FIRE STARTER FOR YOUR FACE: MATCHBOOKS

If you smoke cigarettes you need a fire starter. It won’t light itself.

A few decades ago, quite a few, it seemed like everyone smoked.

I worked in an office in the early 80’s that allowed smoking at your desk.

Some people did it with a smoke filter, others just let it rip when they lit up.

And they all needed a light.

 

 

There was a time when smoking was standard for attaining manhood.

Kids smoked to look older.

Nothing says mature like a Camel hanging on your lip.

You were dialed in when you whipped out a book of matches with the right cover art.

 

The Face Of Art With Cigarette

During a recent walk through the big Getty Museum I noticed more smoking in framed pieces than I expected.

What did I expect? Nothing.

What did I get? Smokers.

Did the richest museum in the world corner the market on smoking art?

 

 

If that’s the case, and it looked like it, they ought to do an exhibit on matchbook art to go along with their smokers.

 

 

If you are of a certain age, the age where restaurants and airplanes had smoking sections separated by a sign that still allowed smoke to drift everywhere, then your stomach does a little flip thinking about your grandma’s house with the plastic covers on furniture and ashtrays decorating every room.

It was an interior design element to keep burn-holes and smoke from defacing the furniture.

The walls might be stained and the windows streaked, but not the nice couch.

You needed plastic covers because you weren’t about to tell anyone they couldn’t smoke in the house.

It was unpatriotic.

 

Smoke ‘Em If You’ve Got ‘Em

Back in my Army days we got single row packs of cigarettes in our field rations.

During a long march we’d stop for water and a smoke, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Did the Army have a contract for the small packs? Probably. I’ve never seen them for sale.

I met a sergeant who said he smoked seven full packs a day and ran seven miles.

I asked how he found the time for it all.

“It’s all about efficiency, so I smoke on the run.”

Did artists have a cigarette contract? Probably not.

 

 

I dated a smoker once.

To overcome the smoke I had to light up.

Two stinkers are better than one, although my parents made it work for a long time.

My Mom wanted my Dad to quit.

He said quitting would be more stressful than actually smoking, so she took it up.

She lasted one pack, and only a few cigarettes out of it, before she couldn’t take it anymore.

Smoking wasn’t part of their divorce, but she married a non-smoker the next time.

You never know.

 

Paint A Picture With You In It

Imagine walking into the kitchen as a kid and seeing your mom cooking and smoking with ashes a part of the ingredients.

You don’t say anything because it’s ‘normal’ and happens all the time.

Then you grow up and take an attitude that your old lady’s smoking is what ruined your life.

Not your own bad habits and laziness, it was your momma and her Marlborough’s.

At least that’s what the counselor said, and you took it to heart.

It was around then you stopped getting invites to family events.

“Mother, how could you.”

Mom: Calm down honey and pass the matches. Let’s talk about it. Would you like one?

“Eeeeeeeyellno.”

 

 

My Dad never stopped. He married a smoker the next time around.

For health reasons he switched to Salem menthols when he had a cough.

I’ve heard it said that a big drag on a Kool with a shot of peppermint schnapps out of the freezer is a holiday delight.

Can anyone verify that?

Will anyone be up for it this Christmas?

Put on your Santa suit and give it try? Not if you’re dry-heaving just thinking about it.

 

Fire Starter Matches

If the choice is between collecting smoking art, or match covers?

Go with the matchbook covers unless you want to compete with the Getty.

If you have an unsorted collection, you’re in for a museum-style good time.

 

 

From wagnermatch.com:

 

Did you know that matchbooks are the second most popular collectible behind stamps? There’s more to them than just lighting.

Before you do anything, you need to take the matches out of the matchbook. Storing and transportation are much easier without the matches. Remove the staple first, and then take the matches out.

 

From there it’s flattening and putting the matchbooks in an album, an archival album.

 

 

Matchbooks tell a story, one worth hearing, but they need help.

Like so many objects in museum collections, they are fragile and need special care.

If you sort a collection into topics and find this one? Keep it.

Whether you are a new phillumenist, or an old hand at it, matchbooks offer learning and history, an unexpected education tool.

Looking at any collection starts a journey of ‘where have they been?’

For baby boomers it can be a memory of a loved one gone from cancer, a death from smoking, but it’s the person we remember.

Larry McMurtry wrote a novel called Cadillac Jack about a guy on a collecting mission in his car.

His preferences were small things.

A matchbook is a delicate small thing old Jack would have liked.

 

PS: Calling something a collection adds responsibilities, museum-quality responsibilities. So does the name ‘phillumenist.’

 

PSS: Museum people know the difference between permanent and temporary. (Everything is temporary. Relax.)