When did you start smoking ?

Interesting link thanks. Everyone knows smoking is cool.

Some chaps I have photo’s of, trying hard to prove the point.

 

Snailer

in the days of my youth smoking was indeed "cool" although the revised meaning of the word had yet to be invented

Found these photos for you

The first, on a day leave in Bari, shows me, cigarette in hand, other hand in pocket, a sure sign that there were no MPs around that day. The second shows my favourite pipe and the last my late father in law in ww1 who was actually a non smoker although others in the group obviously were.

Ron

 

Shorts and a pipe, I like your style.

 

As so many of my age, when I was younger it was fashionable to smoke. I did not heed the warnings until the beginning of January this year. My Doctor recommended a course of tablets. I can't describe the effect they had on me. Weird dreams, depression etc. I had to stop taking the medication to preserve my sanity. However the good news is that I immediately stopped smoking. I firmly believe that someone was holding my hand and guiding me to do this. (Dare I say better late than never)

It sounds crazy even to me but there again I have not been tempted to buy a pack of cigarettes and I smoked for about 40 years

All I can say to smokers is think long and hard about what you are doing to your lungs.

 

I count myself fortunate. When I was about 5, the Surgeon General of the US issued a famous report about the dangers of smoking and this got enough publicity for me to actually heed the warning even as a kid. Negative example played a part, too; my mother smoked like a chimney. Later on, like all teenagers, I was desperate to be accepted but I never put cigarettes in my mouth more than a few times and then only when I was drunk. Tobacco always tasted too foul for me when sober. I love the women stars of the 40's and 50's movies like Stanwyck and Bacall, but they always had cigarettes in their mouths or hands and whenever I look at them now in a love scene I think of how awful their breath must have been.

Cigarettes DO look cool, though.

 

How times change !

 

Just to throw a spanner in the work's

If you live in or around any of the big Cities, you are smoking all day.


best..........Graham.

 

I have lost more family and friends in alcohol related deaths than tobacco. I do not advocate smoking. I do however think that it is hypocritical that people find it acceptable to accost smokers and not drinkers. Can you imagine the reaction if a stranger walked into your local bar and lectured someone on the dangers of alcohol? An increasing number of diabetes cases are being reported in people under the age of 30 because of their alcohol consumption and many more early cirrhosis deaths. I remember when imbibing in the home was for a special occasion and Dad would have a half bottle of whisky and some sherry (for the ladies) but now drinking is an everyday occurrence.

 

I smoked a clay 'churchwarden' for a couple of days until it broke. I saw it in the window of an old-fashioned tobacconists on the Isle of Man and for some reason decided that I just had to try. I sat beside pub fireplaces puffing away and trying to distance myself from the modern world (this is a recurring theme...)

I'm sure that I looked as if I was trying far too hard. Not like this young chap -


Even his wheelbarrow is classier than mine.

 

i started when i was 10 or 11.
diagnosed with buergers disease in early 90's, but only finally quit in 2005.
too little too late.
even when i smoked i knew it was a filthy habit, the sight of an ashtray full of dogends was sickening.
only after quitting did i realize how repugnant the smell of smoke/nicotine is. fuck knows how my missus could ever kiss me, i coudnt!

 

On the military side, my maternal grandfather never smoked until he joined the R.A. in the '40s At some stage or other--possibly in Malaya--he politely refused his 'ration' of cigarettes (I have no idea whether this was official or unofficial) and was subsequently taken aside by an NCO and told that nobody refused anything in their battery as they could always be traded, sold or smoked by others. Thence followed a thirty-plus-year smoking habit--and that NCO probably thought that he was doing him a big favour!

Did soldiers ever receive a tobacco/cigarette ration, or was this a local thing? Reminds one of sailors and their rum.

 

Led to this thread from another.
When I joined the RN in 1967 you were allowed, whilst ashore in the UK, 300 duty free cigarettes (or pipe tobacco equivalent) per month. I think they cost 6d for 20. Known as "Blue liners" due to their having a blue line down the side of each cigarette.

On seagoing ships the duty free allowance was unlimited and were propriety brands except each cigarette had "HM Ships only" printed down the side.
During our initial training you were allowed to smoke during lectures with the lecturer's permission. Our oceanography lecturer was an ardent non-smoker and lectured us on the evils of the weed. One bright spark asked him why, if it so bad for you, do the Navy supply duty free cigarettes. His immediate response was "Think how much they save on pensions."

Tim

 

Started with a pipe when I went to university in 1963. Never one for cigarettes. Gave up the pipe when residing in Qatar in 1984 as it was near impossible to smoke one during Ramadan when smoking was legally forbidden to everyone, found it easy to quit and never bothered to start again after Eid. Never really missed it but do occasionally have dreams in which I am smoking one!

Pipe was very useful when walking in the Highlands as it helped keep the midges away - especially Balkan Sobranie

 

Used as tins for needles. I think I was seven when I first lit up. My friend, who found the dog-ends, was beaten by his father with a slipper. His father walked with the aid of two sticks: not war wounds, but due to polio. The said friend also posted his jumper in a post box once and had to wait for the postman to come and give it back.

Anyway, rather than chastising me my father let me finish his Player's ( untipped ) for a bit and I remember I one threw a glowing stub on to the coal fire and it stood upright on a coal. Then I just gave up through boredom, but used to throw penny bangers around ( fireworks, 240 for £1. ) Swan Vestas were about threepence a box. They are about a £1 a box now.

 

I have never smoked in my life. I was offered a cigarette in school when I was about 15 (not forcibly I might add!), but I declined. I have never seen the attraction to it personally, either the nicotine or a cigarette versions, nor do I understand why it is difficult to give up. An ex boyfriend of mine was a 60 a day smoker, and he simply finished the pack he was in the middle of and went cold turkey. Easy!

 

When my father gave up it was hell for a while, be became incredibly bad tempered and became addicted to Nuttall's Mintos. Niccotine is genuinely addictive for most.

 

Much like Grasmere, I have never smoked any form of cigarette. However, I recently gave up my life long love of Maynards Wine Gums because my innards could no longer deal with the gelatine content in my system.