A Memorable Negotiation in a Smoke Filled Room

Back in the days when I was growing up, people would leave cigarettes sitting in a can on the living room coffee table for their guests to enjoy. One day, as my father was working at his desk in another room, I saw the cigarettes sitting on the coffee table and I quickly picked them up, along with matches and an ashtray, and hurried into my room to smoke. I was five years old. After I had lit my cigarette, I heard a knock at the door. It was my father calling to me, "Pauly, Pauly, what are you doing?" "I'm playing with my cars." I said back to him, as I pushed the toy car that contained my cigarettes under the bed. He opened the door to the cigarette smoke clouded room and immediately knew what I had been doing. My dad looked at me and said, "If you tell me the truth, you won't get spanked." I decided that was a good deal, and told him what I had been doing. My dad didn't shame me about it, instead he refocused and asked me if I'd like to go and grease the wheels on my toy truck. This is one of the best memories I have of my dad.