Cabra History.Com

The Da’ and his Fag…

These were always the Da’s favourite fag, his oul John Players. Sometimes if he was stuck for a few bob he’d send one of us to the shop for one John Player and a Match. He wouldn’t touch a Woodbine, “Coffin Nails” is what he used to call them. And he said that a pipe was only for School Teachers and Politicians. If he was doing a job in his shed he’d have a fag sticking out of the side of his mouth and the ash spluttering all over the place. He started smoking when he was ten years old. Now, if he got wind that any of us were smoking he’d threaten us with Hellfire and Brimstone. One of our old neighbours used to stick a pin through the butt of his cigarette so as to get the last puff out of it. There was another of our neighbours that the Da’ called “Stabber Hunter” because he’d always pick up the old butts,  or Stabbers as we sometimes called them, off a the ground and tear the paper on them and put the tobacco into his pocket. Two of the  Da’s oul fingers were all brown from the tar off the cigarettes. Sometimes of a Friday night when he was finished work for the week he’d sit in the only armchair that we had and he’d put his head back, then smoking the fag he’d blow smoke circles up into the air, they looked like doughnuts and we’d be grabbing them and that. I could just imagine his face now if someone told him that he wasn’t allowed to smoke on the bus or in the pub. But that’s how It was back then…