# At What Age Did You Try Your First Cigarette?



## fmdog44 (Nov 13, 2018)

My dad smoked cigars and my mom did the cigarettes. I guess I first tried one when I was about 12, not sure but me and my buddy would steal one from our folks, Neve got caught.


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## Pappy (Nov 14, 2018)

Way too young for me. I took my moms Lucky Strikes, a few at a time, and the terrible habit started. Age....13-14.


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## Ken N Tx (Nov 14, 2018)

Ditt. ^^^^^^^ 12 to 14...


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 14, 2018)

I was still in the single digits.

My older sister used to snitch cigarettes from my aunt and when I caught her she started snitching two in order to _buy_ my silence.

I started smoking on a regular basis around the age of 12.  My friends and I would sneak into the local firehouse and buy our smokes from a vending machine.


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## Wren (Nov 14, 2018)

About 13, took it up full time a year later, nobody batted an eyelid in those days, everybody was smoking, I gave up over 20 years ago for health reasons and never been the same since !


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## Keesha (Nov 14, 2018)

I think I was between the ages of 10 to 12. 
My next door neighbours parents had a rolling machine so my girlfriend made some for us. I hated it though and never really smoked cigarettes. I found better stuff to smoke.
My dad would occasionally smoke cigars when he drank and my mom never


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## terry123 (Nov 14, 2018)

I tried one when Virginia Slims came out. I could not handle holding a cig  and going about my business. My sister can smoke and go about her chores but I could not so tried that first one, put it out and threw out the rest of the pack. Never tried it again.  Just not my thing.


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## moviequeen1 (Nov 14, 2018)

I started this terrible habit when I was either 13 or 14 watching what my parents were doing thought it was cool.
A pack of cigs was $.35 but it took me 2- 3 days to finish a pack.
I quit 'cold turkey' when cost of a pack was $1,to this day the smell of cigarette smoke bothers me Sue


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## Ronni (Nov 14, 2018)

I was 15.  I remember how hard I worked to get past feeling sick and awful so that I could be "cool."  

I smoked till I was 20 when I had my first child.  I stayed quit till my 5th child was 8 or so.  I quit several more times for the next few years, but always went back to them.  In 2008 I quit again, hopefully for good this time!!!


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## RadishRose (Nov 14, 2018)

Around 12, but not regularly until about 15.


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## CeeCee (Nov 14, 2018)

I was about 13 but just tried it, didn't like it.  Then started smoking at 26, a girlfriend at the time started me.  This time I liked it and continued until about 11 years ago when I finally quit.


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## SeaBreeze (Nov 14, 2018)

I tried it when I was around 13 or 14, neither of my parents smoked cigarettes, my father would have a White Owl cigar now and then usually in summertime and always outdoors.  My older brother smoked Marlboro reds, those were my regular brand during my smoking years.  Started at 15 and quit around 30.


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## gennie (Nov 14, 2018)

About 16. Smoked about a half of one cigarette and thought "what a disgusting thing to do." It stank and made me stink too.  I never tried again. 

 I can't explain my aversion to smoking.  It was just there.   I grew up in a smoking family and later worked and socialized with smokers.  Everyone around me smoked, it was the odd one (me) who didn't.


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## jujube (Nov 14, 2018)

At 17, my freshman year in college.  It was considered _ultra cool _to sit on the steps of the girls' dorm with a cigarette in your hand and ask passing guys for a light.  I guess we thought it showed what sophisticated women of the world we were.....

I never got up the nerve to actually inhale.  I just took an occasional "mouth puff" to keep the cigarette going.  I think I "smoked" about five times and then never smoked again.


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## Ken N Tx (Nov 14, 2018)

Ken N Tx said:


> Ditt. ^^^^^^^ 12 to 14...


Sad note: I now have COPD Emphysema and a Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm from heavy smoking..


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## Keesha (Nov 14, 2018)

jujube said:


> At 17, my freshman year in college.  It was considered _ultra cool _to sit on the steps of the girls' dorm with a cigarette in your hand and ask passing guys for a light.  I guess we thought it showed what sophisticated women of the world we were.....
> 
> I never got up the nerve to actually inhale.  I just took an occasional "mouth puff" to keep the cigarette going.  I think I "smoked" about five times and then never smoked again.



