I have no real point to make with this thread. I have no question to ask. I only mean to tell a story, I suppose.
I have always been a smoker. I fist tried cigarettes when I was about 5 years old. The girl who lived behind us stole a pack of her father's camels, and we lit up in a tent in her back yard. We did other things, but I will leave that for another day and another forum. Later, my father caught me stealing my uncle's cigars, and his cigarettes. He found my stash and did the whole buy-a-carton-and-make-me-inhale-until-I-puked thing. It didn't work. I started smoking in earnest when I was 10. I smoked Winstons, and Camels (unfiltered), and Lucky Strikes (unfiltered). Later, I found and smoked Sherman Naturals. It was about the experience, not the nicotine.
I gave up cigarettes cold turkey when I was 21.
But, I was still a smoker at heart. I cannot remember where, but, when I was about 10 or 11, I had seen a photo of what I believe to have been FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at Yalta in which Stalin was smoking a pipe. (I didn't know then who Stalin was to the world. I just liked the pipe.) I think that it may have been a Davidoff or Nat Sherman catalog, but I am not sure. (I have not been able to find that photo online despite my several attempts over the years.) The pipe had what appeared to be a very narrow bit and I was enthralled.
I tried smoking a pipe while going to school in Israel. I was 15. I don't remember it being a failure as such, but I didn't keep it up. Later, when my daughter was born, I started smoking cigars. I refused to buy "it's-a'girls" to hand out, opting instead for a box of Ashtons that I bought at a local shop. I couldn't give them away and ended up smoking the entire box myself. I was off to the races. My tastes changed; I started smoking Cubans (almost exclusively); I eventually came to live at the cigar store. I had a key and came and went as often as I wanted. When that store closed, my friends and I went around the corner to the "other" store and made that one our home, eventually obtaining keys to it.
In 2012, while driving down to Florida, I decided that I wanted to buy a pipe. I had no motivation other than the reminder of the "Yalta Photo" that I had in my memory. I stopped at JR's on I95, I bought a $20 bent billiard and some tobacco, and I have not looked back.
I write this after reading Fred Brown's new article in which he writes,
I missed the cigar boom by a few years. I never even knew that that there had been one until I was smoking for a while. And, I now read that there is a renaissance taking place in the pipe world. Did I get in before it? Who knows. Who cares.
All I know is that, for me, it seems to be innate - maybe genetic.
So, there it is. No point. Just this: I am a natural born smoker.
I have always been a smoker. I fist tried cigarettes when I was about 5 years old. The girl who lived behind us stole a pack of her father's camels, and we lit up in a tent in her back yard. We did other things, but I will leave that for another day and another forum. Later, my father caught me stealing my uncle's cigars, and his cigarettes. He found my stash and did the whole buy-a-carton-and-make-me-inhale-until-I-puked thing. It didn't work. I started smoking in earnest when I was 10. I smoked Winstons, and Camels (unfiltered), and Lucky Strikes (unfiltered). Later, I found and smoked Sherman Naturals. It was about the experience, not the nicotine.
I gave up cigarettes cold turkey when I was 21.
But, I was still a smoker at heart. I cannot remember where, but, when I was about 10 or 11, I had seen a photo of what I believe to have been FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at Yalta in which Stalin was smoking a pipe. (I didn't know then who Stalin was to the world. I just liked the pipe.) I think that it may have been a Davidoff or Nat Sherman catalog, but I am not sure. (I have not been able to find that photo online despite my several attempts over the years.) The pipe had what appeared to be a very narrow bit and I was enthralled.
I tried smoking a pipe while going to school in Israel. I was 15. I don't remember it being a failure as such, but I didn't keep it up. Later, when my daughter was born, I started smoking cigars. I refused to buy "it's-a'girls" to hand out, opting instead for a box of Ashtons that I bought at a local shop. I couldn't give them away and ended up smoking the entire box myself. I was off to the races. My tastes changed; I started smoking Cubans (almost exclusively); I eventually came to live at the cigar store. I had a key and came and went as often as I wanted. When that store closed, my friends and I went around the corner to the "other" store and made that one our home, eventually obtaining keys to it.
In 2012, while driving down to Florida, I decided that I wanted to buy a pipe. I had no motivation other than the reminder of the "Yalta Photo" that I had in my memory. I stopped at JR's on I95, I bought a $20 bent billiard and some tobacco, and I have not looked back.
I write this after reading Fred Brown's new article in which he writes,
It occurs to me that my entries into the cigar and pipe worlds were self-motivated; they were not motivated by external influences, except my own memories.
I missed the cigar boom by a few years. I never even knew that that there had been one until I was smoking for a while. And, I now read that there is a renaissance taking place in the pipe world. Did I get in before it? Who knows. Who cares.
All I know is that, for me, it seems to be innate - maybe genetic.
So, there it is. No point. Just this: I am a natural born smoker.
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