Why Did You Begin Smoking?

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dibbons

dibbons

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Just curious. I'll tell you why I did not begin smoking. Mom and Dad smoked. I was 5-10 years old when one evening I asked Dad to take a puff on one of his lit cigarettes (he smoked non-filter Camel and Lucky Strike). I guess he said go ahead, because I can still remember inhaling one time and then immediately going into a long coughing fit. After that, I could never understand how he smoked those things without coughing up a storm like I did. So that ended any interest/curiosity regarding "smokes." Never tried marijuana either.

Mom died of mouth cancer at the age of 68. Dad lasted longer to 86, but had to breath oxygen the last couple of years due to COPD.

I also wonder if new smokers today begin that nasty habit for the same reasons smokers of my generation (or my parent's generation) began?

10 Reasons People Start Smoking

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Never started. Too stank and mom was always too broke for me to have shoes without a fight, but smokes were never in short supply.
 
Dad smoked since he was 15, nasty habit. I remember Sunday afternoons sitting in the living room watching pro bowling in a haze of smoke exaggerated by the light streaming through the window. Yuck! I never smoked but married a smoker who quit as soon as she got pregnant and never smoked again.
 
I started at 14 because it was "cool". I quit at 40 because I had a Heart Attack. That was 29 years ago. Can't stand the smell now and wouldn't even think of paying what they pay now. 50 cents a pack when I gave it up.
 
Watched both sets of grand parents smoke like chimneys.
I never understood how inhaling smoke could possibly be good for a person. So I just never did it.
I had a girlfriend who smoked pretty heavy. In 98 I bought a new truck, she jumped in, and lit a cigarette. I pulled the truck over, told her to get out and when she was done, we'd go again.
Needless to say, she wasn't my girlfriend much longer. :)
My wife smoked when I met her. But she soon stopped when she discovered I didn't care for the smell. I don't think she really cared a ton for to begin with. It sure didn't take much for her to stop and a pack would last her a week.
 
My "smoking career" began and ended all in one day, pretty much, when I was somewhere around 12. My younger sister RIP and I found an unopened pack of Camels out in the garage, which my Dad smoked, at the time. What we did NOT know is that these were about 10 or 14 years old at the time, as they were something like (I forgot) the last pack my Dad had before getting out of the US Army after WWII. They were a keepsake.

We did like in all the movies, went down behind the barn, were lucky NOT to set the hayfields on fire, and got sick as dogs. Mom of course "smelled us" and we got a spanking from her, and a "better" one when Dad came home.

THAT, as they say, was the end of THAT!!!

On a side note, thanks to my surviving sister, and some renters, the condition of the house, and that garage, are "less" than one might have hoped.

On yet another note, I did retrieve the old "post" drill press...............

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67Dart273 said:
My "smoking career" began and ended all in one day, pretty much, when I was somewhere around 12. My younger sister RIP and I found an unopened pack of Camels out in the garage, which my Dad smoked, at the time. What we did NOT know is that these were about 10 or 14 years old at the time, as they were something like (I forgot) the last pack my Dad had before getting out of the US Army after WWII. They were a keepsake.

We did like in all the movies, went down behind the barn, were lucky NOT to set the hayfields on fire, and got sick as dogs. Mom of course "smelled us" and we got a spanking from her, and a "better" one when Dad came home.

THAT, as they say, was the end of THAT!!!

On a side note, thanks to my surviving sister, and some renters, the condition of the house, and that garage, are "less" than one might have hoped.

On yet another note, I did retrieve the old "post" drill press...............

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I have a cousin that smokes. I call him a pussy because he smokes filter cigarettes. He knows everyone else in our family who smoked smoked non filters.

I tell him if he was half a man he rio the filters off and go commando.

He's a pussy so he doesn't do it.
 
I can tell you why I quit 37 years ago. My oldest daughter who was 4 years old then asked me a question," Daddy, why do you smoke ? " No matter how much I thought about it, there was no good reason that I could tell my daughter. I got up and tossed all the smokes, lighters, ash trays and just quit. No patches or gums ( didn't have them back then any way) Was easy after the first week. You just need to convince yourself not to do it any more.
 
