Photo: Alan Graham 1958

BUTT DIVING

Toward the end of each pay cycle, butt diving became increasingly intensive as penniless smokers searched the trash cans for usable cigarette butts. Hard to believe, but a pack of Camels only cost 10 cents at the PX, and a sack of Bull Durham was probably less, including papers. Any usable butt was fine as long as it wasn't a Kool. Some guys smoked those terrible mentholated Kools to keep others from bumming cigarettes from them, knowing that a hard-core smoker would not smoke a Kool. In the photo, one man is lookout while the other dives. A two-man team was a safety measure in case the diver fell into or got stuck in the barrel. The lookout man also watched for the 1st Sergeant or officers who might chew them out for this practice.