Old Tobacco Pics

[JimVH]

From Traces of Texas page on Twitter/X:

“A cigarette stand in Crystal City, 1939. It's fascinating to look at all the brands and consider which ones are still with us and which ones are gone. It's also interesting to think back on folks you knew/know who smoked various brands. My aunt, for example, smoked Kools, and my friend Chris' dad smoked Camel unfiltereds.

Taken by Russell Lee”

Pretty cool how many of the brands stick around.

[SlowToke]

My grandpa smoked Camel unfiltered. I have fond memories of him wrenching on cars (he was a mechanic at Marsh Garage his whole working life) with a cigarette hanging loosely out of his mouth. He was a man of few words unless he was telling a joke which he loved to do. He was a wizard at Euchre. He loved the Cincinnati Reds and would listen to them on the radio when I was a kid and on a Walkman when I was a teenager.

[sweetandsour]

One of my grandfathers smoked Camel non-filters, and for every pack he bought, my grandmother put the same amount of money into her money jar. He sent me to the store once with money to buy him a "carton", and I returned with a single pack and his change, which made him a little upset with me. But I preferred to be somewhat on my grandmother's side, as it were, at the time. He breathed the smoke casually into his lungs, maybe even after he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and passed away in his mid-80s from it.

An influence on me at my first job after college, the assistant plant manager at the plant where I worked smoked Lucky Strike non-filters. I loved the smell at first light up, with his old zippo. He came into the lab every morning with a cup of coffee, sat on a chair beside the desk, lit up, read the morning paper and did the crossword and Daily Jumble, before ambling off into the plant. He was a late 50's or early 60's era (post Korea, pre-Viet Nam) air force vet, very smart, mechanical engineer, devout Catholic, with a very pretty and engaging wife and lots of kids, I forget how many. We became good friends, and I'd go to his house sometimes for dinner, and would always bring a bottle of Blue Nun wine, which he and his wife would get a kick out of.

Many of the other brands also bring back old memories of various men and different times. Sir Walter, Granger, Beechnut, Brown's Mule. Brown's Mule was the preferred chew of an old friend of ours who lived just down the gravel road from our grandmother. He and my dad and my brothers would go turkey hunting in the winter when we visited my grandmother sometimes. One winter evening, in the late 60's, I walked down to his house with my older brother who was just home from a tour in Viet Nam, and his fiancé. The fiance' was pretty, very nice, and only slightly dense, to be kind. Our friend was chewing Brown's Mule inside the house and would spit into the fire, which was roaring in the old brick fireplace that evening. Above the fireplace on the wall was a large picture of MLK, illuminated with a small lamp fixed above it. "Is that your father?", my brother's fiance' asked, pointing at the MLK portrait. Our friend spit into the fire and immediately replied, "no darlin, that' not my father".

[ChildOfGod]

According to reports my grandfather on my father's side smoked Prince Albert at that time (1930's/1940's).

[JimVH]

According to reports my grandfather on my father's side smoked Prince Albert at that time (1930's/1940's).

Ditto for my mom's dad. When I was little I remember seeing old PA cans on his workbench in the barn, each filled with some kind of spare hardware or scraps. Most of the cans were paint-worn, beat-up, or pitted. My mom once said she remembered him carrying a tin in the bib pocket of his overalls. I'd love to have one of those old cans now.

[Del]

My Dad smoked Tareyton cigarettes.

I have fond memories of being 8-to-12 years old. Dad would send me to the corner store ("convenience stores" not having been invented yet) to buy a pack of Tareytons for him. The store was actually a home residence in which the front room had been converted into a shop. The lady at the store sold penny candy too.

Tareyton boasted about their "activated charcoal filter." I used to tear Dad's butt filters apart and unwind the charcoal filter, mystified at how the same charcoal that burned in the grill could also be a thin sheet all rolled up like paper.



Tareyton's slogan was "Us Tareyton Smokers Would Rather Fight Than Switch." Their ads featured guys and gals with a dark shadow under one eye.



In my youthful innocence, I figured that the shadow under the eye had something to do with rubbing that charcoal filter on their faces. I couldn't figure out why they did that.

[Bloodhound]

I would go bird hunting with this guy