Returning soldiers experienced cheap American cigarettes and beer as luxuries of home

Evidence

When they arrived in California, they were met right off the airplane by one of the soldiers’ girlfriends, who brought them all Marlboros and Budweisers to celebrate their return. Everyone reached for an American cigarette and grabbed a cold can of American beer. They looked at one another, goofy smiles splashed on their faces, and toasted one another and themselves on the tarmac. The cigarettes and the beer tasted like life. “It was like champagne to us,” Sami said. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 253

Categorization

• CANDY: The detail that cigarettes and beer ‘tasted like life’ after deployment is a warm, tweetable vignette of homecoming.