Never smoked one until------------after high school I went to a university called United Electronics Institute. First day I walk into the class room I see ash trays on the desk, then the teacher walks in smoking a cigarette! Smoking in the school? The class room? I think, I gotta get me some. First break we took, I went the break room and there it was a cigarette machine! Well 50 cent in and pull the Salem handle. So I started at 18 and quit after 40 years. Been a non smoker for 5 1/2 years. But, I still love the smell of a lit cigarette.
 
Started smoking cigars 20 years ago, not sure why just thought one won’t hurt. I know I should stop, my friend has just got out of the hospital he has COPD and smoked 3 packs a day. He has to quite
 
Funny how a thread that asks about why people chose to smoke brings out so many of the non smokers or former smokers who feel compelled to tell their tale.
 
I started smoking at about 12 regularly.
I smoked about a pack a day until I was 20 .
I started because I wanted to be cool.
I saw what I seemed to be cool older people smoking, including both of my parents.
At 20 I began getting headaches , and feeling poorly.
I did drywall , and it made me feel crappy.
So I quit.
That was 27 years ago .
I don't know how I ever smoked those nasty things ?
 
grew up on a tobacco farm and bout 10 years old wanted a corn cob pipe like tom sawyer and huckleberry finn and parents didnt seem to think i shouldnt, was on to malboro reds by 12 years old! by time i was 15 i was smoking and chewing and dipping, chewing and dippin stopped when dating started!! now 47 dr on me to quit and i know i need to but most days still enjoy it very much...enjoy living more tho'!!
 
"smoked my first cigarette at 10, and for girls I had a bad yen". Eric Burdon. When I was young.
 
dibbons said:
one evening I asked Dad to take a puff on one of his lit cigarettes (he smoked non-filter Camel and Lucky Strike). I guess he said go ahead, because I can still remember inhaling one time and then immediately going into a long coughing fit. After that, I could never understand how he smoked those things without coughing up a storm like I did. So that ended any interest/curiosity regarding "smokes
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My story is the same except Dad smoked filterless pall mall. God I don’t remember how old I was when he gave me a drag. 12 maybe if that. Couldn’t freaking stop coughing. Never had an interest after that. Mom ended up not allowing him to smoke inside anymore along the way too.

When I first met Jamie she was a smoker. Not a big one though. She quit cold turkey not long after we met and hasn’t smoked since.

Love the no smoking laws. Remember the bar hoping days you would get home smelling like a cigarette. Shower and when the hair got wet it smelled like a wet cigarette. Throat would be sore. Nose all funky feeling from all that smoke. Go out now and you can breathe and don’t come home smelling like a cigarette. :)
 
I never smoked a day in my life, thank God.
I never did drugs and I am a beer with dinner kind of guy. I think the reason I never smoked is because of the smell and the fact that while I was a kid everyone smoked at the dinner table and put ash trays on the table. The smell while eating was nauseating and it would literally make me gag.
 
Mom and grandma smoked, and I picked it up from them, best thing for a hard working 12 year old back in the day
 
I want my skin to look like an alligator. Alligator look is so cool!

JK. Actually I quit 34 years ago on the “great American smoke out”
 
I was 12 or 13, my sister 14 or 15
Whenever she went on a date, I was sent along to chaperone
Hey boyfriend would then send me to the snack bar to buy him a pack of smokes and me a milkshake...the idea of course was I didn't come back until the milkshake was gone

Somewhere along the lines the milkshake turned into a pack of smokes for me aswell
 
diymirage said:
I was 12 or 13, my sister 14 or 15
Whenever she went on a date, I was sent along to chaperone
Hey boyfriend would then send me to the snack bar to buy him a pack of smokes and me a milkshake...the idea of course was I didn't come back until the milkshake was gone

Somewhere along the lines the milkshake turned into a pack of smokes for me aswell
Click to expand...

Quit cold turkey New Years Eve, 1984. No pills. No patches. Just willpower. Carried an open pack of Camel Filters in my pocket for a year to calm panics. Could stand one right now. Enjoyed every one of them. A great memory, though I knew I had to quit. Quit the same time my Dad did. Neither one of us would be here if we had continued to smoke. I used Skoal Bandits when motorcycling to hold me over to the next smoke stop.
 
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