My first dimp
My first attempt at smoking, I'm ashamed to say began when I was only eight or nine years old.
My brother and I were very close, so if either one of us got up to mischief it was a fair bet the other would be involved.
We had a couple of friends with whom we started pooling our weekly spending money. Each Friday night, we bought mineral, potato puffs and chocolate and had a little picnic in our hideout, telling each other ghost stories and playing silly games.
After a few weeks of this somebody suggested we bought ten cigarettes instead of our usual picnic. I was reluctant to give up the goodies so a compromise was made. We bought five cigarettes instead of ten, and we were still able to buy the potato puffs.
The memory of my first full cigarette is still quite vivid. My brother had sneaked some matches from the house and we all lit-up, at first we all puffed on the cigs and blew the smoke back out of our mouths. After a few drags, the burning and dryness in my mouth and throat made me cough. Everyone laughed at me and said I was a baby if I couldn't smoke. I defended myself claiming it wasn't the cig that had made me cough! I liked it! I would smoke another if they wanted proof!
A couple of weeks later my friend was telling us "people don't smoke like that, the smoke comes back out down their noses." (She'd been studying smokers on T.V.)
We all tried, with varying success. I couldn't swallow the smoke at first and when I finally managed it, I couldn't get it back down my nose. Eventually I did it but the same dry burning sensation was in my nose as well as my mouth and throat. Once again trying to look good in front of my friends I pretended to like it!
The early smoking episode in my life only lasted a few weeks, and then I think we reverted back to our harmless picnic even though I was so young, I think it did me good in the end because when I reached adulthood, I didn't start, and still don't smoke.