
I said, “no thanks, I was smoking menthol anyway.” Then he handed me the green pack of Dorals.
I had gotten away from cigarettes. I was waiting tables after school to make enough to eat and get back and forth to school. But this was a crutch that I needed, and he gave me a freebie.
After lung cancer, right now, I am cancer free.
Taste Me – after decades of addiction I don’t taste as bad as I did most of my life.
I will never forget that man standing at the cash register checkout. He was 5’10”, maybe 5’11”, about 160 – 170 lbs. Early 30sish. He had on a lightweight cotton parka-like jacket and a plaid shirt. Wide face, short-cropped, light brown hair.
It should be easy in old employment records to see whose route that was for Bluff Park.
Marionetta Strung-Out 