cigarettes

[Enrique Diaz-Alvarez]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:
> 
> >When I was a teenager, my friends smoked 'cuz all the cool kids did it,
> >and the chicks dug it. Fascination of the sublime had very little to do
> >with it.
> >
> >Maybe I just had very shallow friends.
> 
> Why was it "cool"? The association with outlaws, danger, the forbidden, no?
> 

No, not really. This was Spain, and there was (is) no element of danger
of forbiddenness to smoking. A 12 year old could (can?) buy cigarettes
unimpeded, 14-year-old high school students smoked openly on school
grounds, and no institutional attempt was made to discourage them.

There was, however, an element of maturity, you were a big high school
kid now, and you proved it by smoking. Danger was really not a part of
it at all. And kids smoke a lot more than they do here.


> Doug

-- 
Enrique Diaz-Alvarez            Office # (607) 255 5034	
Electrical Engineering          Home #   (607) 272 4808
112 Phillips Hall               Fax #    (607) 255 4565
Cornell University              mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu
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