These advertisements are from Cigar International’s Christmas catalog, page 23, the closeout page. I’ve never seen great things said about the cigars on that page; usually, one sees copy such as ’straight tobacco taste’ or ‘decent smoke’.
It was 436 days ago that I stopped smoking cigarettes. I picked the day, December 22, 2006, two weeks in advance and quit cold turkey. Now I smoke one cigar per day, sometimes two if it’s a good day.
I was a compulsive cigarette smoker. I smoked when I woke up and before I went to bed and after a meal and before a meal and when I had to make a phone call and after sex and when I was walking to the car and in the car on the way to work and on the walk from the car to the office and once during sex and before I started a task and after I finished a task and whenever else I could squeeze in a couple of minutes to suck down a smoke. That’s all it took me to smoke a cigarette: two minutes. When I started smoking, around August of 1995, it took me eight minutes to smoke a cigarette. I still remember the rush of the nicotine; it was noticeable and pleasurable for the first couple of weeks. Then the rush stopped, and soon I was smoking a pack a day. Then two packs. Then I got it back under control to where I was only smoking about 25 cigarettes a day.
I figure that I’ve not smoked about 10900 cigarettes. I will count the possibly five packs that I’ve smoked socially since my retirement; let’s call it 10800 cigarettes that I would have smoked but have in fact not smoked since I am no longer a professional cigarette smoker. That’s a lot of cigarettes. My throat hurts just thinking about it. I used to switch brands when one brand would start to bother my throat too much and that was frequently since I smoked so damn many cigarettes. I went from Marlboro reds to Camels to Marlboro lights to Camel Lights and bouncing back and forth depending on how I felt when I woke up. I digress.
I was saying: I got off cigarettes 436 days ago. It was not my intention to become a regular cigar smoker. I wasn’t going to give up cigarettes and move right into cigars. But I did and my life is better because of it.
I’d been the occasional smoker of cigars for about as long as I had smoked cigarettes. My first exposure was with cheap machine rolled cigars from the corner store. I messed with those occasionally just as something different to do. During the cigar craze of the nineties, I had my father buy for me a premium type cigar while we were at a golf tournament. I tried to inhale most of it, spat a lot, and got rid of it about half way through. I didn’t try any more ‘good’ cigars until 2004. A friend of mine was given some cigars from his grandfather. I don’t recall the type but knowing the man who bought them they were certainly top quality. While my wife and his girlfriend where out shopping or whatever they did, we sat high up in a nice hotel watching the waves and the night lights of Hollywood, Florida and talking about whatever it is that we were talking about. After that I started messing around with some Punch and CAO smokes and whatever it was they were selling from the counter humidor at the liquor store. It was nothing serious and I wasn’t paying attention to what I was smoking.
My first great cigar was a Padron 1964 which was part of an anniversary gift. So much of that cigar is burned into my memory, from the ritual and smoke of it to the experience that went along with it, the view, the setting and the conversation. It was a fine cigar, and it made me realize that there was a lot to be enjoyed about cigars if I would only pay attention.
Fast forward a bit and I’m smoking maybe three or four cigars per month, stopping by the local cigar stores and smoking as a way to get to get in an hour or so of solid introspection or reading. I met a friend of my father who smoked cigars and I’d go over to his place on occasion and drink beer and talk about the sad state of the world over a cigar. All the while I’m still smoking cigarettes like a fiend.
Then I stopped smoking cigarettes. On my third day of being entirely smoke free, I got a package in the mail from a good friend of mine who apparently missed the memo that I had stopped smoking. It contained some top quality cigars. I was unsure about what to do. I tried to give them away but I could find no takers. I could not have thrown them away. So I did what any decent person would do and smoked the first cigar one week after I smoked my last cigarette.
I was afraid that smoking cigars would trigger an urge to smoke cigarettes, but it never did. The two experiences are far removed from each other and share very little in common except for the part about burning tobacco. My use of cigarettes was compulsive and obsessive and there was no joy in it. Cigar smoking brings real pleasure into my life, pleasure that I look forward to and can take advantage of on my own terms. I smoke a variety of cigars because there are so many good smokes to experience, not like I rotated my cigarettes to get a break from the irritants particular to one brand. I like the relaxed camaraderie of cigar smokers which is so much different than the hectic alliance of cigarette junkies around an ashtray. I made it 5 months completely cigarette free. I can have a cigarette now and know that I am in control.
The cigar smokers reading this know the comfort and the anticipation involved in selecting, cutting, and lighting a smoke. I don’t have to tell the cigar smokers about the pleasures filling so many of our senses while we smoke a cigar. Certainly, smoking a cigarette stimulates the same set of senses, but the both the good ritual and pleasure are absent from smoking a cigarette. Cigarette smoking had become a chore and a vice; I felt that I had to smoke cigarettes that I didn’t want to smoke. I have yet to smoke a cigar that I didn’t want to smoke.
My life is better because of cigars. Cigars give me a hobby and something to occupy enough time that I can concentrate on something besides work and family for all of my waking hours. I go to the cigar store and even before I walk in, I taste all the different flavors. I can find a cigar that perfectly complements a meal or enhances a particular time of day. I know the pleasant surprise of finding a cigar that I’ve forgotten about at the bottom of my humidor. I am sure that I have much to learn about cigars, and I am looking forward to getting to know many more friends and smokes as I gain that knowledge.
cross-posted at cigarzilla.net