Little vices...

Brendan smokes. Marlboros. At a time when people smoked in restaurants and bars and while driving their kids to school and on airplanes. Even around the dinner table. But I'd forgotten that because I never did smoke. I tried to start when I was in high school but found every time I had a cigarette my voice would vanish for a day or two. So just never got into the habit and now can't stand it.

Anyway, I'm going to add in that when Brendan comes out to help his uncle with the Volvo, be bums a smoke. But Uncle Sean only does Camels, which Brendan doesn't like. It's just, he doesn't have money to buy his own, yet, so has to make do. It's one of those things that should make the moment become even more real.

Aunt Mari smokes, as well...but would she be Benson & Hedges or Chesterfields? Certainly not Kools and Lucky Strike was no filter, so not those. I've hinted that Scott smokes, not just cigarettes but also pot. Dangerous to do in Texas, at that time. Kids were being sent to Huntsville for 10 years over just a joint.

This was at a time when you only had to be 16 to buy a pack, and few stores really carded you. My step-father smoked, as do all my brothers; one of my sisters did but she quit. And my mother never did. She had asthma, so had to use her inhaler a lot. No one cared enough to stop. My father also smoked, but my sister in San Diego refused to let him do it in the house. And he'd get huffy, at times.

I might add in a bit where Scott gets Brendan a pack of his belovéd Marlboros and some matches, and he has to ration them. But they would be a way for him to calm himself down.