At What Age Did You Try Your First Cigarette?

Probably in my early teens. Never took it up. It surely wasn't because of health issues. They weren't even being talked about in the 40's but I came from a non-smoking home life and just never felt the need to be "cool". I've always been glad that I took that route but it was less about health than just not liking the smell and taste.

I did hear the old tale (from my folks) that smoking stunts your growth. Haha Some of my smoking cousins were 6 footers so I could never quite swallow that story.
 

Never have -but I did have these as a kid
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RadishRose said:
They're $10.00 a pack in CT. It's mostly tax. Thank goodness I don't smoke. @ a pack a day, that's $3,640.00 a year, up in smoke!
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they're almost all tax

at the turn of the century they were 50 cents a pack in China
all brands available

I can't even roll 'em that cheap
 
Tried smoking, between age 10-12. Being an asthmatic child, it didn't go well. It gave me a sore throat and I never tried smoking again. My Dad used to roll his own, and used to get me to roll them for him. If I recall correctly, he used Vogue tobacco, sold in a yellow paper pouch.
 
It seems our generation didn't think smoking was bad for you...My Dad and brother smoked...But Mom would tell them to go down in the basement to smoke...

When I was in High School, I did try smoking...I didn't last long...My husband started as a teen until he was 30 years old when his Father passed away...
Hubby quit cold turkey....His Father was 65 yrs old and Hubby came to his senses....Thank God!!!
 
At 14 and I thought that I was going to cough out my intestines. That was enough of that until I was 15 and smoked for a few years and then I went into a health kick for the next several years. I remember when my dad caught me smoking and he told me that he was disappointed in me. I had to go to my bedroom and cry because it hurt my feelings when my dad said that I disappointed him. I went to him later that night and apologized and I told him that I wouldn't ever smoke again and I haven't.
 
In the 5th grade. A friend and I had Detroit Free Press routes and our newspapers were dropped off at the same location. Every day at 4 AM, two boys folding papers and puffing away on Kents that my friend would filch from his mother. Back then it seemed that every adult, politician, and entertainer smoked. Nine out of ten doctors smoked Camels ... at least according to the TV commercials. Packs of cigarettes were given away on college campuses and at professional sporting events. By 1964 when the surgeon general's report came out and people started getting concerned, I was hooked.
 
Tommy said:
In the 5th grade. A friend and I had Detroit Free Press routes and our newspapers were dropped off at the same location. Every day at 4 AM, two boys folding papers and puffing away on Kents that my friend would filch from his mother. Back then it seemed that every adult, politician, and entertainer smoked. Nine out of ten doctors smoked Camels ... at least according to the TV commercials. Packs of cigarettes were given away on college campuses and at professional sporting events. By 1964 when the surgeon general's report came out and people started getting concerned, I was hooked.
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My mom smoked Kents for a few years before her and my dad, who was a Camel smoker, quit cold turkey. Shortly after, at 14, I had my first try at a cigarette on a dare from my best friend. It was a Marlboro. That was the only cigarette that I smoked until the following year when I started smoking full time. I shifted between True and Marlboro. That only lasted a few years and then I quit.
 
I was 18 , in Vietnam , this person stated shooting at me, with a machine gun, I was a Marine, this Army private was with me, I told him lets shoot back, I was bringing a tank down for repair, got in it moved the gun around, fired that sucker, the shooting stopped, the Army private said, you want a smoke cowboy, that was when I started, five pack a day , for thirty years before I stopped.
 
Really young when I first tried it... elementary school young, however, when I got into junior-high, all changed. I remember the school dances, enjoying a cigarette before the dance (and after)... and by grade 10, I was smoking regularly, a pack used to last me a couple of weeks, but by the time senior-high came, I was hooked.

Had cigarettes in my purse always, and I never went anywhere or did anything without my purse... school, babysitting, work... cigarettes were suddenly part of my life.

I remember my mom telling me how much she regretted starting, and how disappointed in me she was, and in my own mind I thought, I can quit anytime, but such was not the case. I've quit a few times over the years, with some smoke-free times lasting longer than others, but I always went back to puffing.

There was never an occasion from the time I started where I smoked heavy, always have been a light smoker - 2-3 cigarettes a day, but still hoping to quit one day - for good.

Family pushed hard for me to quit when my last two children were babies, and I did for a few months, but the urge won me over and I was back smoking again.
 
I first tried a cigarette age 12, taking it up full time at 14, until about 20 years ago

These were considered the height of sophistication
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debbie in seattle said:
14, my dad’s unfiltered Camels, didn’t last long.
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OMG, I remember rolling a homemade cigarette once using a cigarette paper, yuck!

My mom rolled her own when one was tight, but she had a fancy little machine where you laid the empty cigarette tubes (with filters) into a channel, added tobacco along a groove, then slide the handle across the track, and voila, you had a homemade cigarette that looked store-bought!
 
Aunt Marg said:
OMG, Janice, the asking permission part of your post killed me! Laughing so hard right now! :ROFLMAO:
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Well, when I asked my mother if I could have a couple of her cigarettes, she said she didn't think she should say no because one of my brothers smoked at that age. Much later I learned he'd started smoking when he was only 7!
My father, in contrast, never smoked and thought it was just stupid- "Blow the smoke in and blow it back out, what's the point in that?!" LOL
 
My father had one of those cigarette rolling machines, and I got to roll them. Age 12, before the rolling machine, I rolled my own with Vogue tobacco. Out in the woodshed, I lit up, took a big puff - and my throat hurt so badly. I was an asthmatic kid. Didn't touch another cigarette until my 20's when I would take a puff or two off my sister's cigarette. I have smoked a cigar though.
 
JaniceM said:
Well, when I asked my mother if I could have a couple of her cigarettes, she said she didn't think she should say no because one of my brothers smoked at that age. Much later I learned he'd started smoking when he was only 7!
My father, in contrast, never smoked and thought it was just stupid- "Blow the smoke in and blow it back out, what's the point in that?!" LOL
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Oh my word, age 7, gosh, if I had a kid start at that age I think I'd suffer a heart attack! :)

Your mention of taking the smoke in and blowing it right back out, reminded me of the many smoking styles I witness in high-school. I remember a few girls smoking that way, and they, too, were just picking up the cigarette habit.
 
Pinky said:
My father had one of those cigarette rolling machines, and I got to roll them. Age 12, before the rolling machine, I rolled my own with Vogue tobacco. Out in the woodshed, I lit up, took a big puff - and my throat hurt so badly. I was an asthmatic kid. Didn't touch another cigarette until my 20's when I would take a puff or two off my sister's cigarette. I have smoked a cigar though.
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Yes, Vogue tobacco AND cigarette papers! I remember both!
 

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