A SMOKE that is almost a meal! Now that was a good heading for a press advert in one of our local papers back in the Twenties. I don’t know which one because all I have in front of me is a very faded press cutting. It was plugging the attractions of “Rubicon Twist.” The ad was very much aimed at workmen.

It ran: “for that unexpected extra quarter shift –when there’s nothing left in the dinner-basket – try a pipe of “Rubicon” Twist. “It’s the best substitute for a square meal that a Workman can have. You don’t eat the smoke of Rubicon, but it seems as though you can.”

It was, according to the ad, sold all over the North.

Now I’ve never heard of Rubicon Twist, and I suspect that is no longer produced. Unless, of course, you know any different!

The ad seems to suggest that smoking was pretty common back in those days – and it was. A great many men who served in the trenches in the Great War were known to be smokers. Their needs were supplied by the efforts of various local “Smokes for Tommies” campaigns that organised donations of tobacco and cigarettes to soldiers serving in the trenches in France. And you know what they say: “Once a smoker, always a smoker.”

When I walk about any town, I can’t fail to notice just how many people are huddled in shop doorways, bus shelters and the like – often in twos and threes, puffing away at their cigarettes. And I suspect that the various coffee bars with outside tables have boosted their taking by catering for outside smokers.

A question here for older readers: Back in the old days, where couldn’t you smoke?

You could smoke in buses, trains, shops, theatres, waiting rooms, taxis, coffee bars and even, very rarely, some church services.

Something you don’t see nowadays is a spittoon. These were often to be found in various pubs and clubs – no longer required when smoking in these premises was banned.

One smoker which these “no smoking” bans have hit hardest is the “stub collector and roller”. Picking through the stubs in an ashtray is one thing – grubbing them up from the gutter is something else.

When I was a youngster I used to go with my family to visit great-grandparents in North Wales and occasionally I was packed off to the local shop to buy some chewing tobacco. Tobacco chewing is/was a decidedly anti-social activity – and access to a spittoon was absolutely essential.

Most of us are now all well aware of the dangers of passive smoking. A contributor, writing to the BMJ in 1994, wondered if heavy cigarette smokers were also aware of a similar risk to pets. Pet dogs could also develop lung cancer if they lived in premises occupied by a very heavy smoker. Another reason perhaps to pack in smoking!

So do I smoke? I used to – but after attending the funeral of a friend who died of throat cancer I developed a severe sore throat which lasted for about three weeks. Long enough to make me pack in smoking!

I used to smoke 20 a day – and after I’d worked out just how much smoking was costing me, I was quite shocked. And I’ve never bought another cigarette since.

So how much is your smoking costing you? When you put it down on paper you might be surprised.

Beneath the 1920 “Rubicon Twist” ad was another ad – from a Carlisle chemist – for his “Sawyer’s Wonderful Bronchial Cough Mixture.” Coincidence or not?