:lol: JuJube


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## Ruth n Jersey (Nov 14, 2018)

About 10. My Dad left his cigarettes on the porch steps while he was doing yard work. My friend and I snitched one,lit it up with a lot of trouble, as I remember. We both took a few puffs and buried it in a sand pile. We thought it was horrible. Years later when I was working I tried it again. There was a Tobacco that my Uncle smoked in his pipe that smelled wonderful. They made it into cigarettes. I can't remember the name of it but figured I would try them since they smelled so good. It certainly didn't taste as good as it smelled. I never smoked since.


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## Trade (Nov 14, 2018)

I never did smoke cigarettes. Both my father and mother smoked Camel straights. I always hated the smell of them. My father died of a heart attack at 45 and my mother the same at 53. That's an average of 49 years. I'm 71. That means I've had my 49 years plus 22 of somebody else's. So I'm sticking with what got me this far. I will admit that back in the day I did puff on an occasional cigar trying to look cool. But I never inhaled.


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## C'est Moi (Nov 14, 2018)

Trade said:


> I never did smoke cigarettes. Both my father and mother smoked Camel straights. I always hated the smell of them.



Same here.   My parents smoked "L&Ms" and I thought the smell was awful.   I'm sure I inhaled enough 2nd hand smoke as a kid to kill me several times.  :cough:   (But then again, I rode my bike without a helmet, gasp.)


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## Gary O' (Nov 14, 2018)

At 9 or 10

First one was caught from a guy driving by and flicking his half smoked cig out the window

We shared this prize between the four of us, in our headquarters (abandoned shed)
Think it was a Pall Mall straight

I’ve smoked on and off most my life
Not one after another, but after a meal, or that first morning cup

When I frequented drinking establishments, it was as many as I could inhale.
But that was then

Now?

I roll my own







Enjoy them about 4-5 times a day…outside, on the porch

…and I do enjoy them

Doubt it’s what’ll kill me
Nor will it be scotch, or beer (I really don’t drink that much…maybe a nip a month, and a beer a week, maybe)
Not even overeating (because I don’t)

No

My kids…my spawn…will kill me

They’ve been carefully plotting it for a very long time now


Hoping it’ll be quick


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## Fyrefox (Nov 14, 2018)

I think I was around 16 when I tried that first experimental cigarette.  Back then, you could buy a pack from a machine, and if the machine was in an unfrequented place, no one was the wiser.  "Marlboros" were the cool thing to get, but I never developed a habit.


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## Pappy (Nov 15, 2018)

I use to roll my grandpas cigarettes on a machine like this and fill up a Prince Albert can with the rolled smokes.


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## Ken N Tx (Nov 15, 2018)

Fyrefox said:


> .  "Marlboros" were the cool thing to get, but I never developed a habit.


Marlboro are now $7.00 a pack!!!!!!!!


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 15, 2018)

Ken N Tx said:


> Marlboro are now $7.00 a pack!!!!!!!!



They are twice that in central New York.

You can buy a 12 pack of beer cheaper than one pack of cigarettes.


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## beachguy (Nov 15, 2018)

I was 12...smoker 50 plus yrs..now have heart issues copd  and on oxygen...but energy level still up and can go w/o o2 for awhile...


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## DaveA (Nov 15, 2018)

Probably in my early teens.  Never took it up.  It surely wasn't because of health issues.  They weren't even being talked about in the 40's but I came from a non-smoking home life and just never felt the need to be "cool".  I've always been glad that I took that route but it was less about health than just not liking the smell and taste.

I did hear the old tale (from my folks) that smoking stunts your growth.  Haha  Some of my smoking cousins were 6 footers so I could never quite swallow that story.


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## RadishRose (Nov 15, 2018)

They're $10.00 a pack in CT.  It's mostly tax. Thank goodness I don't smoke. @ a pack a day, that's $3,640.00 a year, up in smoke!


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## Furryanimal (Nov 15, 2018)

Never have -but I did have these as a kid


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## jujube (Nov 15, 2018)

I remember when I was very young, cigarettes from the machine came with "change" of two shiny pennies in the wrapper.  My dad would give me the pennies when he opened a new pack.  I don't know how long that lasted or exactly when it was.


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## Gary O' (Nov 15, 2018)

RadishRose said:


> They're $10.00 a pack in CT.  It's mostly tax. Thank goodness I don't smoke. @ a pack a day, that's $3,640.00 a year, up in smoke!



they're almost all tax

at the turn of the century they were 50 cents a pack in China
all brands available

I can't even roll 'em that cheap


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 16, 2018)

Furryanimal said:


> Never have -but I did have these as a kid



I remember!

I was a big fan of these chocolate cigarettes!


