On The Crush List because…
Remember when we were a cigarette and two martini lunch culture? Round Top does.
the annual great american smokeout
Antiquing is pretty much the same as museuming, except you get to buy the exhibits. During my history walks through the fields and tents of Round Top I’m struck by the plethora of smoking memorabilia; tobacco silks and ashtrays and lighters and cigar boxes and pipes and such. It’s all a reminder of how successfully we’ve reduced the once stylish habit of smoking to a rather sorry process of dragging through the stick as quickly as possible while hunkered outside the service entrance in a stale winter coat trying to avoid small talk with Carl from Receivables. Heck, even our NO SMOKING signage has lost its mojo.
And while we’re on the topic, may I say that I’ve driven through most of the United States and one thing I’ve observed is this: There are still a lot of smokers in the state of Oklahoma. Now it’s true that most of my time in OK has been spent on its interstate highways, and it very well may be that I haven’t been seeing a lot of smokers, just a lot of places to buy tax free cigarettes. So how ’bout a look at the actual numbers? It turns out that there are a lot of smokers in OK (it comes in fourth behind KY, WV & MS). So I’m going to go further out on my limb and say that I bet it’s no coincidence that the National Lighter Museum was located right there in the town of Guthrie, OK. It looks to be a fun little stop… but heads up. I don’t see any updates on their website after 2008 so if you’re ready for that kind of museuming you should probably give them a call to make sure they’re still in business.
