hbooker
Cigar DJ
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2001
- Messages
- 978
So I was asked hey Mike when did you have your first cigar?
It certainly brought back memories when that was asked. It was a punishment idea from my father.
We – my brother and I got caught having cigarettes in the alley behind the house and mom issued the dreaded “Wait till your father gets home” warnings. Usually that meant ok when Dad gets home you are getting the belt until he gets tired of whipping ya.
This night was different Dad came in with a slight smile on his face and had his stern voice, SO you want to smoke do you?
He held in his hand a brown paper bag and sat us down and pulled out one of those Circus Cigars, you know in 1970 they were prominent. It was Huge and Green (candela wrapper)
The ritual he made me go through was deeply disturbing for I had to smoke that entire thing. Ohh yea swallow the smoke too every once in a while. To me at that time I seem to recall it was a super cheap gar. Yet it rivalled the largest ring gauge like a 70 of course at the time it was just a horrendous intimidating thing.
Dad’s words “well this will ensure you don’t smoke anymore”
Today I shake my head and chuckle.
Now here I am after Owning 2 cigar brands, I have been a regional 5 state wholesale distributor as well as the owner of a cigar magazine and multiple websites.
So this is not about “look at me” it Is simply a reflection of the cigar journey.
I became a website designer, and in that I encountered a lot of neat websites and even more interesting people.
While dinking around online I found a website that sold lower cost Cigars, and well within a short period I accumulated bunches and bunches of smokes. Started with a small tuperware and a cheesy humidor then grew into the igloo.
the year was like 1996 - 98 or so.
I soon stumbled upon a forum of cigar folks named after an activity. “CigarPass” I was intrigued I had found similar guys as myself who enjoyed having a good cigar.
That singular website set a path in my life that I am not exaggerating to say was life changing
After a while I joined a “Cigar Pass” and did my best with it. At that time I was certainly outclassed by many of the members who were participating. I want to issue these guys props as they had patience and helped me out with some education. It then got fun.
I decided ok, I am going to do my own pass, and went with my first one. It tracked well, everyone was great along the way it hit a snag with one particular guy but that’s sorta expected sometimes.
It got to the last guy and he Imed me he I need your number.
He called and I remember this specifically.
Hi Mike this is Wayne, I want to deliver your pass to you in person – there are some issues with it and I want to talk to you about them. He showed up and we had a great meeting. It truly impressed me that he would care so much as to drive from out of state to do this.
In our chat I got to know him, we called each other on the phone and before we knew it we became best friends. Now normally that may be enough of a story, but wait theres more.
Mike you ever shot Fireworks? - Meet me in Livingston at 630 am on the 4th.
What a journey….
Hey did you know there is a Big Herf in Illinois next week? We are going.
SoCal Herf events, and so on.
blam. I started meeting some of the most interesting people.
Folks that were aficionados of the leaf, folks that wrote the books on Cuban cigars. Basically, I was immersed in the cigar world beyond imagination. They mostly liked to give me grief about doing online reviews that would be run in magazines. See I have always liked doing Cigar Reviews and had fun doing so. Once I had an “Online presence and popularity” Mostly boutique manufacturers would hit me up and send me some for reviewing.
Without Doing the name drop game I met the owners of brands torcedors and import experts, as well as a few Cuban manufacturers.
So- I found my best friend ever on a forum and we have adventured all over doing things like Gold Mining, Professional Fireworks displays and large Herfs.
I planned several and hosted a few of those myself.
Then one day we decided to do a puf puf pass through the Min Ron Nee book – starting on page 1 we obtained searched and acquired 2 of each smokes on that book, some were insamely priced but rather worthy of the fees.
This endeavor alone got us a sit down with the author and some of those folks. Folks from Europe would show up it was insane.
I then was offered the distributorship of a brand – and it got even more in detail as I learned about the industry and why certain things happened at certain times from manufacturers.
It was humorous because now my humidor was actually 1200 square feet. With 2 sections 1 for receiving 1 for freezing and a 2 stage rehumidification process.
A bit “deep” if you would say.
This all lasted a while, then I sort of dropped outta the Cigar world for a long time. I was handling Life.
Wayne and I still hang out and do road trips occasionally.
My last “Job” was an elected official for the county I live in. That was a long and interesting story for Later.
Hey guys, enjoy the fellowship of the leaf because you never know how it will end, there are awesome folks out these simply looking for like people. Not everyone is a scumbag – but they are out here too.
