It had previously been my assumption that nobody would start smoking when they were old enough to know better. I of course thought myself old enough to know better. Obviously I wasn’t.
I started smoking because I had started smoking another more illicit substance. Well the first two times I had smoked that other substance nothing happened. So someone offered me a cigarette saying it might help it go along. That was the first time I smoked a cigarette. Nonetheless, the other substance started working its effects and cigarettes always went hand in hand. I never really enjoyed cigarettes in and of themselves, but it was a constant during that time. I have long since stopped smoking that “other” substance, but I’m still smoking cigarettes. At first I never really just smoked cigarettes, but now I do.
So what I want to know, is how and when did you begin smoking cigarettes. Did you do it for the stereotypical reason of “being cool”? Did you start because it was something you weren’t supposed to do? Or did you start for some reason nobody would ever expect?
I did try it tho when i was like 12 in my room with my best bud… my dad is a heavy smoker and my grandfather and welll 3 generations before him owned a somewhat famous tobacco store… (as in they were the royal tobacco supplier and anyone who was anything bought their stuff there) anywho im the first guy in the whole family not to smoke i belive… sorry to break tradition… but i just find it disgusting.
How did I start smoking? sigh I was 13, and we were the ultimate in cool, ya know? So we bought a pack of Marlboro reds from the machine at the mall(this would have been around 1986). We were so dam cool. I was terrified that my mother would find them, that I slept with the pack in my pillowcase forever. That one pack lasted us about 3 months.My older brother was smoking my then, and one day, on the way home from school, I pulled one out and lit it up. Of course, I wasn’t inhaling at all. So, being the kind older brother, he showed me what to do. Now, at 27, I’m working to quit and wishing I had never started.
I was 13 years old and my older sister’s friend Linda had a pack of Marbolros(Can’t spell it anymore).
contrary to many people, I inhaled my first one and instead of coughing, said “where have ya been all my life??” by the time I was 17, I was smoking a pack a day. By the time I was 24, it was up to 2 packs a day.
I got pregnant at 29, knew I couldn’t just cut back, had to quit totally, 'cause “the kid’s too young to smoke”, so I quit, fully planning on starting up again on the delivery table, but never did. I’ve now been a non smoker for longer than I was a smoker, 17 years this past August.
I started smoking occasionally in middle school and high school. Only socially and infrequently. I didn’t really inhale.
Then I got into college and injured myself marching n the band. Ciggerettes relaxed me while I sat in pain. I would smoke a half ack in an hour. I only did that ocassionally.
Then around 2 months before my wedding, work got really stressful. We were short-handed and our product was high in demand. I had to plan a wedding all by my self as well. I started smoking at work and while driving, on a regular basis. Now I smoke a pack a day, on a good stress-free day. Never over a pack and a half.
I am supposed to quit soon according to my husband. :rolleyes: I think I’ll smoke for a while more and thn quit.
I dabbled with experimenting with cigarettes as early as 11 years old. But then I lived with Mormons and it is impossible to hide the smell of smoke from them, so I didn’t really smoke. Never bought a pack until I was 20.
I was working at an amusement park and had a smoker roommate. She would get up every a.m. and light up in this tiny dorm room. The only way I could stand it without committing violence on her was to bum a smoke. . . If ya can’t beat 'em, join 'em. Finally, I had bummed so many, she bought me my first pack. I’m still hooked – the smoking has lasted longer than the friendship did!
I never smoke much in high school being an ath-a-lete and all. A few times to try to be cool, but it never took.
About my fourth year in college, I was in this play. We had the run of the student union during rehearsals. At the time I suppose I had become a social smoker, maybe having two or three on the weekends. Anyhoo, there was a cigarette machine in the student union where if you yanked on the little knob just the right way, you get them little butts for free. So the cast loaded up on tobaccy. That’s when I started actually having my own pack of the little buggers instead of bumming off someone else.
The escalation of what I smoked is an interesting story (at least it is to me, and godammit, you’re going to listen to it). I smoked Merit Lights (in retrospect - like sucking air through a straw). But so did everybody else. So I decided to switch to Marlboro Lights. Apparently, a few people on my dorm floor had the same idea, so now there was a little gang of hacking coughing Marlboro Light smokers. The trouble is, all those packs look the same, and theft was not only common, but apparently mandatory.
So I taught them. I switched to the hardcore “Marlboro Reds”. Old Iron Lungs was not to be trifled with.
Now I smoke Camel Filters, because my wife told me that they have less chemicals in them then Marlboro’s. I don’t know if that’s true, but they both taste the same to me so what the heck.
This commercial was brought to you by the RJ Reynolds foundation - “You ain’t havin’ fun, unless you hawkin’ up a lung.”
