My first smoke

ah, I still remember my first smoke! I was still studying at that time, and I was with a friend in a used-bookstore, strolling around looking for good books. My eye catched a few books about cigars (one of them an old book “the gentle art of smoking” by Dunhill). I said to my friend that smoking cigars would be a great hobby, because all people that were smoking cigars all looked really pleased and relaxed.

I bought the books and that same afternoon we visited a local cigar shop, and I told the story to the clerk. He smiled to us and was eager to help the young and unexpirienced boys. He gave us a great speech about what, why and how to smoke a cigar.
He invited us in the humi, and my eyes opened with excitement!

I left the shop with a case of “The heeren van Ruysdael” shortfillers and a sampler pack of “Private stock”, the low budget Davidoff line. The sampler pack contained 5 cigars with different sizes.
The clerk also gave me a cigar cutter.

As soon as I smoked one I was hooked.. I visited that shop many times over to try almost anything he had.