Neon & Nicotine

From the Anonymous Deacon:

Thursday night I happened to be driving around Florence and came across a disturbing site. As I made my way down Mall Road behind the theater, the entire sky suddenly lit up and for a split second I thought the fair was back in town. It was raining that night which already made it difficult to see and as I squinted out of the windshield expecting to see some grand Chuck E Cheese inspired fun palace, I was disappointed to find a cigar store. Total bummer right?!?!?!

Don’t get me wrong, as a former smoker of ten years I’m not against people lighting one up to take the edge off.  Rarely will I complain about second hand smoke as long as it’s not around my children, who both have asthma. I’m not one of these “You should only be able to smoke in your own home and even then only in if you live outside the city limits” type people. Just keep it way from my kids and you’ll hear no arguments from me. What I do take issue with though is this; let’s not pretend that smoking is such some a grand experience that we dress up a cigar store so that it looks like Disneyland. I get that it used to be an ice-cream store and without throwing a ton of money into remodeling, the owners probably did the best they could with what they had and are more than likely barely able to pay the rent on such prime real-estate. Can we at least cut back on some of the flashing neon & clown makeup though? A coat of paint would go a long way to making it look more like a store for adults who enjoy a good cigar and less like what it appears now which is what my brain still said it was…an ice-cream store! I mean I read the words cigars sold here, but my stomach literally started shouting “Rocky Road! Rocky Road!”

Sex on TV at 4:00 in the afternoon, cursing on the radio during the morning drive to school every morning; I’m aware our world is the least family friendly it has ever been, but on top of everything else do we really have to make smoking look like an amusement park thrill ride? It’s Florence, AL not Las Vegas, NV. You don’t need the neon to let get our attention. I’ve lived here 42 years; people know when a new business opens and what they sell. Don’t listen to me though, I’m just blowing smoke.

The Anonymous Deacon

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