I can't breathe when around it, so I never started.

quote:

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

That is my reason.

I left home at 15 and went to military school. There, you could only smoke in one designated place. It literally was 'a breath of fresh air.' After that, I could not stand to be around cigarette smoke. Fortunately, my mom quit a short time later, so I did not have to be around it (unless I was visiting my dad).

Mormon.

neither of my parents smoked (mom quit when she started dating dad) and all the kids at school who smoked were juvie aholes.

I once had to go to the Phillip Morris plant in Richmond to service some equipment and the smell of the raw tobacco made my severely ill.

I did enjoy the occasional cigar for a while but haven't touched them for a long time either.

quote:

I worked at the hospital maintenance shop one summer when I was in high school. The pathologists showed me the lungs of a person that smoked and one that didn't. The lungs of the smoker were black as tar while the non-smoker were pink.

Saw the same thing, only it was at a school anti-smoking presentation in sixth grade. Left a permanent impression on me.

Way over.

Messed around smoking by bad influence and out of rebellion about 8 years old. Stupid, yeah, got real sick. Figure I would learn. Nope.

Of an on for the same stupid reasons and same stupid influences.

Then became a real habit/thing about 14 and continued until I was almost 32 and quit cold turkey. That was over 1/2 a life ago.

Glad I quit.

Smoking and bad women, will kill a man faster than anything else, including fast cars, cheap booze, bad wars and not wearing clean underwear.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Why didn’t you?

My dad (a smoker) died of lung cancer when I was eight. It wasn't pretty. That was a rather effective deterrent.

I'm 50 and have never touched a cigarette. My parents and grandmother smoked in the house and car and I always smelt like smoke when I went to school. I always hated that they put me through that and was totally turned off by it.

I do enjoy a fine cigar out on the patio by the pool with a cocktail though.

Never could stand the smell. Made my wife quit when we got married

Because my response to peer pressure was to dig in my heels and resist. Some call this being independent. Others called it being an "oppositional pain in the ass", but I disagreed with them.

I was also frugal. Again, some referred to this as being a "cheap bastard".

Smoked from 14 to 18. I didn't want to be told when I was 50+ "You know if you had quit smoking you would not have this problem" So I quit, wish loosing weight was as easy!

Tried a few Swisher Sweets back in my Air Force days. It was what all the cool kids were doing.

Tasted horrible, gave up after two or three of those little cigars. Maybe I was doing it wrong, not real sure what others found enjoyable about it.

Beyond those two or three attempts, I have never smoked.

quote:

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

Yep I couldn't stand it either and when I got older I let them know. I never touched it and never will. I remember in school people said I smelled like it because of my parents, Man that pissed me off. both of my parents died from complications of it.

Not quite 50, give me another 11 months. I still remember in 5th grade biology class a demonstration that was made on the effects of smoking. The demonstration consisted of a healthy human lung and a lung affected by emphysema being placed inside plexiglass buckets with air tubes hooked up so the lungs expanded and contracted like they were breathing. Seeing how gross and disgusting that brown lung with tumors all over it made an impression.

I had an obsessive/compulsive nature back when I was younger. I knew that if I started smoking I would have a 3-pack-a-day habit, like my grandfather.

If example and role modeling are as effective as purported, me and my brothers should all be dead from smoking. None of us smoke. My mom never smoked, my dad quit when he was 40. He called it "adult thumb sucking" Quit by forcing himself to smoke 3 packs a day then quit cold turkey. My brother sent a picture of me and my siblings watching TV in fall of 1956, my brother is using a cigarette pack as a toy. One of my grandparents smoked and it killed him.

Chemistry is the reason none of us smoke. My dad and my mother's father like tobacco and nicotine, everyone else is adverse to it. All effects to me are negative and none are positive. I'm very thankful for that. I can't think of anyone in my family that smokes, and my parents have about 60 offspring including spouses. I live in a lake community where in my parents generation many smoked, now almost nobody does. Get togethers have been smoke free here for a long time, and not by design.

My wife smoked some when we first dated. She is a very uncommon smoker who really enjoys tobacco, but can just have one every now and then, usually when drinking. I always hated when she smelled of tobacco. If it wasn't bad for you, she'd assuredly smoke.

quote:

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

Same here.

tac

Both my parents smoked and I used to have to take 6-8 hour car trips. That was tough.
It never really did anything for me and had too many allergies already. I will smoke a good cigar ever now and then for celebrations but cigarettes- Nah.
Lost mom to lung cancer.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
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?

My thoughts exactly. My mother let me try when I was s kid. I almost coughed up a lung so I guess the deterrent worked. While in uniform I did burn quite a few Tipirillo's and Swisher Sweets. They made good bug repellant in the field.

You people think the smell of store bought cigs are bad .
Well the roll your own bugler is what us kids had to wake up each morning.
It killed mom at fifty
None of us took up that habit.