NOTE: None of the original Post has been modified in any way. I failed to add in the original Post that the lighter and little cigars in my pockets disappeared at the start of the first semester of my Junior year. Also, I still feel a profound regret for deceiving my parents, relatives, school classmates/teachers and the people of the Commiskey Baptist Church by my willful and selfish disobedience of both Biblical and healthy living standards. Thankfully, Jesus is all about forgiveness and a fresh start (1 John 1:9) .
Long before the unwashed, uncouth, and unshaven horde of Vikings invaded our TV's in the Capital One commercial and asked "What's Inside Your Wallet?" it was a save bet that few male students at PCHS during the 1955-59 era even carried a wallet. But it was almost certain that many of the fellows carried about the same cargo in their blue jean pockets.
There was a pocket knife, a few had Barlows, others had the American version of the Swiss Army knife with a zillion blades. A couple of guys had switch blade knives! Most had hand-me-down old knives from a father or older brother. Knife swapping was occasionally performed. Both sides would inspect their prospective new knife by opening and closing the blade(s) and wiggling the blade(s) back and forth to determine the stability of the knife. Somewhat like characters in old black and white Westerns would bite a gold coin to see if it was the real McCoy Needless to say, carrying a knife today would get a student expelled and possibly sent to a juvenile detention center.
The second must have item was a cigarette lighter, no matter if you smoked or not. Some gents carried an honest to goodness Zippo lighter; however, most were imitations. I once carried a lighter that was in the shape of a Coke Cola bottle, complete with red logo on the silver colored, miniature metal bottle The sound of a Zippo lighter quickly snapped closed sounded like a cricket with COPD! Lighter fluid and lighter flints were in constant demand. One day, an upperclassman, now deceased, had a can of Red Devil lighter fluid leak out of his front blue jean pocket at school, resulting in some embarrassing first aid.
Some fellows had half-smoked Camels or Lucky Strikes in a crushed pack and carried them in their back pocket. The Marlboro cowboy was still out on the range breathing clean air free of tobacco smoke. Some tough guys, after school, would carry their cigarette package in a rolled up t-shirt sleeve like New York bad guys.
For the curious, I had a knife, lighter and a small tin container of "Between The Acts" little cigars. I seldom smoked the very strong cigars that earned their name as a short smoke between the acts of Broadway plays.(See, it was not what you may have thought!) My first cigar was a shared six cent King Edward we passed around outside of a Farm Bureau meeting at the Lovett Grade School. In a failed attempt to stop my head from spinning, I lay on the exit steps of the 1st-4th grade building and put a foot on the ground without achieving any relief. I, like Bill Clinton, never inhaled and never smoked at night because I could not see the smoke!
To use a contemporary term---I was never busted. I did have one very embarrassing close call. During an extended hospital stay of my mother, I was picked up one day after school and taken to the home of Leland Mathews' aunts in Commiskey to try on some clothes Leland had outgrown. (It is worth mentioning this was just one of many acts of kindness from Leland's family.) Miss Clara and Mrs. Lurton, two of my Sunday School teachers, gave me several pairs of jeans/slacks to try on. Somehow, I left my own jeans, containing the knife, lighter and the little cigars in a room separate from the ad hoc dressing room. I was very worried they might enter the room where my trio of very disappointing items were hidden in the pockets of my jeans. They did not and I breathed a sigh of relief as they took me and my much appreciated "new" clothes to my uncle's, where I was staying.
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