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## Pappy (Nov 16, 2018)

Us kids used these too:


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## Pinky (Nov 25, 2018)

Tried smoking, between age 10-12. Being an asthmatic child, it didn't go well. It gave me a sore throat and I never tried smoking again. My Dad used to roll his own, and used to get me to roll them for him. If I recall correctly, he used Vogue tobacco, sold in a yellow paper pouch.


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## peppermint (Nov 26, 2018)

It seems our generation didn't think smoking was bad for you...My Dad and brother smoked...But Mom would tell them to go down in the basement to smoke...

When I was in High School, I did try smoking...I didn't last long...My husband started as a teen until he was 30 years old when his Father passed away...
Hubby quit cold turkey....His Father was 65 yrs old and Hubby came to his senses....Thank God!!!


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## oldman (Nov 27, 2018)

At 14 and I thought that I was going to cough out my intestines. That was enough of that until I was 15 and smoked for a few years and then I went into a health kick for the next several years. I remember when my dad caught me smoking and he told me that he was disappointed in me. I had to go to my bedroom and cry because it hurt my feelings when my dad said that I disappointed him. I went to him later that night and apologized and I told him that I wouldn't ever smoke again and I haven't.


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## Tommy (Nov 27, 2018)

In the 5th grade.  A friend and I had Detroit Free Press routes and our newspapers were dropped off at the same location. Every day at 4 AM, two boys folding papers and puffing away on Kents that my friend would filch from his mother.  Back then it seemed that every adult, politician, and entertainer smoked.  Nine out of ten doctors smoked Camels ... at least according to the TV commercials.  Packs of cigarettes were given away on college campuses and at professional sporting events.  By 1964 when the surgeon general's report came out and people started getting concerned, I was hooked.


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## oldman (Nov 27, 2018)

Tommy said:


> In the 5th grade.  A friend and I had Detroit Free Press routes and our newspapers were dropped off at the same location. Every day at 4 AM, two boys folding papers and puffing away on Kents that my friend would filch from his mother.  Back then it seemed that every adult, politician, and entertainer smoked.  Nine out of ten doctors smoked Camels ... at least according to the TV commercials.  Packs of cigarettes were given away on college campuses and at professional sporting events.  By 1964 when the surgeon general's report came out and people started getting concerned, I was hooked.




My mom smoked Kents for a few years before her and my dad, who was a Camel smoker, quit cold turkey. Shortly after, at 14, I had my first try at a cigarette on a dare from my best friend. It was a Marlboro. That was the only cigarette that I smoked until the following year when I started smoking full time. I shifted between True and Marlboro. That only lasted a few years and then I quit.


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## debbie in seattle (Nov 27, 2018)

?? 9.   Unfiltered Camels.    Yuck


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## john19485 (Nov 28, 2018)

I was 18 , in Vietnam , this person stated shooting at me, with a machine gun, I was a Marine, this Army private was with me, I told him lets shoot back, I was bringing a tank down for repair, got in it moved the gun around, fired that sucker, the shooting stopped, the Army private said, you want a smoke cowboy, that was when I started, five pack a day , for thirty years before I stopped.


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## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

Really young when I first tried it... elementary school young, however, when I got into junior-high, all changed. I remember the school dances, enjoying a cigarette before the dance (and after)... and by grade 10, I was smoking regularly, a pack used to last me a couple of weeks, but by the time senior-high came, I was hooked.

Had cigarettes in my purse always, and I never went anywhere or did anything without my purse... school, babysitting, work... cigarettes were suddenly part of my life.

I remember my mom telling me how much she regretted starting, and how disappointed in me she was, and in my own mind I thought, I can quit anytime, but such was not the case. I've quit a few times over the years, with some smoke-free times lasting longer than others, but I always went back to puffing.

There was never an occasion from the time I started where I smoked heavy, always have been a light smoker - 2-3 cigarettes a day, but still hoping to quit one day - for good.

Family pushed hard for me to quit when my last two children were babies, and I did for a few months, but the urge won me over and I was back smoking again.


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## Wren (May 2, 2020)

I first tried a cigarette  age 12, taking it up full time at 14, until about 20 years ago

These were  considered the height of sophistication


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## debbie in seattle (May 2, 2020)

14, my dad’s unfiltered Camels, didn’t last long.


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## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

debbie in seattle said:


> 14, my dad’s unfiltered Camels, didn’t last long.


OMG, I remember rolling a homemade cigarette once using a cigarette paper, yuck!

