Posted on February 10, 2010 - by Hubba

Ahead of Their Time

I went to high school in Rapid City South Dakota, and hated every minute of it.  I tried very hard to sleep through all four years, only waking up on test days.

I had excellent memory retention back then (what happened to that?) and except for mathematics classes, tests were a breeze for me, particularly for some reason religion tests.  (I went to a Catholic high school.)

It was no secret, at least among my classmates, that I chewed tobacco.  On the rare occasion when I wanted to stay awake, I would chew in class as well.

Those circumstances led to a somewhat shocking ritual among my classmates on test days.  They (mostly boys of course) would begin a very vocal bidding war to get me to sit near them, with the unit of currency being a tobacco product.

“Trask, (I was referred to as “Trask” and my brother Nick was “Little Trask;” “Hubba” was a family nickname at the time) I’ll buy you a can of Copenhagen if you’ll sit by me…”  “I’ll by you three cans of Mint Copenhagen if you’ll sit by me…”  “I’ll buy you five, no seven cans of Cherry Copenhagen if you’ll sit by me!”

This was shocking for several reasons.  Tobacco and cheating were both frowned upon in high school, and yet by class time, the kids would be shouting their offers across the room.  And further, at the time there were two kinds of Copenhagen, snuff and long cut.  I always thought that these kids might be a little higher class than me, but they didn’t know anything about chewing tobacco.

But yesterday I bought my first can of Long Cut Wintergreen Copenhagen.  I have long since quit buying the higher priced chew, but right now this stuff is at an introductory price, so it’s pretty reasonable.  It’s also pretty good.

But why U.S. Tobacco, which owns the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky Brands, would make a Copenhagen product that competes with a Skoal product is beyond me.

And boy have times changed in the tobacco game.  When I was a kid who shouldn’t have been chewing, there was pretty much Copenhagen, which came in one variety, Skoal, which came in three or four, and then leaf tobacco.  Now Copenhagen comes in about ten flavors, Skoal comes in twenty or thirty, and thats just half the shelf.  It won’t be long before we see New Energy Copenhagen- now with ginseng, ginkgo biloba, and antioxidants.  Or maybe Listerine Skoal- kills germs that cause gingivitis.

I guess those kids weren’t so dumb after all.  Well I could still test better than them.