Have a great one!
It certainly brought back memories when that was asked. It was a punishment idea from my father.
We – my brother and I got caught having cigarettes in the alley behind the house and mom issued the dreaded “Wait till your father gets home” warnings. Usually that meant ok when Dad gets home you are getting the belt until he gets tired of whipping ya.
This night was different Dad came in with a slight smile on his face and had his stern voice, SO you want to smoke do you?
He held in his hand a brown paper bag and sat us down and pulled out one of those Circus Cigars, you know in 1970 they were prominent. It was Huge and Green (candela wrapper)
The ritual he made me go through was deeply disturbing for I had to smoke that entire thing. Ohh yea swallow the smoke too every once in a while. To me at that time I seem to recall it was a super cheap gar. Yet it rivalled the largest ring gauge like a 70 of course at the time it was just a horrendous intimidating thing.
Dad’s words “well this will ensure you don’t smoke anymore”
Today I shake my head and chuckle.
Now here I am after Owning 2 cigar brands, I have been a regional 5 state wholesale distributor as well as the owner of a cigar magazine and multiple websites.
So this is not about “look at me” it Is simply a reflection of the cigar journey.
I became a website designer, and in that I encountered a lot of neat websites and even more interesting people.
While dinking around online I found a website that sold lower cost Cigars, and well within a short period I accumulated bunches and bunches of smokes. Started with a small tuperware and a cheesy humidor then grew into the igloo.
the year was like 1996 - 98 or so.
I soon stumbled upon a forum of cigar folks named after an activity. “CigarPass” I was intrigued I had found similar guys as myself who enjoyed having a good cigar.
That singular website set a path in my life that I am not exaggerating to say was life changing
After a while I joined a “Cigar Pass” and did my best with it. At that time I was certainly outclassed by many of the members who were participating. I want to issue these guys props as they had patience and helped me out with some education. It then got fun.
I decided ok, I am going to do my own pass, and went with my first one. It tracked well, everyone was great along the way it hit a snag with one particular guy but that’s sorta expected sometimes.
It got to the last guy and he Imed me he I need your number.
He called and I remember this specifically.
Hi Mike this is Wayne, I want to deliver your pass to you in person – there are some issues with it and I want to talk to you about them. He showed up and we had a great meeting. It truly impressed me that he would care so much as to drive from out of state to do this.
In our chat I got to know him, we called each other on the phone and before we knew it we became best friends. Now normally that may be enough of a story, but wait theres more.
Mike you ever shot Fireworks? - Meet me in Livingston at 630 am on the 4th.
What a journey….
Hey did you know there is a Big Herf in Illinois next week? We are going.
SoCal Herf events, and so on.
blam. I started meeting some of the most interesting people.
Folks that were aficionados of the leaf, folks that wrote the books on Cuban cigars. Basically, I was immersed in the cigar world beyond imagination. They mostly liked to give me grief about doing online reviews that would be run in magazines. See I have always liked doing Cigar Reviews and had fun doing so. Once I had an “Online presence and popularity” Mostly boutique manufacturers would hit me up and send me some for reviewing.
Without Doing the name drop game I met the owners of brands torcedors and import experts, as well as a few Cuban manufacturers.
So- I found my best friend ever on a forum and we have adventured all over doing things like Gold Mining, Professional Fireworks displays and large Herfs.
I planned several and hosted a few of those myself.
Then one day we decided to do a puf puf pass through the Min Ron Nee book – starting on page 1 we obtained searched and acquired 2 of each smokes on that book, some were insamely priced but rather worthy of the fees.
This endeavor alone got us a sit down with the author and some of those folks. Folks from Europe would show up it was insane.
I then was offered the distributorship of a brand – and it got even more in detail as I learned about the industry and why certain things happened at certain times from manufacturers.
It was humorous because now my humidor was actually 1200 square feet. With 2 sections 1 for receiving 1 for freezing and a 2 stage rehumidification process.
A bit “deep” if you would say.
This all lasted a while, then I sort of dropped outta the Cigar world for a long time. I was handling Life.
Wayne and I still hang out and do road trips occasionally.
My last “Job” was an elected official for the county I live in. That was a long and interesting story for Later.
Hey guys, enjoy the fellowship of the leaf because you never know how it will end, there are awesome folks out these simply looking for like people. Not everyone is a scumbag – but they are out here too.
Have a great one!