My mom rolled her own when one was tight, but she had a fancy little machine where you laid the empty cigarette tubes (with filters) into a channel, added tobacco along a groove, then slide the handle across the track, and voila, you had a homemade cigarette that looked store-bought!


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## JaniceM (May 2, 2020)

15.  Even asked permission first.  I suppose the reason I didn't get hooked was I didn't inhale.


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## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

JaniceM said:


> 15.  Even asked permission first.  I suppose the reason I didn't get hooked was I didn't inhale.


OMG, Janice, the asking permission part of your post killed me! Laughing so hard right now!


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## JaniceM (May 2, 2020)

Aunt Marg said:


> OMG, Janice, the asking permission part of your post killed me! Laughing so hard right now!



Well, when I asked my mother if I could have a couple of her cigarettes, she said she didn't think she should say no because one of my brothers smoked at that age.  Much later I learned he'd started smoking when he was only 7!  
My father, in contrast, never smoked and thought it was just stupid-  "Blow the smoke in and blow it back out, what's the point in that?!"  LOL


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## Pinky (May 2, 2020)

My father had one of those cigarette rolling machines, and I got to roll them. Age 12, before the rolling machine, I rolled my own with Vogue tobacco. Out in the woodshed, I lit up, took a big puff - and my throat hurt so badly. I was an asthmatic kid. Didn't touch another cigarette until my 20's when I would take a puff or two off my sister's cigarette. I have smoked a cigar though.


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## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

JaniceM said:


> Well, when I asked my mother if I could have a couple of her cigarettes, she said she didn't think she should say no because one of my brothers smoked at that age.  Much later I learned he'd started smoking when he was only 7!
> My father, in contrast, never smoked and thought it was just stupid-  "Blow the smoke in and blow it back out, what's the point in that?!"  LOL


Oh my word, age 7, gosh, if I had a kid start at that age I think I'd suffer a heart attack! 

Your mention of taking the smoke in and blowing it right back out, reminded me of the many smoking styles I witness in high-school. I remember a few girls smoking that way, and they, too, were just picking up the cigarette habit.


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## fuzzybuddy (May 2, 2020)

DuM, Dum Da Dum., Dum Dadada Dum I enjoyed my first Marlboro when I was 12-14. And my last Newport 100s when I was 50 something.


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## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

Pinky said:


> My father had one of those cigarette rolling machines, and I got to roll them. Age 12, before the rolling machine, I rolled my own with Vogue tobacco. Out in the woodshed, I lit up, took a big puff - and my throat hurt so badly. I was an asthmatic kid. Didn't touch another cigarette until my 20's when I would take a puff or two off my sister's cigarette. I have smoked a cigar though.


Yes, Vogue tobacco AND cigarette papers! I remember both!


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## Gaer (May 2, 2020)

Never did try them.  As a teenager, I saw older women smoking and Ithought it was unladylike.  Not an image I wanted to project.


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## Pecos (May 2, 2020)

I was 16 when I bought my first pack of cigarettes for 50 cents. It didn't do anything for me and I realized that I was earning 50 cents an hour chopping cotton under the West Texas sun. Somehow that didn't make sense to me and I never bought anymore.

After I joined the Navy, I had a brief flirtation with smoking a pipe, but that didn't last long either. I could never keep it lit and dragging all that stuff around was a nuisance. I once worked for an old ex-enlisted Lt who smoked a pipe and if you asked him a question he would go through that five minute "pipe drill" while he bought some time before coming up with an answer.


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## C'est Moi (May 2, 2020)

I never tried smoking.  My parents both smoked and it held no interest for me.  

My husband started smoking at 19 and he still smokes.  I wish he'd quit but I guess he's not ready.


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## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

C'est Moi said:


> I never tried smoking.  My parents both smoked and it held no interest for me.
> 
> My husband started smoking at 19 and he still smokes.  I wish he'd quit but I guess he's not ready.


Wow, good on you! Having been raised by two parents that smoked, kudos to you for not starting!


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## MarciKS (May 2, 2020)

17. Smoked for 25 yrs. Paying for it now.


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## Keesha (May 2, 2020)

Age 12. My next door neighbours parents and big sister all smoked so one lunch time we used one of those rolling machines and rolled one. I didn’t like it though. Weed was far better.


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## AnnieA (May 2, 2020)

Never.  The smell is a migraine trigger and those started when I was four.


