Question - "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"?

Question

Okay, so at the part right before Johnny, Katie, Francie, and Neeley have to move again, Aunt Sissy comes over and before she leaves she gives the kids a cigarette box. What was implied to be in the box? The book said they weren't cigarettes, and it said the reason they had to move again was because of Aunt Sissy and s*x. What was in the box?

Answer 1

Condoms were in the box.  It is mentioned earlier in the book that Sissy worked in a rubber factory that made a few rubber toys as a blind, but made mostly things that people bought in whispers.  They are talking about contraceptives (condoms) which were not discussed in polite society in the early 20th century.

Also, it talks about the children tying these things together and hanging them out of a window, where everybody saw them, including Johnny.  That was the reason they had to move.