How I Started Smoking.... And You?

I started out based on just plain old curiosity. My wife tells me I have an old soul and I sometimes feel like I was born in the wrong era. I have never know anyone who smoked a pipe or was ever around anyone who smoked a tobacco pipe. I hate nails and am actually somewhat allergic to nail smoke.
Turns out it is in my blood. I thought I had never even met another pipe smoker. Found out the other day after showing my dad some of my new pipes he actually used to smoke pipes when he was in the Navy. Unfortunately he sold off all his pipes as he needed the money and now looks down on me for smoking a pipe but I have a connection.

My sister gave me a clove cig way back in the 80's. I switched to regular cigs. We use to ride our bikes to Denny's that had a cigarette machine by the rest rooms. Gave up tobacco for pot. Then tried cigars for a while and it just did not stick with me. Then in my 40's thought I would try the pipe instead of cigars and I was on a new path to a new obsession.

started out on ciggarillos in high school. Moved to nails at my first job. Joined the USAF. Couple of the guys in the dorms smoked pipes/cigars, so I gave both a whirl, discovered I don't like cigars and that pipe collecting is an expensive hobby for an E3. lost my pipes in a move. 31 years old now decide I have a good job, time to start with pipes again. discover my dad used to smoke a pipe, he still has some of his old pipe and one or two of my grandfathers, I'm hoping we'll find the rest soon as I'm adding them to my collection

During second year of college, 1978, my floor had a "resident assistant" who smoked a pipe. Up until that time the only pipe smoker I knew was my grandfather. I could smell the pipe smoke everytime I got off the elevator to go to my room and one day I decided curiosity was going to get the best of me and off I went to a local K-Mart and purchased a Grabow and some Capt. Black.
It was a horrible experience. I spent the whole semester starting and stopping, but gradually got the hang of it. Second semester I found a little pipe shop in a realtor's office and got some help from him. Dumped the Grabow and Capt. Black and its been a long journey since then.

The most vivid memory I have of my grandfather was sitting at the table smoking a pipe and reading the paper...
So about a month ago, I got a pipe and all the necessary stuff and started enjoying it!

Double post

I was 11 years old when I first tried a cigarette, my cousin who was 17 at the time gave a a hit of his cig and weirdly I didnt cough but I did get crazy nicotine sickness LOL ... we were all camping at the time and we were under a bridge up in central CA somewhere... I started sneaking cigs from my parents shortly after that... Paul Mall non filters for this kid :P
pipes on the other hand I started when I was 22, my room mate who was in his 30's was a pipe smoker and he one day let me borrow one of his cobb's and I got hooked.
My father never smoked a pipe but my grandfathers on both sides did.... I just never saw them as they all quit well before I was born.

Somewhere in here.

Bought lots of tobacco and tobacco products when I turned 18. Smoked cigarettes for a few years purely because I thought it would be fun. Always have dabbled in tobacco one way or another since then.

Smoked cigs off and on since I was 15. Was 16 or 17 when I dipped. During this time I discovered pipes and pipe tobacco online and I knew my father and grandfather used to smoke. But they quit when I was young and I don't remember. Was beginning of my senior year in high school I got some pipes and some tobacco and never looked back.

As a kid, my dad smoked cigars and chewed tobacco. Also, both grandfathers chewed; they had been light smokers but quit. Tobacco was the normal thing for a man to use. (I never saw any of them drink alcohol...probably why I don't drink now.)
I started using a pipe in college because pipes seemed to be the best way to experience the aesthetics of different tobaccos. I had always been drawn to the pipe; as a kid my heroes were pipe smokers.

All the men in my family are tobacco worms. My mother and father both smoked cigarettes, my dad quit in his 40s. My grandfather smoked cigars and pipes, my great grandfather smoked cigars, cigarettes and pipes, and every other uncle, cousin, nephew, friend, paisan...etc that I grew up with smoked cigars or cigarettes. First tobacco I ever consumed was chew. One of those man up moments when you are 10 years old hunting with your father and he passes you the pouch of Mail Pouch and says here chew this, it will put hair on your chest. I then started smoking cigars when I was in my teens and the occasional cigarette. I gave up cigarettes many times over the years but one day shortly after the Lord Of The Rings movies came out, I was in my friends home studio scoring a few films for a silent film festival in Cleveland when my friend whips out a pipe and starts stuffing it. He offered me one of his other pipes as he could see my excitement at the idea of him packing that pipe. Smoked a few local aromatics and thought about putting the pipe down forever because I was just not getting what I imagined I would get from pipe smoking. Then one fine day I found myself in a smoke shop talking to an older grumpy guy who told me that I didnt know what pipe smoking was all about and told me I should try some real tobacco. He then offered me a couple flakes of Penzance and snickered. The smell intrigued me and I could not wait to light up. Puff puff puff, exhale through nose and voila...here I am 15 years later and still hooked.

Started smoking cigarettes when I was 13 since a bunch of my friends were smoking so I thought why not. Had an on and off relationship with cigarettes for 14 years (I am currently 27) with cigars and cigarillos in between. Started on the pipe around 5 years ago with my first pipe (Bought in Thailand on a trip)... it broke and I didn't know where I could get another one (pipe shops are rare in my area) and I didn't know that I could send it out for repair. So a couple of months ago I found a place and bought a pipe, since then the TAD and PAD has had it's grips on me. Stopped smoking cigarettes completely the day I picked up the pipe and pipe tobacco.
Found out that my dad and grandpa used to smoke pipes too! My father, while poking around at my pipes and tobacco said today "Maybe I'll pick up the pipe again..." looks like I'll have a smoking buddy haha

I sampled a cigarette when I was about 13 or 14, but hated it. I did enjoy the Black and Milds though that we got away with around the same age. After a year or two though I lost interest. Then the LOTR movies came out and the third one hit when I turned 18, so I hit up a B&M got a churchwarden and some black cherry house blended tobacco. It was off and on until about three years ago. I was back to having a pipe every so often and my then girlfriend now fiance stopped by the house. She said, "I didn't know you smoked a pipe. That smells good and it's pretty sexy.", so I went back to smoking a pipe full time and here I sit puffing away as I write this.

I was a bigger kid for my age than most others in my class and looked older. The kid up the street who was 15 and I was 12 gave me my first cigarette...a Lucky Strike!! Like to have knocked my lungs out. I got an instant buzz and didn't like the feeling or the fact my lungs felt like they had been set on fire. Then I tried a Winston and liked it better. Keep in mind I'm just 12, nearly 13.
My Dad worked in the cotton Mill as a "fixer" or mechanic on the Spoolers and Winders and worked the 2nd shift. He wouldn't get home till about 11:15pm and he was always asleep when I got ready to leave for school. I'd sneak in their bedroom while Mom was fixing breakfast for me and slip a couple of his Pall Mall's or Chesterfields out of his pocket. I can remember walking to catch the bus...about 2-3 blocks and firing one up and I'd start to get dizzy. By the time I was 15 I was hooked on them. That was 1958 when I had my first one and here it is 54 years later and I'm still at it.