Today is my second non-smoking day.
I have already reached my forty years.
I think that when I started smoking I was about thirteen.I used to buy loosen cigarretes at the news agents. Now you can't do that anymore, it's not allowed, and I think that it's one of the things that apart from being forbiden, it's obeyed. I haven't seen it anymore. The thing is that on my way out of school, coming back through the "less official" way, which we used to call short cut, but through which we maybe even were making a detour, there was a news agency at which my sister and I used to join the cream of the cream from our school, let's say that with the excuse of smoking a cigarrete. We used to buy Virginia tobacco, the Ducados that we had at home within reach of our hand was too strong for us.

That was the beggining, sharing  something half forbiden at our age, but not frowned upon by society in general at the moment you were a bit older. Because at that time  it wasn't bad or anything like that. What they used to say was that if you smoked, you woldn't  grow up, so I supposed that once you had reached a certain height, there wouldn't be any problem.

Everywhere they were selling us the sensuality,adulthood, sofistication and glamour of tobacco and its smoke. You were allowed to smoke everywhere, without any sense of embarrassment. Even indoors with babies. Or pregnant women. Nobody used to see any problem about that. How have things changed!...and how many things must we still change.