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## In The Sticks (May 2, 2020)

My father was a Camel/Lucky smoker, then switched to cigars in his 40s.  When my parents split up my mother lightly smoked Tareytons for a while.

I tried one when I was about 13.  I snuck up on the roof (2 story house) and lit it up, just puffing.  Then I slipped.  I gasped and got a lungful!!  After my head stopped spinning I went inside and never touched another one.  (Out of 4 boys in the family, I was the only one who did not smoke his entire adult life.)

Fast-forward to when I stopped drinking at the age of 36 and decided I still deserved a vice, so started cigars and over time became a heavy cigar smoker.  I stopped that about 10 years ago.

The stupid things we do to ourselves....


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## C'est Moi (May 2, 2020)

Aunt Marg said:


> Wow, good on you! Having been raised by two parents that smoked, kudos to you for not starting!


Not only that, but I was raised on a tobacco farm.


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## Kadee (May 2, 2020)

I was raised by parents who smoked and were heavy drinkers ..I’ve never had even a unlit cigarette in my mouth or drank anything stronger than black tea 
I have asked just for fun if they taste any better then they smell ....I hate the smell


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## Buckeye (May 3, 2020)

Can't remember first one.  Maybe 10 or 11 or 12?  Never really smoked cigarettes.  I did smoke a pipe in the 70s (Borkum Riff tobacco) and then cigars in the 80s until about 6 or 7 years ago.  If you would like to send me a good Arturo Fuente Hemingway, I'll step outside and try it again.


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## Mister E (May 3, 2020)

Must have been around 13 or 14 ...I was the youngest of three brothers and both my brothers smoked , so I had to do the same to be '' one of the lads '' . Been regretting it for the last 12 or 13 years since I got COPD


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## charry (May 3, 2020)

I was 13.....It.took  me ages to learn how to take it down lol ..choke , splutter....

us kids always went to the local corner shop, and bought 2 tuppenny halfpenny  Park Drive, and a penny book of match.....6d...that was our pocket money gone.....

I gave up 34 yrs ago......


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## Damaged Goods (May 3, 2020)

At age 4, an evil and immature in-law (uncle) let me drag on his cigarette, but no harm was done.  At age 11, I tried one of my dad’s Raleighs, got dizzy, and chucked it.  Again, no damage.

But at 14, it got serious when one of my two BFFs urged me to smoke.  I thought I looked so cool after taking his advice, sitting there at that Orioles baseball game, thinking I looked like James Dean.

For a solid week, I got dizzy and nauseous with each drag.  My body was trying to tell me “Hey dummy, stop this nonsense,” but I persevered because I was cool.  The last dizzy episode was the worst, made me lie down on the grass, but I knew somehow that this would be the last of the warning symptoms.

I was right.  The body grew tired of sending out warnings and I became an established smoker.  YAY!

It’s funny, one BFF prodded me into smoking at age 14, and BFF #2 did the same thing with alcohol at age 17.  With BFFs like that, who needs enemies?


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## Yo-Yo (May 3, 2020)

Mom never smoked and Dad rolled his own and smoked occasionally. I was 14 and out with friends and tried it once and made it through half a cigarette and put it out. That was it. Never picked it up again.


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## drifter (May 10, 2020)

Started when I was twelve, one or two a day, some grape vine, a roll your own, Dukes Mixture
or Bull Derm. Mom saw loose tobacco in my shirt pocket and told my dad I was smoking. He 
smoked roll your owns. He asked me to roll him a cigarette which I did, he gave me a match and 
told me to light it. I struck the match on the leg of my jeans like I'd seen adults do. Then he told 
me to eat it. I knew he was mad then. I folded it in my mouth, fire and all, chewed it all up, 
tobacco, paper, the whole ball of wax. I was determined not to get sick in front of him. Bought 
my first pack of cigarettes on the way to school the next morning. Smoked for fifty-four years. 
Was it hard to quit? About the hardest thing I ever did.


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## mike4lorie (May 10, 2020)

C'est Moi said:


> I never tried smoking.  My parents both smoked and it held no interest for me.
> 
> My husband started smoking at 19 and he still smokes.  I wish he'd quit but I guess he's not ready.



@C'est Moi he'll quit when he's ready, and it may take him a few tries, I tried many of times, and quit once for a year and a bit... but started again... But this time around 5 months, has been my best quit ever, I have no interest in it at all this time around... Did it cold turkey this time, no aids...

I started late in life, I didn't start till I was almost 20... through with school, discovered women, beer, and smokes... and the rest is history...


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