You're out at night, reach for your pack of Brand X and, damn, had the last one thirty minutes ago. "Hey man, what're you carrying?" Next thing you know, you realize Parliaments are pretty similar to American Spirit blue packs but they burn a little faster so they don't consume so much of your day. Next thing you know, you've got a backup pack for when you're at a bar that sells smokes but doesn't carry Spirits, or at least not the brand you look for.

After a year or so of transitioning from the Spirits to the Parliaments, you realize you're still spending the same amount of money for slightly less cigarette, you're on the job and forgot to stop for a pack at the station before work, so you head out to the break spot and ask what someone's got. Reds. Damn, Cowboy Killers! But you take a hit and, woo, that hits you like the Spirits used to when you first started. So you go buy a pack of Reds and try rolling with those, but it's too hot to handle for you over a whole pack, especially now that you're up to about a pack a day.

Your dad smokes Wildhorses, real budget shit, and he's staying with you for a spell so you alternate between the two and realize there's not much difference, so you give Wildhorse a real shot. Except in the circles you hang, you start to feel that old, "oh man, you still have an iPhone 4S" stigma from the eyes of everyone around you. No, I'm just being budget conscious, swear! But they really don't feel that good on your throat, and by now you're definitely on a pack a day if no up and over on a night you're really rolling with the homies, especially now that you quit smoking weed. Still need that oral fixation somehow to stave off the anxiety of being tipsy or finishing a long shift not sure if people think you're doing a good job as a bartender.

You keep reminiscing on that first hit of a Red, but first remember that the Spirits were your first love, and unlike every other cigarette those are still looked upon as "cool" by your generation. So you go back to them, only this time you're putting the cigs out halfway through and tucking them back in your pack. Hey, now I've got two packs for the price of one!, you say. Only now your pockets constantly smell like burnt motor oil and you're smoking a cigarette every 30 minutes instead of every hour, so nothing's changed except you're disgusting.

One day you're in the gas station picking up some Pringles and a 6-pack when you notice a silver box of Reds on the shelves; 72s. Quick google search while you pretend to scan the aisle for your favorite brand of pretzels or pretend you're actually considering a hot dog from the Buckys that gets robbed all the time and you've never once seen somebody buy one of those things; oh, same product, just shorter? You buy one, you go to work, you can finish one off in about a minute and get the same amount of buzz, or you can savor it and string it along for 4, 5 minutes if you want? For the next two years, all you know is Red 72s.

And if I still smoked, it'd still be all I know. I can bum a Marlboro Gold, or a Blue/Yellow spirit, or a Camel Blue, or a Marlboro Red regular, or a Parliament, or just about anything that isn't a Light (they actually make me feel physically sick and on the edge of vomiting due to their lack of flavor) but it took a lot of steps to realize what worked best for me, and I'd never spend my money on anything else unless it was legitimately healthy for you and, like, restored your lungs to 15 year old alpha dog status.

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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
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