No one in my family ever smoked, but my parents would go out on weekends and come home and walk in the house and they stunk- it was wafting off of them from just being in the restaurant/bar where others were smoking. I grew to hate the smell.
When I got older I thought I’d give it a try- as I did with most things. I bought a pack and gamely fought my way through 3 or 4 cigs, all the while asking “what the hell are you doing to yourself? This is terrible.” Threw out the pack and never tried again.
I don’t smoke habitually, I couldn’t tolerate the smell or the expense. I do enjoy a cigar from time to time with a glass of scotch - probably 3-4x a year. I sometimes have a cigarette with friends, particularly if we are drinking.
Smoking is one of the few things I can truly do in moderation. I need to assume the same habit with cheese burgers.
Never underestimate the power of reaction against one’s parents.
I don’t smoke. All of my parents smoked (both bio and step), and I learned to loathe it from an early age.
Winter trips sealed in the car with smokers were particularly bad; I am glad to say that it is now illegal in Ontario to smoke in a closed car with children. When my dad left his apartment to move north, I cleaned it. Parts of the walls were chocolate-brown where drafts had deposited smoke residue. The cleaning was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever done.
I remember being around 7 or 8 and walking next to my father, who had a lit cigarette in his hand. Being a kid, I didn’t pay attention, and reached out to take his hand…and promptly burned my hand pretty good.
Dad was pretty upset, and from that day, started to quit smoking. He very quickly scaled it back to smoking only at work.
But that day also taught me a lesson and I never picked up a cigarette in my life, not even when my friends were doing it to be cool.
I’ll smoke an occasional cigar (maybe twice a year), but have never had the urge to take up cigarettes. I tried smoking a pipe once, because I like the pretentiousness of it, but it didn’t stick.
I smoked a pipe for about 8 months in 1969, until someone stole my pipes out of my luggage during a trip (never figured that one out) and I just stopped.
I only smoke cigarettes when I’m trying to pick up a girl who smokes. I don’t particularly enjoy the smell so that’s rarely more then a couple of times a year and I always feel like crap the next day. I for one love the smoking ban in bars since I am able to go home from bars and not smell like smoke and it makes the girls who do smoke have to leave their friends to go outside and smoke so it’s an easy conversation starter.
I love smoking cigars and if I had convenient access to a smoke shop I would probably smoke every weekend as it is I only smoke when I go fishing or have the guys over for a BBQ so probably 6-7 a year. I didn’t read the whole OP before I voted so I went with no my answer should probably be disregarded.
I do chew though, about a bag a month, but I’ve found that at that low rate I get more of a buzz and my mouth has time to heal between bags.
I no longer smoke. Been a pack a day smoker for 29 years and I quit cold turkey 10 weeks ago. Still goin’ strong on not smoking.
I have quit twice before, and I know what I’m like. I’m a horrible ‘former smoker’. My roomie smokes, and now it bugs the hell out of me. Two of my friends smoke and I detect they get a bit ‘miffed’ because I make them go outside to smoke now. I tell them its “the same rules as in your house”.
I do not smoke. When I was a kid, my parents smoked. I hated it so much that I repeatedly hid their cigarettes. They ended up both quitting on Halloween, 1984, when I was 4, and both succeeded the first time.
Tried a couple of puffs as a teenager. Some of my friends smoked and they used to offer puffs/cigarettes to me. (My friends offered me smokes but never, ever pressured me into smoking.) Well, I wanted to know what the big deal was, I had a taste, and blech, that was enough. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but I didn’t see the point in acquiring it.
People often hate me for it, but I kinda smoke when I want to, and only when there’s a drink involved for some reason. If I’m around other smokers, I can keep pace if I feel like it, or have one for everyone else’s two or three. If I’m not around other smokers, the urge rarely hits, even when drinking beer. I usually make a pack last about a month or so, if I had to quit for good, it really wouldn’t be a problem for me.
6 years ago I used to smoke a pack (of 25) every day. Then my 46 year old uncle literally dropped dead from a ruptured berry anuerism in his brain. The doctor told us that if he had not been such a heavy smoker and drinker it probably wouldn’t have ruptured.
Now I only smoke and drink one weekend every 3 months. The last weekend was October 10th and the next will be January 16th. Surprisingly I don’t have any cravings to smoke or drink outside of those permitted weekends.
