re: I remember what it feels and sounds like to pull the knob on a cigarette vending machine

I remember at 10 years old buying cigarettes for my parents while they waited in the car.

Ka-CHUNK!

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Also remember the huge cloud of smoke that would billow out of the teachers lounge after first break. Whole hall of
My HS would smell like smoke.

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Same here. I graduated in 1978.

Our school was shaped like the letter E if you were looking at it from above.

Each of the wings has double doors at the end, so you could walk between wings outside rather than having to go back to the main hallway.

All the students who smoked would stand around outside those doors. We called it the "smoke hole".

It was particularly unpleasant during the winter because they would all congregate right outside the door and you would have to walk through the mass of them smoking to get to your next class.

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Weren’t 8 tracks only one sided?

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Yes. I think he was referring to the sound the player made when it switched tracks.

My dad used to have cigarette machines in bars all over Baton Rouge, he would bring me along to service them. 8 year old me thought it was fun.

Micks on Bienville has one still, the original was destroyed in Katrina so they went and found another.
Now they dont allow smoking inside anymore it looks like a hospital smoking section outside on the tables.

Remember playing with them as a kid.

Except I remember 40 cents a pack

Harry's Corner, Chartres & Dumaine. $12 (!) a pack. Was in there Sunday, a woman put her $12 in and got bupkus. The poor bartender had to hear her, but said it wasn't their machine, so no refund.

Maybe $12 a pack should be motivation to quit.

Similar - had one in the full service station I worked. It had a sweet spot you could slap on the side (think Fonzie with the juke box) and then pull your handle of choice.