I smoked through college. I was about a pack a day smoker. I quit when cigarette prices went up to 75 cents a pack (Kinda tells you how long ago it was doesn’t it), a big jump because it was decided to heavily tax them to get people (like me) to quit. I just refused to pay that much.
It went like this: I went in to my regular gas station/convenience store to purchase a pack of smokes. The clerk said that will be 75 cents. I was appalled and pissed off but bought them anyway. I resolved to never pay that much again and never did.
I smoked that pack but remember spreading it out over several days instead of just the one day. For several weeks my friends who did smoke would offer me one and I would take it and smoke it. After a while, they got tired of supporting my habit as well as their own and quit offering.
So, they didn’t offer and I wouldn’t ask or buy but by that time it no longer seemed necessary. Sure, over the years from time to time I would want one and even smoked one if it were offered until one day I didn’t. Never took another,
Still enjoyed the second hand smoke however, until they quit letting people smoke inside.
It still doesn’t bother me if others smoke around me but my wife, also a former smoker decades ago, cannot stand the smell anymore.
Just wondering, smoking back then seemed to be a social activity. Now it seems to be a singular or individual activity. Very few people I now associate with smoke so I don’t have the background anymore. Do people still share cigarettes when they get together? When you smoked did you? Did you resent it when people bummed one off you or were you happy to share?