McCOMB - Considering the social changes since I was in high school 50 years ago is mind-boggling.
Here in Mississippi, as well as most of America, two things that immediately come to mind are racial integration and legalized gambling.
Desegregation was an issue in Mississippi in the 1950s, for sure, but it really didn't start occurring to much extent until about 10 years later.
Gambling, while legal in Las Vegas, did occur in Mississippi, but it was against the law and considered by many people to be a sin.
But perhaps there has been no greater change in public attitude than that regarding a once common habit - smoking.
In the news last week were reports about the North Mississippi town of Olive Branch banning smoking in all city buildings.
Even more astonishing, at least to me, was a decision of Delta State University officials to ban the use and sale of tobacco products in all campus buildings.
So much for the once stereotypical, pipe-smoking college professor.
When I was in college, smoking was prevalent in dormitories and even some classrooms where professors allowed it.
In high school we had a designated smoking area outdoors where students puffed away during recess and lunch periods.
If there were any laws against selling tobacco products to minors, they were not enforced. In fact, some stores would break up packs of cigarettes,which then cost about a quarter, and sell single smokes for a penny each.
Kids would bum "shorts" off those affluent enough to have a whole cigarette, and sometimes someone would even get "shorts" on the "short", meaning a cigarette could have as many as three smokers until it burned down to the nub.
Our high school football coach forbade us from smoking during the season, but those caught didn't get kicked off the team. They'd just have to run some extra laps around the field to demonstrate the belief that smoking made one short-winded.
Most of the coaches smoked or chewed or both, and after the season they were very lenient about it insofar as we were concerned. In fact I remember one night several players lit up on the team bus after the last game of the season.
Some of my classmates, who formed habits back then they never were able to kick, have since died of emphysema or lung cancer.
We were the generation that produced the plaintiffs in the tobacco lawsuits.
What we didn't have access to or really know much about in this part of the country in the 1950s was marijuana or any of the other so-called recreational drugs so prevalent today.
There was some consumption of alcohol among the older kids but not anything like it is purported to be now.
Is society any better or worse than it was 50 years ago? I don't know. Some things obviously are better, some things aren't. But no doubt things have changed.
I can't help but wonder what the next 50 years will bring.
