Soon I graduated from swiping cigarettes to buying them at a grocery store. Our gang of boys would wander into town ---Wausau, Wis. ---with cigarettes cupped in our hands, sometimes blowing smoke out our nostrils like movie stars. We'd hang out at a cafe across the river drinking "mud" (coffee with lots of cream and sugar) and puffing on "fags." We called them "coffin nails" even then.