Michael J. Tighe Park Smoking Rule: Light Up, But Only in the Parking Lot

You can't smoke in Michael J. Tighe Park. Actually, you're allowed to smoke in the parking lots just not in the park area. I learned this on a recent drive-through while on the way to .

Smoking is only allowed in the parking lots. No smoking on the playground. No smoking on the baseball field. No smoking in the splash park. No smoking on the basketball courts.

But go ahead, light up in the parking lot. Any parking lot. Smoke away.

When I visited there was only one guy in a bright red jacket stretching in parking lot. He couldn't hear me the first three or four times I yelled out to him from my car because his iPod was cranked up.

"Are there any running trails here?"

He told me there was one that ran through the woods but was probably snow covered and unusable right now.

I waited for him to light up a cigarette. He didn't.

"Ok, I'll be back to run one day. Thank you."

I drove away. I wanted to find someone smoking. In the parking lots. I wanted to probe to the depths of this social ostracism. Get some reactions.

The guy who couldn't hear me in the red jacket with his headphones on was, unfortunately, the only person roaming the park.

It's been a long time since I've had a cigarette but if I were a smoker now, I'd probably think this Smoking in the Parking Lot Rule was a bit much. Actually, I'm not a smoker and I think the Smoking in the Parking Lot Rule is a bit much.

If you're going to ban smoking than you have to ban cars. Certainly automotive exhaust causes just as much air pollution as a few rolled up leaves on fire. It's not like this is a restaurant where people are eating. It's a big open park with lots and lots of air. More air than I could even imagine.

Maybe the problem is the waste caused by the cigarettes. The way you might want to have a smoke and stub it out on the ground when you're done.

I propose taking the signs all over the park that explain you can only smoke in the parking lots and turning them all into ashtrays. Then place them in all the common park areas. The ones with all the air.

You probably wouldn't need any on the running trail because most runners will opt not to smoke while they're running. Maybe you can keep one sign and place it near the entrance to the trail that says All Runners Must Smoke In The Parking Lot.

It's funny but I really don't even like to be around smoke these days. I don't like the way it makes my clothes smell, and I know it's not too good for my lungs.

But still, I don't think you can ban smoking in a big open space with lots of air.

If you're going to let people smoke in the parking lot, you might as well let them smoke throughout the park. Or at least in other designated areas.

You can't just single out smokers because you think they might litter.

Or it might just be that the pull of nicotine is so strong it even has me, an ex-smoker, still on its side routing for it. So kids, don't start smoking. Not even in the parking lot of Michael J. Tighe Park.