Last week I was scanning through my list of RSS Feeds when one of them caught my eye. While I am not an everyday reader of Copyblogger, I do read a couple of articles throughout the week. This time around, I saw an article entitled “One Foolproof Trick to Blast Writer’s Block” written by James Chartrand.
Having had my fair share of trouble coming up with post ideas, I dove right in and began reading. The concept for beating writers block was not only simple, it was genius. It took the simple concept of naturally forming an opinion on things you read and applied it to popular quotes.
I liked the idea so much that I sought out a couple dozen cigar quotes and became eager to get started. Initially I was planning on placing these topics on Stogie Review but wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea. Being that these quotes are going to generate a lot of opinion, I thought it might clash with the more educational and informative style of Stogie Review.
Instead, I thought I would try a few out here on Walt In PA so that I could get a feel for how they went, writing wise, and to test the waters on how they are received. If they go over very well, I may shift them over to Stogie Review to get more eyes and responses on the writing.
In any case, this post is the first in this potentially long series, which has yet to be titled.
A youth with his first cigar makes himself sick; a youth with his first girl makes other people sick.
A Quote from Mary Wilson Little
Ah, to be young again (relatively speaking, after all, I am only twenty-seven) and fawn all over a pretty young girl. To think up ways to impress this individual, and of course inadvertently drive the adults around you crazy.
Having read a few more quotes by Mary Wilson Little after finding the one above, I think the quote was meant to focus more on young love rather than cigars. Being a cigar nut, I obviously begin thinking about the cigar part of the quote and focused less on that of young love.
When we were young, we all found ourselves in a position to do something fun that was frowned upon by our parents. Some took things a little farther than others, but we have all been in the situation where we had a finger waved at us while the person on the other end of that finger was hollering about the results of our actions.
Being young, we feel the urge to rebel against anything deemed as not cool. When it came to being cool, some of us ventured out into the waters of trying cigars. I mean come on, how cool did you feel when you popped that first Swisher Sweet or White Own Grape into your mouth before setting it aflame.
After the cigar was burning and we were about half way in, some of us weren’t feeling so cool anymore. While my first experience with a cigar didn’t leave me tossing my cookies, I wasn’t feeling so great. In fact, I can recall one friend loosing it after showing all of us how cool he was with his cigar.
The first time I had my first real cigar I think I was about eighteen years old. It was some time around New Years Eve and an older friend of mine passed out a few Churchills. I don’t recall what they were or where he picked them up, but the urge to be cool hit me once again.
This time around, I wasn’t feeling ill after smoking most of the cigar but I couldn’t understand what was so appealing about it. By the time I reached the band I tossed it into an ashtray and was happy to be rid of it. My mouth tasted so dirty that all I wanted to do was brush my teeth.
Some years later I embraced the hobby, but I still find it amazing that I have come full circle. From being ill to recommending cigars as a hobby to those interested. With such a poor first impression, I would have never thought to be seeking out and buying cigars years later.
When you read the quote above by Mary Wilson Little
What thought goes through your mind?
4 thoughts on “Memories of that first cigar”
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Yikes I hope the anti smoking zealots do not find this post.
That said it was a nice read.
Being 27 also, the article took me back to when I was 16 and my older brother and I had a couple of stogies, for me it was the first time. I do remember getting sick and not liking it at all. Now 11 years later I am completely fascinated by cigars and cant get enough. Strange but true. Good read.
nice read but to me the quote really didn’t mean much. I grew up in York City in section 8 housing with my sister and mom. I had a cigarette probably at around 8 years old and just blossomed into the studly cigar smoker you see before you today LOL. So, to me the statement would reflect on a nice rural community setting where girls and boys would flirt and play, not the city where for a dessert she wanted you could get laid 😉
Mike
This totally reminds me of my teen years, stealing Bel Airs or Swisher Sweets from my dad. My friends and I would be out in the woods behind the house thinking we were so cool, we didn’t understand what my dad thought was so great about the taste, but all we cared about was being cool. Fast forward 30 years later, and the taste is what matters most. I enjoy, and am fascinated with everything about cigars. Couldn’t imagine living without them.
Great article Walt.