Fridays With Frank: Granddad's Cigars

Frank L. Lee chewing his unlit cigar and filling prescriptions
Lee's Drug Store, Middlesboro, Kentucky, 1954

Sometime during his adult life, my granddad took up cigars.  Not smoking cigars--just keeping a cigar in his mouth.  He never lit his cigars, he just liked to keep a short stub of a cigar between his teeth.  He also liked to carry a variety of cigars in his drug store.   Long after my granddad had passed away, cigars remained part of the merchandise sold at of Lee's Drug Store.  I remember going into the drug store when I was a little girl, and the first thing I would notice upon entering the front door was the smell of the cigars.  I loved that smell!  There was a big glass and wood display case at the front of the store that held boxes of different brands of cigars.  Customers could buy one cigar at a time or whole box of cigars. When a box became empty, both my granddad and my dad would use those empty cigar boxes at home to store cards or letters, keys, spare change, any knickknack that would otherwise clutter up a drawer or the top of a desk.  I still have one or two of those old cigar boxes.  Whenever I run across them, I imagine Granddad chewing on his cigar stub and I remember that wonderful old smell of the drug store.

Frank L. Lee and his cigar
The National Bank, Middlesboro, Kentucky,  c. 1955