The Smoking Pit

One morning last week I made my way to Sims Market and Deli to find out the latest news. The regular group of men was present, along with several Hardin Valley Academy students. Parents drop off their children at the market, which is located in front of the school. Most come in to order breakfast. However, some of the teens never even enter the store. Instead, they sneak around the corner of the store to light up cigarettes, and clouds of smoke billow across the front of the building. Things have sure changed since the times that smoking pits were in available to smokers.

In the old days at Karns High, smokers had a designated area where they could go to puff away. It was located along the wall of the gym and in front of the wood shop area. Guys would pour into the pit between classes to get a quick smoke. I was one of them, and we entered classrooms reeking of stale smoke. By the time the class was over, most of us were ready for another hit of nicotine.

To smoke in the pit, students (males only) were required to have a smoking permit that had been signed by parents and principals. Jim and I almost broke Mother’s heart when we brought those forms home, but she signed them anyway. Otherwise, the two of us would have been suspended from school when we were caught smoking without them.

Friendships were established in the smoking pit that lasted a life time. It didn’t matter that freshmen stood in the same space as seniors. Of course, younger smokers dared not to speak to older ones without being spoken to first. It’s been nearly 40 years since then, but occasionally I run into guys with whom I shared a smoke, and we are as cordial as back then.

Some of the toughest guys in school camped in the smoking pit during any free time. One was feared by freshmen and seniors alike, but once he became a friend, he was one forever and in any situation. My brother Jim developed such a friendship, and this tough guy had his back at all times. I wonder if the two would still be friends today. I’ve been told the guy has spent a bit of time in prison over the years.

A couple of times fights broke out in the smoking pit. One occurred when a big-mouthed freshman irritated a senior to the point that fists flew. The first punch caught the younger boy in the eye with the sound of two cinder blocks colliding, and immediately the orb swelled to the size of a tennis ball. Other times, even nonsmokers met in the pit to settle differences. Pugilists shed their shirts and went to it, most of the time with their heads pulled back and their arms wind-milling. Eventually, the fight went to the ground and the wiriest guy won.

Back then, smokers weren’t outcasts as they are now. All sorts of kids smoked, whether they did so at school or sneaked in restrooms and at home. Today, we’re smarter and know that smoking is a free ticket to lung cancer and all other sorts of illnesses. Still, something attracts young people to the habit, and then they are addicted to nicotine. Instead of having a pit, our country might decide to stop the production of cigarettes altogether. As an older guy, I now see how harmful those trips to the smoking pit and other placed were to my health. You’d think America would be smarter.