I used to smoke. Most of the people in my family smoked, so I took it up. I don’t smoke now, and haven’t in over 25 years, and sometimes I miss it. Grandma Holton used to smoke, and sometimes we’d have a cigarette together. It was a bonding moment.

Likewise, my in-laws both smoked. My father-in-law and I would go to White Sox games together, sit in the grandstands at old Comiskey Park, smoke Camel straights and drink beer, and talk. I had the greatest in-laws of anyone I know. My mother-in-law used to do the crosswords in the Sun-Times, and I used to do the on my way to or from work. I’d come home, she’d be outside having a smoke, and she’d ask me questions like, “what was 26 across?”

Bonding moments are precious. If you can still have them, have them.

I gotta play this…

Christine