Smoked occasionally until 26, haven't had one since.

Though, I do like to have a bowl of the pipe and a cigar every once in a while when out for a drink (seldom).

Never thought much of drinking or drugs either.

Now 72 and never smoked. Tried cigarettes twice in high school.. got no buzz, kick or whatever. Had more interesting things to spend my money on. Gas and girls.

I'm one year away from fifty, it really hurts to say that btw. My Dad smoked pretty much his whole life but it never interested me. I've never understood how people become addicted to something that smells and tastes so bad.

quote:

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

I'm not over 50 yet (close), but that about sums it up for me too.

I was an athlete with natural liabilities to overcome. I didn't need to complicate that with destructive behavior. I didn't drink alcohol either. I did ride a motorcycle until I was 21 though.

My parents were smokers in the 1960s and 70s, with our house smelling like it. Dad quit cold turkey after a cancer scare in the early 80s. Mom got COPD in the early 90s and then died from it a few years later. I was a track/cross country guy -- and smoking was not good for running 5:00 minute miles back in the day. Lots of friends in the military smoked, but I could never get into it.

Nobody in my immediate family smoked. My mom's parents were both smokers. My brother and I tried a few times to get them to quit, but they denied smoking was bad for your health. My grandfather quit after his first heart attack. My grandmother didn't quit until she was diagnosed with emphysema, which my grandfather got as well. They both spent their last years tied to oxygen, struggling for most every breath.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGSense:
My parents were smokers in the 1960s and 70s, with our house smelling like it. Dad quit cold turkey after a cancer scare in the early 80s. Mom got COPD in the early 90s and then died from it a few years later. I was a track/cross country guy -- and smoking was not good for running 5:00 minute miles back in the day. Lots of friends in the military smoked, but I could never get into it.

Wow, pretty much me exactly. Including Mom and Dad. Mom died in '03 COPD and my dad quit cold in 94 after a heart issue. Cig smoke would make me gag, I could never stand it.

I was also a CC kid in High School, and you don't run sub 5 min miles with a Lucky Strike in your mouth!

I tried one once when I was 20-something. WTF? Gawd, what an awful vile thing. Never again. Sometimes some guy (or gal, there's nothing sexist about this) will get on to the bus just absolutely reeking of it. It about makes me gag.

Not quite 50 yet, but I just never saw the draw.
Neither of my parents smoked. My Maternal Grandfather smoked about 15/16 of his life and I got to watch him slowly starve to death from Esophageal cancer...
I remember smoking about 2 cigarettes in High School, and a few mediocre cigars over my lifetime, but it just never struck me as something I wanted to do.
Also, I remember Dad telling me about hiring farm hands that smoked "its like hiring a one armed man".

And the smell....ugh....

52 here. Mom smoked Salems when I was growing up and we would occasionally steal them. Smoking just never really took then. I did have a friend who chewed Happy Days raspberry chew in about the 5th grade, so I did some of that then. I started smoking (and chewing) for reals in college because all the cool people did it. Quit 20 years ago last May cold turkey and don't miss it a bit.

It's the most vile smell there is.

I don't technically fit in your criteria, but close.

I started smoking in high school, and attribute that to running with the wrong crowd a few years. Yeah, the golf team.....

It was mostly a on-the-course thing and while out, my family would have killed me. I carried that over to about the first week of college when my girlfriend at the time (now long-suffering wife of 30+ years) had made it clear how much she hated being around her father who smoked. He was an epic asshole on many fronts, but regardless I tossed the pack I had and never picked one up again.

It wasn't all that great after a few years of smoking, I knew it was awful for me and I knew I was going to be short on cash. All in all, an easy excuse to just kick it an move on. That was ~34 years ago.

Mom worked at the V.A. hospital in Iowa City,

One morning she came home and while I was eating my cheerio's ( age 7) she showed dad an I some pictures from work, ( 8 x 10's)

one was a perfectly healthy lung , the other was two cancer ridden lungs , after she showered and changed she had me smell her uniform,

That is what a terminal cancer ward smells like.
that pretty much wrapped up any ideas re: smoking .

I think that I might have never started smoking if I hadn't enlisted in the Air Force 50 years ago. During a Squadron detail the call for a break was "Light 'em up if you got'em".

After I enquired about non-smokers, I was told "just keep on working then". By the end of the day I was a smoker.

I got good enough at it that I kept smoking until my Wife found out that she was expecting our first. We both quit right then.

That was over 40 years ago. We are both still here.

My dad smoked heavy and mom smoked very little, but I was always allergic to it.
I hated to see people smoke all my life.

Plus like the OP I never followed the crowd or did things because others were.

just never seemed a healthy thing to do (which is funny because I like my share of fast food / junk food / snacks)

waste of money (which is funny because I spend money on other non-essentials)

kinda stinky habit (which is funny because the smell of tobacco is actually pretty good)

bad breath (which is funny because I didn't mind kissing girls in HS / College after THEY were smoking)

So I don't know. Combination of all the above I suppose.

Just wan't my thing.

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I am 49 tomorrow so close to the requested bracket. My dad smoked when I was real young he started in Vietnam IIRC. Then when I asked about it a young kid he stopped. Later on as a college aged kid he started again and stopped. I just never had an interest and the Anti-smoking messaging was pretty well established by the time I hit my teens. If I am at a place with smoking I get a head ache from my sinus that night and the next day.

Cant stand cigarette smoke.

HK Ag

the other kids I saw smoking in jr. high and high school were dick holes

My parents both smoked for quite some time when I was young, and I hated it. It stunk. It always stunk. And then it continued stinking. I never wanted that. Sure, I tried a cigarette once with friends, but guess what? It stunk. Never again. Don't get me started on obnoxious cigars....

In Junior High I thought smoking affected the brain's functioning. Many of the students who smoked seemed to lack the ability to carry both cigarettes and matches. They kept asking other students for cigarettes or matches. It made no sense.

Both of my parents were smokers. They quit smoking on their own, at different times.