I started smoking when I was 13, because my older brother and his group of friends that I would tag along with smoked. I was just trying to “be cool”. I quit when I was 22 because I was having difficulty walking up 4 flights of stairs in the parking decks at college(I smoked 1-1.5 packs a day). I relized that was supposed to be the best shape that I would ever be in - it really freaked me out.
in the spirit of Satan’s little counter thingy:
Time since last smoke:
Two years, eight months, four weeks, 13 minutes and 40 seconds.
11011 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,102.16.
Life saved: 5 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours, 35 minutes.
I started when I was 13 or so. I was with my best friend at Orland Square Mall - they had a Friendly’s ice cream shop back then - we were trying to be cool and tried, really quick, to buy a pack out of the vending machine. What we ended up getting (we were trying to be sneaky) were Camel unfiltered. We snuck outside and lit up. That pack went in the garbage. We tried in again with another brand that DIDN’T make us hack our guts out and unfortunately, I’ve smoked ever since (except for when I was pregnant with my son). Have smoked everything from generic brands, to Kools, to Newport, Winston, etc. For the last few years though, I’ve smoked only Marlboro. Red. Box. I’m an idiot.
I started when I was 18. I was working at a data center on the 11p-7a shift. I was having problems staying awake. One of the guys working there said have a couple of drags, it will wake you up. I did! So I started having a couple of drags, then bumming smokes, then buying. I spent 20 years smoking. What a putz for offering and what a idiot for accepting. Smoke free now for over 15 months.
See, I was different. I started smoking at the ancient age of 20, after i was out of HS. I did it because I was stressed out, my mother and father always smoked, and I thought it might relieve my stress.
Guess what? It did.
And I liked the taste then, and I still miss it. I probably always will. The thing that keeps me going and no lighting up again is knowing I like some other things better…
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Five months, three weeks, three days, 15 hours, 8 minutes and 4 seconds.
7105 cigarettes not smoked, saving $888.15.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 3 days, 16 hours, 5 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!) **
I just smoke the good stuff…
let s say it people: W.E.E.D is Y.U.M.M.I.E
I hate the taste of cigarettes, but I put tobacco in my spliffs… 18. Started smoking aged 17.
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Five months, three weeks, three days, 18 hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds.
7110 cigarettes not smoked, saving $888.79.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 3 days, 16 hours, 30 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!) **
My mother started smoking for about the stupidest reason I’ve ever heard. She was 20 years old, in college, and had a roommate who adored her. Her roommate praised everything she did, and mom just couldn’t handle being seen as perfect. She knew her roommate detested smoking, so mom took it up – just to stop her roommate pestering her with all those compliments. (It worked.) Sheesh. 25 years later mom finally quit, and less than 6 months after that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. (Thank God, she’s been a survivor for 7 years now.) Needless to say, I have never touched cigarettes!!
Well, this Camel with a face like a penis told me to smoke, so I lit right up…
At 11-12, I wanted to hang with the cool kids, and do the rebellious thing, so I’d find unguarded cigarette machines, get some, and then go into the woods to smoke. By age 13, I was smoking menthol, thinking “well, they taste minty, my parents won’t smell it on my breath.” Needless to say–
At 31, I’m trying (not very successfully) to quit, and considering spamming the hell out of Truth.com 'cause they’re so pathetic and misguided.
After a bad break-up with my then-fiance, I was very stressed. I also lost my job at about the same time. Talk about needing some stress relief… It was either smoking or being constantly drunk, so Camels it was.
I enjoyed the flavor as well as the slight rush, not to mention that feeling of doing something, while really doing nothing at all, that smoke breaks are so good for. It gave me an excuse to sit on my balcony for a bit and calmly reflect.
After a few months of a pack a day, I decided I wanted to start lifting weights again, so I stopped.
I didn’t start with cigs. In Ohio, Skoal was cool and I packed my first “smoke” between my cheek and gum at the ripe old age of 12. All through school I was an athlete and we all dipped. But when I went to college and athletics wasn’t part of my life, I switched to cigs because it was at least a little more acceptable. That was about 10 years ago and me and Joe Camel are doing fine thanks. But I gotta give “props” to Satan. They say every cigarette takes 7 minutes off your life. Maybe someday I’ll meet someone who wants those seven minutes more than I do.
Just so that you know, this board has nothing to do with actual “Dope.”**
<sarcasm>
Oh really??? astonished voice
Well Satan, I just dont like to call weed “substances” cause that s what my mom does and as this is a bord and not real life I figured I could dare to say the word.
I ll add a sarcasm tag to my answers in the future so there is no confusion…
</sarcasm>
And I ll start with this post…
watch out for the tag…
so there is no confusion…