Brenda Boonyodom

WRIT 1 9am

Cigarette Sweater

“Raleigh, I have heard of many: who turned their gold into smoke, but until now I have never
known of anyone who could turn smoke into gold.” - Queen Elizabeth, How Sir Walter Raleigh Outwitted
Queen Elizabeth by Computing the Weight I of His Pipe Smoke

I have always loved the color red. I'm not really sure why, maybe because it just

felt so powerful or maybe because it was the color of love. One red thing that I love is

my parents Marlboro sweater. A bright red Marlboro sweater with the brand name

stitched on the arm. It had rips on the stitches on the sleeve and at the bottom of the

sweater. It was so big on me but I loved wearing it because it always made me feel so

cool and comfortable. I took this sweater from my parents when I was younger and I

have never let go of it since. I remember when I first saw the sweater, I was so excited

to keep it just like my mom told me “You were just looking in the closet by the doorway

and you found it and took it right away. You seemed to really like it so we let you have it.

You never let go of it even till this day”. (Chantra Kaewdee, Personal Interview) When I
look at this sweater now, I see my parents having a smoke in the morning and drinking

coffee and sometimes I even smell smoke.

One of my mom’s morning routines is drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes in

the morning just like Otis Redding sings about in “Cigarettes and Coffee.” “It's early in

the morning about a quarter 'till three, I'm sittin' here talkin' with my baby, over

cigarettes and coffee, yeah” (Otis Redding) There was never a morning that she

missed her routine. My mom always woke up early so the smell of her Folgers instant

morning coffee would fill the house before she would light up a cigarette. I remember I

used to always go to the kitchen first after getting ready in the morning to greet my mom

but she was always outside with her cup of coffee. I have always loved standing outside

with my parents even when they were smoking, albeit it's bad for my health.They always

said “ It wakes me up and I’m addicted to it”. (Father) I mean I couldn’t blame them

because that's just the way they grew up but they always looked cool while doing it.

Their cigarettes seemed to be an accessory to them however to me it was a sweater.

I recently moved away from my parents and away from my home. I don’t get to

see their faces every day but I do get to visit them maybe once or twice a month.

Growing up in an immigrant family, my family values are much different than others. My

parents are exactly old school and strict nor are they too “American”, they are in

between the mixing pot of Thai and American. My family is full of smokers and my

parents smoke Marlboro cigarettes only so having the sweater is like having my parents

with me at all times. I can see their faces and smell cigarettes everytime I look at the

sweater. Although it smells really bad it still smells like home.

 As many studies have proven, our memories are intertwined with our sense of

smell as said in this article by Colleen Walsh. She explains that smells is the only fully

developed sense a fetus has in the womb, and is the one that is the most developed in

a child until 10 when their sight becomes better. She also explains that smell and

emotion are stored as one memory so your childhood is when you decide the smells

you will and will not like for the rest of your life. When I look at the sweater, I picture my

parents in front of my house, having a smoke and telling me how their day went at work.

Everyone loved to go to the front of the house near our garage to smoke, it was the

hangout spot. Every day after work my parents would stop at the front door, have a

smoke, and relax just before they go inside to say hi. Sometimes when I would hear

their car coming into the driveway, I would meet them at the front door and ask them

about their day. “Go away Brenda, you're standing too close to the smoke” they would

always tell me but since I grew up around the smoke, I kind of got used to it.

I was never super close to my parents until recently around high school. For

some reason in my family, a lot of the kids aren't super close to their parents but

thankfully that wasn’t the case with me. However I didn't start out being close to them.

My parents were never super affectionate or clingy to me but when I moved away, that

side that I thought didn't exist seemed to surface greatly. So by having the sweater with

me in college, I felt even closer to them. The sweater was a constant reminder of how

much we loved each other. Moving away to college was a freeing yet sad experience for

me. It made me sad to leave my family behind but it was also freeing because I would

be able to live my life how I wanted.

 Despite moving into a new apartment last year and leaving a lot of clothes at

home I still chose to bring the Marlboro sweater even though I never wear it anymore. I

like having it with me as a souvenir and reminder of who my parents are and where I

come from. I remember I wore it one time to a family friend's party and my cousin

thought my sweater was so cool. He’s the type of skater boy who thrifts and smokes

weed for fun. He actually went thrifting earlier that day and found some vintage

Marlboro stuff as well but he seemed to like my sweater even more. He even asked if

he could borrow it and of course, I said no so he said “ I’m going to go thrifting again just

so I can get the same jacket. It’s so cool and vintage, it must be nice.” (Boeing

Srisamutngam) I was amazed at how much he liked it and I just felt so proud that

something this cool came from my parents. This vintage item that everyone seems to

want but cannot have is in my hands, it's in my home.

Smoking cigarettes was a big part of the boomers generation from what I have

experienced. They start young and continue until they are old because it's an old habit

they cannot get rid of. My parents started since their late teens and I haven't been able

to make them quit. All kids who have parents that smoke want them to stop. I would

also like my parents to stop because of the damage to their bodies however I also

understand that it is just who they are and they can’t change that therefore smoking is a

part of them. Smoke and cigarettes is what the sweater is inspired off of and it is

essentially a part of them that I know carry with me. No matter how old The sweater is

and no matter that I hardly wear it, I will always have it with me. As I grow older, I begin

to appreciate my parents more and begin to love every little thing that reminds me of
them. I am thankful for the smoking, and thankful for the Marlboro because without them

the sweater wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have taken it. (1255 words)

Works Cited

Kaewdee, Chantra. “Personal Interview.” 19 Apr. 2021.

Redding, Otis. “Cigarettes and Coffee.” The Soul Album, Atco Records, 1966.

Srisamutngam, Boeing. “Personal Interview.” 20 Apr. 2021.

Walsh, Colleen. “How Scent, Emotion, and Memory Are Intertwined - and Exploited.”

Harvard Gazette, Harvard Gazette, 27 Feb. 2020,

news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/how-scent-emotion-and-memory-are-intertwined-

and-exploited/.