Disclaimer; Smoking is a filthy, disgusting, idiotic thing that no rational person should ever do. It causes disease and death and stinks!
What I’m looking for is that time you lit a cigarette and thought “Damn, smoking is the greatest thing ever!”.
Mine was about 15 years ago. I was on a kayak trip in NW Arkansas, on a class II creek in the Ozarks. This trip was all non-smokers except for me. I never took cigarettes with me on the river but always looked forward to one at the takeout. This time, due to a last minute change of shuttle plans, my truck ended up at the put-in rather than the take-out (where we were camped) as originally planned. I forgot to get my smokes out of the truck so when we arrived at the take-out, I didn’t have any. Usually when we got to the take-out we changed into dry clothes and went to get the shuttle vehicles pretty quick. This time everybody broke out the beer and munchies and got pretty comfortable.
Hours later when we finally got to the put-in to get the vehicles we left there, it was late afternoon, beautiful cloudless sky, dead calm, birds chirping, overlooking the rushing river…etc.
Everybody else bugged out really fast…eager to get back to the beer at the campsite.
I sat on the tailgate of my truck, lit one up and I swear…it was everything the tobacco companies promised! For some reason that one cigarette has always stuck in my mind as the one I enjoyed most. The beautiful scenery, the relief after a long nicotine deprivation, seeing the smoke hanging in the air, illuminated by the almost setting sun. Something reminded me of it while I was driving home from work today.
Anyone else have a memory like that?
Thanksgiving Day 2008 - I was posted at the US Embassy in Kabul and was just coming back from Camp Eggers where a CODEL was having breakfast with their military constituents at which I had to work. About three minutes after I walked through the embassy gates, a suicide bomber did his thing outside the embassy. After everything was done and the all clear given, I lit a smoke and actually thought, “Damn, this is one fine cigarette.”
Former smoker. Years ago, during my wasted youth, I spent the night in the Baltimore city jail. It was early in the morning, I was dead broke when they let me out. I was walking along, when I found one beautiful Malboro just sitting on the sidewalk. I had to walk around the city for another hour until I found someone with a light. I sat on a park bench and smoked the shit out of that cigarette.
still a smoker and curse the day I smoked my fist ciggerette. Nothing I enjoy more than a ciggerette after an hour long session carving on a log. deep breathing , fresh air, a gentle breeze cooling my sweat. Maybe 3 ciggerettes a day I really enjoy, 5 or 6 more feel nice, the other 20 are just there sapping my life away.
Every cigarette is a perfect joy, warmly enhanced by the sweet sweet knowledge that each one carries me closer to the grave on its wave of gritty perfume.
Smoked two in my entire life… Once, to see what it was like… The second was for a part in a student movie. It was a spoof of a WWII serial, “Captain Ted of the Army Air Corps” and I had the really plum role of “Hans, the Nazi.” I got to smoke a cigarette while taunting the captured French Farm Girl. “…Und then Captain Ted vill fall into mein clutches, ja?”
I dolled up a pack of “Reichstag Lights,” but the logo was too small to be seen on screen.
This is one of the funniest Frasier episodes I’ve ever seen. In it his brilliantly manipulative agent Bebe Glazer makes a speech on the orgasmic joys of smoking.
Back in college, just got out of a tech rehearsal at around midnight, had to walk across campus to my dorm and it was maybe 5 degrees out. Something about the way it tasted in the cold was just perfect.
I was a freshman at university and a couple of the upperclassmen grabbed me one night, cuffed me to a chair in my underwear and set me in the entrance to the dorm. They left me there for about a half hour before they let me loose. Typical first week hazing stuff.
When it was all done they handed me a Moosehead Red and my smokes and welcomed me to the floor. That was probably one of the most relaxing cigarettes of my life.
Every time I ate barbecue flavored potato chips. Honestly, eat a few of the chips, then take a drag. The smoke enhanced the smoke in the chips in some way. It’s the only look-back I ever do; it’s been 33 years since my last one.
I don’t smoke tobacco, but I love me some cannabis. I went about ten days without any last year due to a heart attack and stent placement. When I decided I’d stayed away long enough, the first few puffs were heavenly.
2005 or so, flew from SFO to New Zealand. I was still smoking pretty regularly back then, and as if the 14 hour flight weren’t nerve-wracking enough, there was bad turbulence and a really rough landing. Finally got to our destination and unpacked my suitcase and enjoyed the shit out of that cigarette on the balcony, safe and sound and looking over Auckland at Stanley Bay for the first time.
I’m EXACTLY the same way! My first cigarette was sometime around 1963 and my last was on Wednesday, March 14, 2007, at about 605 pm, and I can still hear that power window being lowered to throw that LAST butt out the window. I loved every cigarette I ever smoked!!!
I had quit smoking for several years when my father died unexpectedly. The stress and grief of that day was too much to handle. My husband bought me a pack of cigarettes, and that first cigarette was just amaaaazing and exactly what I needed. I’ve since quit again, but that was a memorable smoke for many reasons.
