Why didn’t you?

I’ve often wondered why I never fell into that trap myself. My parents were heavy lifelong smokers and I was around more smokers than nonsmokers during my entire Army career, so it wasn’t due to lack of role models.

All I can think of were two reasons: I’ve always been a bit of a contrarian who instinctively avoided following the crowd, and that’s what not smoking in my younger years was to a degree.
In addition, as I was growing up I read many of the books about POW experiences that were written after WW II and Korea, and I remember being struck by how desperate how some prisoners (and those in combat zones) became for tobacco. There were accounts of how some literally traded away their food for cigarettes. At the time I was too young and ignorant to really understand the power of addiction, but I do remember thinking, “I wouldn’t want something like that to have so much control over me.”

I’m curious about others’ experiences.
Were you actively discouraged?
Did you decide on your own it was an unwise idea?

I couldn't afford it and it smelled like hell.

Both of my parents smoked and i hated it.

Yet another member here, that fits your criteria. Smokin' is da debal.

I can see getting addicted to alcohol, or pain meds, but how do you get addicted to engulfing your lungs with thick smoke, ash, and tar?

Never understood it myself.

H&K-Guy

I'm not over 50 yet, but I'm in the neighborhood.

I tried a cigarette when I was 5 (found one of my older brothers smoking with a bud, and he gave me one). I inhaled. Didn't touch the stupid things for 13 years.

Then, when I got to college, I noticed that excessive alcohol consumption game me the urge to smoke. I never inhaled, but we puffed on the Swisher Sweet cigars. After I quit drinking, the urge to smoke went away.

I went to Alaska after I quit drinking, and I used cigars to keep the mosquitos away while I was fishing (again, I never inhaled, but would blow the smoke at the skeeters to keep them away). I quit that soon, as I didn't like how they made me drool.

Today, I abhor smoking (I'm allergic to the smoke). I do know it's a cultural/peer pressure thing. I know a really smart kid in nursing college who smokes, but that is because his father and maternal grandfather both smoke. So, I guess he does it to fit in/look cool? Stupid habit.

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
Both of my parents smoked and i hated it.

Same here.

I included the over 50 age criterion because anyone that age and older would have been exposed to pro-smoking pressures when young. When I was old enough to start smoking there were even still significant claims that smoking posed no health hazards. Why anyone would start smoking today, however, is unfathomable. I recently learned that the 20-something son of a good friend just started. He is brilliant and a financial success, and I was left flabbergasted by the news.

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
Both of my parents smoked and i hated it.

This. I hated, despised the smell and being forced to ride in a car in winter with the windows rolled up was pure torture.

I'm 62 and never touched a cigarette.

I don't really know why. I just was never interested in it.
Both parents smoked two packs a day until well after I was an adult; they both finally did quit.

good start on the springtime of being septuagenarian, never needed to smoke, plenty of the damned cloud floating around from others;

tried a couple cee-gars in the late 60s & discovered I was actually allergic to the stuff

I grew up around smokers (one parent and all four grandparents, various aunts & uncles) but I never had any interest. Even my wife smoked for about the first 10 years we were together. I think the sum total of all the cigarettes I smoked in my life is under a half pack.

I never saw the appeal of sucking hot toxins into my lungs. Just another filthy worthless habit.

My dad smokes like a freight train, and just listening to him wake up in the mornings was enough to keep me from ever wanting to try it. I'm 50 and never put one in my mouth, and never will.

I was into sports in high school and college and the coaches were always saying, you get caught smoking and you're out and the guys I hung out with didn't smoke so it wasn't too hard to stay away from it. Also, my mother smoked and as a young kid I was always being sent down to the corner grocery store to get a pack of cigarettes for her, that in itself soured me at a pretty young age against smoking.

Today, with the cost of cigarettes and all the medical data against it, I can't understand why people still smoke.

63 and never did cotton to the taste smell. My Dad smoked until our early childhood and gave it up for both health and cost reasons. The Surgeon General's report of 1964(?) made an impact as well.

My dad smokes like a chimney and that's what turned me off.

I had a dalliance one night of heavy drinking. I was at a bar with a buddy who was a smoker playing arcade games and drinking heavily. All of a sudden, something came over me and I asked for a cigarette. I smoked it, then another, then another, then another, then another. Then we left and went to a store and I bought and pack and smoke 4 or 5 more, close to 10 in all over the course of a few hours. Got deathly ill and puked everywhere.

I have no idea what came over me. Never had the urge before or after.

Bad for health.

Never understood the supposed pleasure of it.

It stank to high heaven.

It cost money that was considered a luxury, not a necessity (important when on a budget).

Mid-fifties and I've never smoked a cigarette.

My family moved back to our family farm when I was eight after my grandfather, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with cancer. I got to spend almost four years with him as he fought it, but what I saw as he declined was enough to turn anyone off from smoking.

Besides, it smells awful, too.

My mom was a lifelong smoker. I saw the hold it had on her and never wanted to be addicted to anything like she was to cigarettes. I also got onto fitness & sports at a young age so smoking never appealed to me.

Well I don't really fit the criteria. I am 44 and smoked for about one year when I was 16. I really only smoked when I drank at parties and one day I looked at the cigarettes and wondered what the hell I was doing. I threw them into a field and never smoked again in my life. I am very glad I did not end up being a smoker.