Who Gets the Cigarettes?

​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke!_Smoke!_Smoke!_(That_Cigarette)

Now I'm a fellow with a heart of gold
With the ways of a gentleman I've been told
The kind of fellow that wouldn't even harm a flee

But if me and a certain character met
The guy that invented the cigarette
I'd murder that son-of-a-gun in the first degree

Cause, it ain't cause I don't smoke myself
And I don't reckon into your health
I've smoked them all my life and I ain't dead yet

But nicotine slaves are all the same
At a pettin' party or a poker game
Everything's gotta stop while they smoke the cigarette

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death

Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hates to make him wait
You've gotta have another cigarette

In a game of chance the other night
Old Dame Fortune was doin' me right
The kings and the queens just kept on comin' around

I got a full and I bet 'em high
But my bluff didn't work on a certain guy
He just kept on raisin' and layin' that money down

He'd raise me, I'd raise him
I sweated blood, you gotta sink or swim
He finally called, didn't raise the bet

I said "aces full pal, how 'bout you?"
He said "I'll tell you in just a minute or two
Right now, I just gotta have myself a cigarette"

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death

Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hates to make him wait
You've gotta have another cigarette

The other night I had me a date
With the cutest little gal on East 50 States
One 'em high-bred, uptown, fancy little dames

She said she loved me and it seemed to me
That everything's were like it oughta be
So hand in hand we strolled down lover's lane

She was oh so far from a chunk of ice
Our smoochin' party was goin' real nice
So help me, Hannah I'm thinking I've been there yet

I give her a kiss, a little squeeze
She said, "Tex, excuse me please
But I just gotta have a filtered cigarette"

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death

Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hates to make him wait
You've just gotta have another cigarette

Written by: Merle Travis & Tex Williams

My grandmother smoked cigarettes.  Marlboros in the red packages.  She smoked them as long as I knew her.  She passed away in the 1990's, but I have vivid memories of visiting her one day and seeing her opening a drawer on her desk to retrieve something.  I caught a glimpse of stacks of blue pieces of paper:  small papers, like certificates, and light blue in color.  I found out that they were certificates that were enclosed within cigarette packs--one per pack.  There were hundreds and hundreds of them.  When I asked my dad what they were for, he replied that they were worth one point per certificate.  There were catalogs full of Marlboro branded products that one could buy using the certificates.  On another visit to my grandmother's house, I saw she had a catalog from Phillip Morris (maker of Marlboros) on her table.  I paged through it, and marveled at the things one could buy--like leather jackets, belts, cigarette accessories, NASCAR themed items (Marlboro was a huge sponsor), model trains, and countless other items.  When I asked my grandmother what she was going to buy, she shrugged.  No idea, she remarked.  

The years went by, and my grandmother passed away.  We were not in the area where she lived, and I did not attend her funeral.  My dad did, and helped his brothers clean out her house.  I remember asking him, years later, what happened to the cigarette coupons.  He said he couldn't remember.  They were probably thrown out--after all, who wanted to buy things that were marketing cigarettes.  What a shame, I remember thinking.  

All these years later, these coupons came to the forefront of my mind when I learned about will contests in a law school class.  What is a will contest?  When a person who has an interest in a will, meaning they are a potential beneficiary, believes they were "shortchanged" when the will was probated, they can contest the validity of the will.  Maybe someone's uncle passes away, and they leave their entire estate to their chiropractor.  This may surprise the family members!  The niece or nephew might hire a lawyer to contest the will.  We were taught in class to make sure everything was "airtight" on a will, and that it expressed the will of the person who wrote it.  Who was supposed to get grandma's antique credenza?  Are you sure?  We learned in class that ALL assets, or things a person viewed as assets, needed to be outlined in the person's will--with directions as to who was to receive.  And we learned about several cases where fighting relatives went to war over a gravy boat, or an antique train lantern, or a clay ashtray.  Lawyers were involved and costs ran into the thousands of dollars--all over a relatively worthless item.  

Point being:  get a lawyer involved early in your estate planning process, and make sure your plan is "airtight" so that everyone knows who gets what.  Even the things you may think are not worth much, might be worth a fortune to someone special.  I am totally fine with those cigarette certificates going in the trash, all these years later, by the way.