'If you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it right.'

My Uncle Jim visited from Arizona this weekend. Last night we all had dinner together at my grandparents. When dinner was over and the kitchen cleaned up my Grandpa, Uncle Jim, Dad and myself headed out to the back porch so Uncle J and Gpa could smoke their pipes. A nightly ritual for my Uncle. It was a neat time. My Grandpa began reflecting on stories from when he was in the military. Sounds like some good times, tough times, and funny times.

A Non-Military Story My Grandpa Shared:
When he was a youngster, the next door neighbors had a grape arbor on their property. Grandpa said he would go over to that arbor and pluck off the drying grape leaves. He kept a tin in his pocket and as he picked those leaves he would crumble them into the tin. He also kept some pieces of toilet paper and some matches and he would make little cigarettes. He kept his stock amidst a shelf of other tins. One day his Mother and Father discovered it. When grandpa got home from school his dad called him into his bedroom, showed him the tin and asked what it was? Grandpa said he played the idiot on it; "I have no idea?!" He said his dad then said, "Well if you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it right." He had my grandpa roll a cigarette and light it up and smoke it. Grandpa said he took fast little puffs and soon it was gone. His dad told him, "No, that's not the way you do it." And made him slowly smoke the cigarette. Grandpa said it cured him til he was out of high school.

My super cute new jacket.. last night I titled it my smoking jacket: