Your First Experience With Tobacco

[lraisch]

When I was 12 or 13 my next-door neighbor who was the same age, asked me if I wanted to get some cigarettes and try smoking. We walked to a shop in town, and he bought a pack which we proceeded to smoke while wandering the streets. He chided me for not inhaling, but frankly I didn't care.

A few days later, we tried it again, but this time with a couple of Roi-Tans. I liked those quite a bit better.

That gave me the idea to try a pipe, so I "borrowed" one of my father's and got a pouch of Middleton's Cherry blend. I still have my father's pipe, though in the 60 years since then I've switched to English blends.

 

[dd57chevy]

I smoked cigarettes & a pipe as a teenager but quit in my mid twenties .

Roughly 20 years ago I had a personal tragedy & foolishly bought a pack of cigs .

Went home & lit one up . I barely got seated on the toilet when I experienced something akin to an Atlas rocket lift off .

Nicotine is powerful stuff .

 

[ziv]

In high school, quite a few of my friends smoked cigarettes, but I was not interested. It wasn't until the university when I tried tobacco - I would bum a cig from a friend sometimes, after I had too much to drink, but never got addicted.

In my early 20's, a couple friends and I got into pipe smoking. I enjoyed it quite a bit, until I met my future wife who was very anti-tobacco, so I quit for her, for like 15 years. She still doesn't like it, but lets me smoke outside.

 

[Sobrbiker]

I never smoked cigarettes, but different people and retailers would send boxes and boxes of cigars to us in Afghanistan. I never really realized until I got home just how nice it was to have boxes of Davidoffs, Pepin Garcia, Padron, Opus X, Fuente, Don Carlos, Macanudo....and many others. When I got home my budget was more in line with Indian Tabac, Rocky Patel, and various seconds from those big makers.

I sent magazines. My buddy was an Apache mechanic at Bagram, and were issued M16A2’s with 30rders but no gear to carry them when they were off base.
I did a canvas of all my buddies (was shooting competitively) and got everyone to donate what 20rd’ers they could and sent a big box of them so all the crew guys could stuff them in their BDU thigh pockets.
…. And logs of Copenhagen.

 

[Sig]

I sent magazines. My buddy was an Apache mechanic at Bagram, and were issued M16A2’s with 30rders but no gear to carry them when they were off base.
I did a canvas of all my buddies (was shooting competitively) and got everyone to donate what 20rd’ers they could and sent a big box of them so all the crew guys could stuff them in their BDU thigh pockets.
…. And logs of Copenhagen.

There was no off base for us.
Six feet outside the FOB or OP was enemy territory, and endless misery.
Dip was a definite no-no for us. Cotton mouth in 115 degrees is not fun.
M16A2....that must have been awhile ago.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

It was a Doral Light 100, lit on the stove.

There was a carton with eight or nine packs left in it, in our kitchen after my dad quit smoking... Those were my first packs of cigarettes, but they damn sure haven't been my last. They were my last packs of dorals, though.

 

[sablebrush52]

I started while in college, when I backpacked around Western Europe, Galoise, Disque Bleu, heavy shit. Later I smoked Shermans, and got into Sobranie cigarettes, like Chaliapin, then American cigs, which were much cheaper and crap compared to a fine quality Turkish cigarette, but which satisfied my nicotine cravings. I also started smoking a pipe as well around then.
Finally quit cigarettes in 1983 and never missed them. I find the smell of cigarette smoke repulsive.

 

[JOHN72]

I was born at that time, in 72, where people smoked even under water. So I swallowed all my father's tobacco at home and when I traveled with him in the truck. I liked that smell of cigar or pipe tobacco. And when I was 20 or 21 years old, I think, I started to buy my first cigars.

 

[Old_Newby]

1976, 10 years old hanging out with my 13 year old brother and his friend. Just being kids in the rural south hiking through woods and exploring. Then we sat under a tree and they pulled out RedMan pouch. Took a big wad and started chewing it. I tried it and got dizzy so the friend told me it helps if i lay on my back and look up at the sky. Sure it does. 2 minutes later I was spinning and puking. To this day I refuse to chew, dip, or inhale anything.

 

[bobpnm]

I might have been something of a baseball prospect. At least my 12 year old mind thought so. I was pretty good for an abnormally tall skinny kid. Red Man chewing tobacco seemed like the thing all great baseball players used during games. of course, Pee Wee Reese also pitched Falstaff beer and Lucky Strikes during Saturday broadcasts of The Game of the Week. My first experience (and last) ended with me stealing third base and promptly throwing up all over everyone within a three foot radius. Falstaff beer is a story for another time.

 

[mortonbriar]

I tried cigarettes a few times when I was 12, in a similar fashion to the stories above...but I ignored tobacco for years after that, until the pipe in my mid 20s...never looked back!

 

[dozicusmaximus]

I used to steal a few cigs off my old man in 6th-7th grade.
Before that my tobacco experience was just second hand smoke in every car, house, and restaurant.

 

[fireground_piper]

A backwoods cigar before going off to college.

 

[MyCombOver]

A basketball teammate of mine gave me Cherry Skoal when I was in 9th grade. Never so sick. I still can’t stand the smell of cherry chewing tobacco, but I can smoke Cult BRM just fine.