My favorite game growing up: Hide and ...Skoal?

Today I'd like to dedicate a space to the wonders of chewing tobacco.  Although I am a regular cigarette smoker, I think chewing is absolutely repulsive.  I guess that makes me a hypocrite...oh well.  But the sight of tiny tobacco pieces lodged between my father's teeth as he lunged to give me a goodnight kiss still remains one of my most painful childhood memories.  (I'm lucky, I know.)  I remember comparing the taste of his goodnight kisses to my experiences in the old, overflowing porter potties I was forced to used at my brothers' little league baseball games.  My dad has been a loyal Skoal "chewer" for as long as I remember.  When I was little, I would steal his cans (he bought them by the roll and stored them in the fridge) and hide them in my bedroom or throw them away.  He started catching on to my antics, and would steal them back whenever I wasn't around. Hide and seek with daddy's chew became a daily ritual in my household.  I got my mom and my two older brothers involved in the hiding process.  But as we got better and better at hiding, he got better and better at seeking.  In retaliation, I resorted to emptying his chew cans into the toilet and the garbage.  Daddy didn't think my new game was cute...at all.  I don't remember what my punishment was, but I do remember my dad promising to cut back on chewing.  He never did.  I'd always ask him, "Daddy why do you do that?  It's so gross!  Why would you even want to start doing something like that?"  He never answered me.  I never understood why.

Now I get it.