[filter man]

Back in the 1960's smoking was very popular and widely acceptable.Both my parents smoked as did quite a few school buddies so it wasn't surprising I started in 1969 age 17-initially out of curiosity but also to feel "manly"!

[masklofumanto]

Originally Posted by filter man Back in the 1960's smoking was very popular and widely acceptable.Both my parents smoked as did quite a few school buddies so it wasn't surprising I started in 1969 age 17-initially out of curiosity but also to feel "manly"!

It wasn't much different in 1978.

[fumadan]

Growing up amongst smokers I just thought it was a right of passage and started sneaking cigarettes from my dad's packs at 13. When he caught me in the act at 14 he just looked at me and gave me a light. Being able to openly smoke at home made me become a pack a day smoker by the time I was 15, when I joined the army after I graduated high school I soon was the 2 pack a day smoker I still am.

[redjohn]

At 12 I was the only non-smoker in the family and decided to join the rest. When I was 15 I got caught and was allowed to smoke by my dad.

[bryce]

As a child of smoking parents I had the urge to see what smoking was all about, seeing our neighbor's son smoking made me realize kids could also smoke so that sealed it for me.

[belsigaro]

Originally Posted by cooljay788 Even though my mother smoked, I guess a combo of curiosity and hanging around sexy chicks who smoked in school is what motivated me to start as a smoker myself. I also liked the glamourous image cigs were portrayed as in cig ads on mags back then. But Joe Camel didn't encourage me to start. A blonde friend named Crystal (who smoked Newports) from eighth grade is what motivated me to try it for myself at 13. I didn't become an everyday smoker til I was 19 though. I didn't have the privilege of a parent who bought Newports for me, and I'm an only child. I ended up bumming cigs from time to time while in high school. I actually stopped smoking at 15 since I couldn't get "cig money" for myself. But when I started working in college at 19, that's when I became an everyday smoker. The first pack I bought was Newports of course for only $2.90. And when I started again, I was inhaling the smoke a lot more deeper than I was as a smoker in my early teens. I enjoyed it a lot more, and it was love at first sight.

This is almost identical to what happened for me. Almost! It was a girl at school and I was 13 too. She gave me my first cig - a Carlton Lite.

[MarlboroPete]

When I was 15 my grandfather died of lungcancer, no matter what everybody said to him my dad refused to quit so I just wanted to find out what was so great about smoking for him to continue even after seeing his father suffer. Two years later I finally saw what it was all about and decided that I to wanted to be a smoker and started smoking daily.

[cigsmoker92]

Both my parents and one of my older brothers smoked. So when I was 11 I just decided to take one of their cigarettes and smoke it. I was hooked almost from that first one. My brother would always buy some extra for me when he bought his. By the time I was 12 I was smoking a pack a day to a pack and a half a day.

[RTW65]

Been around smoking all my life. My parents smoked, one grandmother and my older brother smoked. Always enjoyed watching them, but didn't really start smoking regularly until in my early 30's.

[seansmks]

curiosity and peer pressure