How old were you when you had your first analog?

[firefox335]

Just out of curiosity, how old were you when you had your first cigarette? I was 18. My best friend kept bugging me to try one all day. We were with 2 other friends who did not smoke. I finally relented and told him I would try one if he bought me a pack of menthols. I bought 2, maybe three pack in the months that followed. Then my girlfriend left me and my parrents started taking care of my aunt who had alzheimers. I decided I didn't want to ever live in that condition and started smoking a pack or more a day. (Little did I know I was setting myself up for a far more agonizing death.) I was 19 years old.

That was 16 years ago. I'm 35 and have just gone 25 1/2 hours without an analog.

Ironically, now I am the one who is bugging the same best friend to start vaping! I'll wear him down yet!

 

[rosesense]

Congrats on beginning the journey. I had the first one at about age 10 but didn't really start steady smoking until age 24. I actually started because everyone smoked everywhere back in the day and I hated the smell so I figured I would smoke so it wouldn't bother me to be around it. Now, most people don't smoke and I was the outsider treated like a 3rd class citizen, go figure.

 

[lasttango]

I made it through High School without one... / first year of college... fell in love... she smoked... so I started.

 

[UntamedRose]

13 or so grabbed a few from my grandmother

by 16 I was a pack a day smoker

(oh joy to me)

 

[Sallana]

When I took my first drag I was 3.

When I smoked my first full one I was 8.

When I started smoking regularly I was 11.

Slowly worked up and was pack a day by 14.

 

[athlon14]

15,That was 1971 and smoke free since 5/11/09

 

[JRWReich]

I was 13... right out of the Denny's vending machine

 

[BradSmith]

Ten or Eleven and I was up to a pack a day by the time I hit 14.

 

[Automaton]

I was 17. It was a pack of Marlboro Reds from a gas station.

 

[Israfil]

I've told this story before...but why not. I was 8 years old and a friend suggested we try it. We jacked one of my dad's packs and from then until I was about 13 I was swiping a pack of his ultralights a day. Got into highschool and at about 14-15 started up again with my now best friend, him with marlboro reds, me with menthols of all sorts.

 

[Devilooman]

I was 8. My brother (age 12) was babysitting me and had friends over. I wanted to hang out with them but they wouldn't let me unless I smoked with them so I couldn't snitch. When my brother got caught he snitched on ME.

 

[pianoguy]

Ten or Eleven and I was up to a pack a day by the time I hit 14.

Same for me. Sure feels good to be able to look at the pack I keep in my desk drawer for posterity and laugh in its general direction.

 

[topaz_stone71]

13 but like Clinton, I didn't inhale. Just thought I looked cool and stopped playing with them when my grandma busted me then ratted me out to my folks. At 15, I wanted to be like my best friend so I picked up the habit. Considering the path her life took, I'm glad I didn't turn out like her (poor girl has had it rough) but I got hooked on the coffin nails.

 

[Safira]

I was about 19 or 20 when I started. No one ever pushed me to smoke, it was all my own choice. I was going to a local community college, trying to make it through college without my parents help. Anyway in one of my classes was someone I knew through grade school and middle school. Let's just say this person brings back bad memories and at the time I just couldn't deal with being in the same room with them, and didn't want to say anything to anyone. One day after school I just drove to a gas station and bought my own pack. With very controlling parents at home and then this person at school it was my own stupid way of saying "it's my life". I could have thought of a better way, but I'm not the brightest crayon in the box.

But, in a way I'm kinda glad I started smoking. My mother found out and it was really, really bad. I realized how bad thing were, and with the help of some wonderful people got a life. If things hadn't played out the way they did I wouldn't have meet my wonderful husband. Now I've been vaping since april '09 and hubby mostly vapes but was smoking cigg's at work for a while. His company changed today to completely smoke free, no smoking in your cars. So he's taking his ego and he's trying a drip tip. I hope that works for him, I make his juice and wonder if he needs a stronger mg nic than what I am making him right now. (I make him 18 and wonder if he needs 24)

 

[VaporPhreak]

I smoked a marb Red every once in a while when I was 13, but more due to it being "cool" at the time than any addiction. I quit within a couple months. At 18 i started smoking a pipe, then pipe tobacco cigars then eventually cigs to supplement me when a pipe was less than convenient. Eventually I found Menthols and smoked them more often then not... 10 years of the nasty habit I am proud to say I am over 1 year with no smoking.

 

[spider362]

I was 13 or 14.

Used to swipe a pack of Camels about once a week from the drawer where my parents kept them.

This was back in the day when a pack cost $0.20 and a carton was $2.00.

The high school I attended had no restrictions on smoking except not in the classroom. They set it up so we could smoke in the basement and there were even sand buckets for us.

Does anyone remember the old Camel commercial "Four out of five doctors smoke Camel"?

This was back in the early 50's when smoking was the cool thing to do.

 

[Nyxie]

I started when I was 8. I was cutting school with my (now) oldest friend. We got into some trouble at a young age LOL. We saved our lunch money for the day. 40 cents each and bought a pack at a local store with a bar in the back. My how times have changed. A kid could not step foot into that place now, let alone buy a pack of smokes. After that i would smoke when I could get them, but really started smoking about 1/2 pack a day by the time I was 11 hanging out with older 14 and 15 yr olds. My Mom told me at about 15 that she knew I smoked and I might as well do it in front of her. So then I went to a pack a day.

 

[Buckeye Gal]

I started smoking regularly at age seventeen after I started college, my first cigarette was at age 15.

 

[redgirl]

Tried it when I was 9. Started regularly at about 14.

My friend & I would take the discarded butts from our parents' ashtrays and smoke those. Ewwwwwww!

 

[PaulB]

13 but like Clinton, I didn't inhale...

I was the same way--resisted inhaling for at least a couple years after trying my first cigarette at 11 or 12. I distinctly remember fearing I'd get hooked the instant I started to inhale--which was more or less how it turned out. But I hung with as anti-smoking a crowd as one could find 40 years ago--peer-pressure in reverse--which kept me from hitting a ppd until college age (but also made for a lot of craving).