When I was young ....

[klaus]

... and I am going back a few years, to when I was 15 or 16. As you can guess I am from Germany and in my time most young people would start to smoking around that age or earlier. All the usual stuff, cigarettes, rool ups, pipes and even cigars.

I remember a particularly cheap cigar, looked a bit like a torpedo, robusto diameter, almost olive green appearance, sold in a carton holding three of them. I just can't remember what they were called, have never searched for them since. But as you can imagine they were cheap and an awful smoke! But something you could afford on pocket money.

Maybe someone knows what I am talking about, or maybe you have a similar story about early forays into smoking cigars?

[ValeTudoGuy]

I'm afraid I don't know but it sounds like this.

[mattyhall22]

I tried a cigarette when I was about 13 or 14, and promptly coughed until I thew up. Never smoked a cigarette after that. I do recall being about 8 or 9 and wanting my Dad to stop smoking cigars, I used to crush them up a bit and put them back in the box (they were only hamlets )

[PeeJay]

Marc you're very naughty but that was funny!

I also tried cigarettes as a teenager because it was 'cool' but I was never able to inhale. Good job I didn't know about cigars then.

[JoeyGunz]

Never really smoked cigarettes, the odd roll up here and there and sometimes not only tobacco in there but got into cigars probably when I was around 21ish

[PeeJay]

Sounds like they were candelas Klaus which accounted for most US cigars in the early 70s. If you lived near a US base they would have been readily available.

Anyway welcome to the forum, a Teutonic view will be very welcome, especially when discussions get political!

[klaus]

Thanks PeeJay, I think they were definitely of German manufacture so nothing fancy. I remember an uncle of mine actually smoked those in a pipe, i.e. stick the cigar in the pipe. He was badly wounded in the war, missing a leg and loads of bits off fingers, so maybe a pipe was easier to hold for him. Not sure about politics on this forum but if it affects cigars I probably have an opinion on it.

BTW, smoke today was a La Rica Tubitos, now that's a cheap cigar, at ?2.10, but very nice and small.

[Simon Bolivar]

So Klaus, talking of German Cigar Polotics, what's the news about a proposed clamp down on Germany's liberal smoking rules in cigar clubs & the like? I heard about this from some Germans visiting Antwerp in December. Sure that will make Nino of Flying cigar fame mad as hell!