Ignorance Is Bliss

1960: Patsy is in the student lounge at West Georgia College. Melba joins her. They are a few weeks into their Freshman year.

Melba: How do you like West Georgia so far?

Patsy: I like it, but some people here are really strange. Have you noticed that?

Melba: What do you mean?

Patsy: This upperclassman, Tom Wilson, came by just before you came in, and he said that he had something that was the best in the country, and it would only cost $5.00. He said he bet that I had never had better.

Melba: What was he selling?

Patsy: Weed, he said. First I told him that I thought he needed to put an "s" on the word. Then I told him that I knew all about weeds. We had plenty of them at home, but I had no intention of buying any. I didn't even know one could sell weeds, did you?

Melba: No! I never heard of anyone selling weeds!

Patsy: Then he said that he didn't mean weeds like in a garden, he meant "weed" that one smokes. Right then and there, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I told him that my brother and his friends used to put weed into a corn cob pipe and smoke it all the time. He sat down and was getting interested in what I had to say. He asked how my brother made a corn cob pipe to smoke weed, so I explained it to him. Next, I told him that we didn't call it "weed" in Rockmart, though, and he asked me what we called it, and I said "rabbit tobacco."

Melba: Did he know about "rabbit tobacco?"

Patsy: I don't know. He just stood up and walked out without saying another word.