Peter Scales was the seventh of 10 kids. “There was supposed to be 16, but those passed away.” His father was a mechanic; his mother a nurse. They moved a lot. “The houses weren’t worth nothing. In the winter months [in Detroit], it was cold, the draft going through.”
Peter started smoking early. “My father said, ‘Boy, you want to smoke cigarettes, you’re going to have to pay for them.’ By 10 years old I had a job.”
And when he wasn’t in school, he was working at a produce stand for up to 12 hours per shift. ...