Have you ever smoked Rabbit Tobacco?

Judy's May 2006

I belong to this writing group where each week we write a short story.  In trying to improve my writing skills it's very exciting.  Usually I write the birth, childhood, life of my character in a story.  This is a skill I find I need to work on, that of taking one subject out of the story and making it the short story, rather than trying to write a short novel.  I find this is hard to do!  It's easy outline the full story, but it's hard to expand on one subject.  I think the hard part is to keep on finding words to describe one scene!  The short novel is come up with plot, proceed, end and then it's over.  The short story is subject, how many threads to the subject, not really an ending. Take the following short short story:

Have You Ever Smoked Rabbit Tobacco?

     I think we get so caught up researching our Great-Great Grandpa or Grandma that we forget about our stories and history.  To our kids and grandkids, this is more relevant than way back when! Have you ever sat down and thought about when you were growing up? The funny situations you sometimes found yourself or what about your siblings?

      Here’s a story worth saving for you children. We were living at Big Woods on the mountain above Trenton, Georgia, about 1960 or 1961.  Its fall when the plants are drying up and the leaves were turning and preparing to fall off. We were crossing a field, swinging sticks, talking when we spotted the Rabbit Tobacco. This isn’t the technical name, but it’s what we called it. I'm not sure who suggested going into the house for a brown paper grocery bag, the kind they bagged your purchases in at A & P, a pair of scissors and matches.  My brother and I cut sections of paper about the size used to roll cigars, then pulled the dry leaves from the plant.  We rolled the leaves back and forth between our hands until it was the size of a cigar.  We then placed the tobacco at one end of the paper and rolled it up, like we'd seen our Dad, uncles and aunts do, into a huge cigar! I think rolling it was half the fun. I don't remember my sisters doing one, as they were only seven and four. We each took a match and lit one end, then took a puff off of it. Now think about that dry paper bag and those dry leaves! Talk about a coughing spell! I'm surprised we didn't suck fire into our lungs! I can't say the taste was very good either.  I don't remember if we did smaller puffs and smoked the whole things, or just held it with the tips of our fingers trying not to breathe in any more smoke. I can say, it wasn't something I ever did again.

Now I'm trying what to do with the story, any story. I've managed to send in one story since I've retired and it was rejected. How to choose where to send and which to send is sometimes overwhelming. Actually, this is a true story.