When I was a smoker

[soft ayperth]

Hi rogG,I Didn't think you were getting at me at all,i believe like yourself a little bit of poison dosen't harm anyone such as Warfrin which is extreemly helpfull also Arsnic for helping angina patients or used to be prescribed,all things in moderation the body has a way of coping with but how many people follow this rule? most illness is caused by obesity and with all the fast food outlets society has changed to using them regularly because of convienience,an easy option but they are allowed to be promoted again rightly so as an individuals choice if they want to eat it.The point i was trying to make is that my generation we were brainwashed into believing fags were cool and very macho as well as fairly cheap compared to todays prices,the tax was very handy as well to the economy,i know people will say that it created more illness and hospital care,rightly so but pound for pound i can't say whether it balanced itself out or not.They say less people are smoking which i disagree with....cigarettes i do agree there are less smokers and more will follow changing their habits.....all in all cigs are bad which is a proven fact but so is many more things which have a double knock on effect costing millions of pounds in Health,policing etc,most legal others not so legal,i think it boils down to the thing which is deminishing from society being common sense...ps please don't take offence as i'm only airing my opinion and that i do agree with you regarding smoking cigs,pipe tobacco & cigars.

 

I wish you all the best Brummie Lass. You're right. We were brought up in a society in which smoking was thought to be cool. Bogey was a prime example. Even many of the football players used to smoke. Btw. I'm just having a glass of red wine. Not only am I enjoying it but it's good for me. Well, that's my excuse anyhow.

[Grappler]

Like a few others on here, I started aged about 9 or 10 years old on 5 Park Drive, then went on to 10 Number 6 (10p for 10) or the cheaper version called Number 10. Tried all the brands in my youth and ended up on Marlborough. Then the smoking ban came in, in California, when I was working in the US, and all that walking outside for a smoke seemed stupid, plus I never smoked in the house, realised how daft the whole thing was and quit on the spot, never smoked since (apart from the odd Cuban cigar in Cuba years ago).

[jmdee]

I started smoking when I was about 14. Partly because my parents did, and partly to look cool. I started with Park Drive, then gradually progressed to Embassy, where I seemed to amass a huge number of their gift coupons. These were exchanged for a travelling rug (which we still have) and all kinds of other stuff (long gone).

 

16 years later, I hade a bet with a mate that on new years day 1972, we would both give them up, cold turkey, and the first to start again would pay the other $20.00

On the eve of the new year, heading off to bed, I thought I'd have my final fag. Brushing my teeth in the bathroom, I lay the just lit cigarette on the bathroom counter beside me. At this point the thing started to roll, and before I could catch it, it actually rolled right off the end on the counter, straight into the toilet. So I never did go out in a blaze of glory, more of a phtttt. I haven't touched one since, and yes I did win the bet.

 

To those who say they could never quit, believe me, I used to think the same way, but I did, and actually once I had decided, it wasn't that difficult.

[sedith]

In the mid sixties I could buy 5 Parky Tipped for the price of your dinner money. Now wasn't that thoughtful of Gallaghers??

[Grappler]

In the mid sixties I could buy 5 Parky Tipped for the price of your dinner money. Now wasn't that thoughtful of Gallaghers??

 

Good point! You don't think the tobacco companies would have been aiming those little packs of five ciggies at school children do you?

[soft ayperth]

Anyone remember those really cheap cigs called Turf? They used to have a card with a photo of a footballer inside as I remember. The cigarettes really were the dregs though.

[buck]

Started smoking back in the Fifties, I'd joined the Army cadets and being in a uniform thought I'd look the part..

For years I didn't go anywhere with out me fags and all my mates where the same every body smoked.

So Ten Park Drive and a box of Capt Webs was a constant companion in my youth,unless we were on Holiday then it was best fags, usually Capstan or Players, and that's how it stayed for many years ,till tipped fags took over ..

 

So which cigarette did you start smoking with ?

Woodbines. The only cig for the working classes. Capstan full strength when feeling flush.

[buck]

I started at 14 years old in 1963, used to buy 5 Park Drive for tenpence halfpenny. Smoked almost everthing, tipped, plain, roll ups. Stopping was easy, medics told me CT scan result, LUNG CANCER.

Stop while you can, its easier than you think.

I started at 13 on Woodies. My mother said to me "I know you smoke, so don't deny it. Here's a fag, don't tell your Dad." My Dad came home from work and said pretty much the same thing:). I finished up smoking two cartons a week, until I contracted cancer of the larynx. Six months of daily radiation, and cured. Its been ten years and I haven't smoked another.

[grinder]

Personally, I would feel safer sitting in my front room with some one smoking than standing in a garage with some one running a car engine.

I just don't get how anyone can complain about some one smoking in the street and then drive off in a car. ..

but that's my opinion.

I stopped smoking on my birthday one year before I retired the reasons were purely financial, but the side benefits soon became pretty obvious, not only in my pocket.

Some of them daft things like being able to go to bed with out worrying if I'd put me fag out properly, walking into a room and thinking how fresh it smelled,walking up hills and of course the old taste bud thingy.

I'd come to feel the time was long over due for me to pack it in, and though I still miss it at times like an old friend, I knew it was the right time for me...

[zakes]

When I was a smoker.

 

At the age of 7 I dabbled with the occasional ciggy. When I was 9 I became a professional smoking smoker. I am now 58 and easily pass for 40 and have a few smile creases at the side of my eyes. I don’t have a single line on my forehead, and apart from the occasional ache I feel top fit. I have always smoked heavily and for years have rolled my own fags. However, this is a one off, and I could be struck down with lung cancer at any time.

 

I don’t recommend for people to start smoking, it is a stinky, dirty habit, affects others and costs cASH as well.

I do miss that bird though from telly, who used to lay at the side of the river advertising Consulate menthol cigs.

The fags I started with were Ariel, Kensitas and Guards followed by Carlton, Bristol and 3 Castles. I eventually progressed to Capstan, Woodbines and Park Drive. I went on to plain fags because I didn’t want to be branded a puff by smoking tipped (filter) fags which are what women smoke(d).

 

Does anybody remember the Sovereign girls in the early 70’s outside Woolworths in Haymarket? These lasses were giving away packs of 2 Sovereign cigarettes. I got a pack and kept going in and out of the shop until I got 7 packs (14 fags) butt I was rumbled, Flip-ping heck. About twelve years ago there were Marlboro Lite girls giving fags away outside Broomhill pubs.

 

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

 

Zakes (St. Burno).