The new brew in my live is Mocha Java from the A&J Deli. To think I made the 350 mile trip 6 times a yr. fro 1976-1979 and never missed that stop. It is where I would traditionally phone Harry and Gary would answer and I’d tell I’ll be there in 2 hours. And then over that highway you could always see Willie. I would always pity myself that I approached it from the north—because for some reason, any other direction was preferable to me. Am I rambling?
I admit it—comfortable as I am, I am lonesome for Willie. But the old Willie. Featureless, humorless, niggerless, and mercilessly inhospitable. My “first city” and it was just as well. Someday I know I’ll go back. If for no reason but that there was simply nowhere else. The city itself should have been 8-15 miles further southwest, and today the best thing I can say for Willie is that it is NOT KALISPELL.
Well, I got nothing done last evening & it cost me $30 bucks. For you folks in the future, that’s 16.21 bottles of bee or 21.42 packs of cigarettes or 3.92 large pepperoni pizzas. But not all those at once. About a 1/2 day’s wage for non-union people, or worse.
I’ll make a prediction. In 2,000 A.D. just inflation will price cigarettes at about $15 a pack at a conservative guess. Economically, there are a lot of very broke people around these days. And does drinking make women fat or do only fat women drink? Quick, think of the ugliest thing on a woman. Plus you will be happy to note I have recently acquired a “certain amount” of Peek Frean’s Assorted Crème.
[Author’s note 2023: this passages are not clear, as I often drove across the border into Canada at the time and prices were far higher. The nearest city was Great Falls and I’ve only been there once, I think. Anyway, here are some cigarette statistics for 1981.
> Avg. price: $1.01 per pack
> Inflation-adjusted price: $2.40 per pack
> Avg. state and federal cigarette taxes: $0.31 per pack
> Annual consumption per capita: 2,520 cigarettes
> Lung & bronchitus cancer deaths: 58.6 per 100,000
So I was way off on $15 per pack, but look at the annual consumption. By 2021, the average was down to 463 per person per year.]
[Author’s note 2026: for your reading enjoyment, the original post is still here using the original language. Willie was our code name for Calgary, Alberta. Short for Big Willie, like most at the time, we were convinced collapse was immenent. I was not there long, but Calgary turned out to be the first "big city" I lived in. Now, it no longer exists as a desirable location and I'll never go back there. But I do have a penpal who has lived there his whole life, known the guy something like 55 years. And cigarettes today cost $11.70 a pack in New York City.]
