Lloyd's Art Info

A new smoker




When living in Jersey City

a place with no pity

children played in the street

cigarettes covered their feet

thought they knew it all

so they were bound to fall

so I saw a cigarette laying in the street

it was also at my feet

so I took the stubs and smoked them

and I was not even 10

but I was just five

smoking in front of a tavern dive

so one man came along

he saw my habit was strong

so he gave me a fresh cigarette from his pack

how kind of man was he



this actually happened to me. We lived in Jersey City. What I remember was a town with no pity. We played in the street. We lived on the corner of Jackson and Washington Boulevard. It was a very dirty and corrupted city. Mayor Hague was then Mayor. The year was 1945. It was a time when people stood on corners on afraid of a shooter that would drive by. These people were usually on the corner to smoke and escape the heat of the night. The children also were playing in the street there were fewer cars driving through the streets. It was before television and the source of entertainment was those 78 RPM records and radio. Sometimes the songs from these devices would be heard loudly in the streets. As a boy, a very young boy I was influenced by the street dwellers. This tale shows you how I first started to smoke. I thought the big boys did it and so I had permission to do this as well. I joined the group. Later in life I gave up smoking. I found that I enjoyed it in a social setting. When I started drinking I increase my smoking. Were an addiction that almost ruined my health. I now think that parents should have more wisdom than to let their children hang out on corners and let the street thugs influence their children's life.