THE NARRATIVE ARC
The ‘Smoking Pit’ Was the Social Hub of Our High School
As a teenager in the seventies we learned to smoke to be cool
A hilarious cartoon on social media shows an elderly woman with a walker speaking to her granddaughter, “My high school had a smoking section.” The granddaughter responds, “Sure, Grandma — let’s get you to bed.” It’s like it is the most ridiculous thing her grandmother could say.
But it’s true.
At our high school, it was called, “The Pit” which I guess was short for the smoking pit. It was a brick and concrete sunken square in the center of the school with hallways radiating out from it.
By high school, I was already a long-time smoker. I was self-taught.
In sixth grade, I hid with my friends among the trees in the park near my home. I’d sneak a pack of my dad’s cigarettes from the carton in his desk drawer. I thought he’d never notice. When he did confront me he didn’t yell or even say much. He furrowed his brow and shook his head and I could see the disappointment in his eyes. That was the worst punishment of all.
In Junior High, we were segregated when we wanted to smoke. It was forbidden so we would light up in the boys’ washroom (the girls would smoke in their…
