Interesting post...I would like to bring up another aspect based on the idea that we would all still continue to smoke cigars after our kids were born and it would involve a different side of cigar smoking.
My kids are now 23 & 22. I've asked them over the years what they thought and we've gotten into some pretty in depth conversations about it. They both insist that some of their fondest memories involved me, my brothers, and my friends smoking cigars....all involving both the smell and act of smoking. My son once told me, "When we would go and spend Christmas Eve at Uncle Joey's house, I will always remember the way Aunt Ana decorated the house, the smell of all the different foods cooking in the kitchen, the smell of the fireplace burning in the Family Room and you, Uncle Joey, and Uncle Tony standing on the front porch in the cold weather, smoking a few cigars as we ran around outside."
He went on to say that it wasn't anything that made him stop and notice at the time, but later he told me..."When I went away to college, one of the guys lit up a cigar as we were throwing a frisbee around and immediately it brought back memories of all the fun times I've had with our family...Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, BBQs in our back yard, vacations we took...all of it came back in a rush when I took the first sniff!" Pretty powerful stuff I would say as it reminds me of my Uncles and Father smoking them as well, 50 years ago!...it was the smell of Family. Anthony always kids me that whenever I was outside doing something, I had a cigar in my mouth all the years he grew up. Cooking at the grill, sitting in the hot tub, cleaning/floating in the pool, doing yard work, hanging out on the deck with a scotch or beer, shooting baskets in the driveway, sitting on the beach...whenever, I almost always had a cigar in my mouth...and when he says this to me, he always has a giant smile on his face.
My Daughter once told me that when she was little and we would spend a day or Holiday with friends and family, she would climb into my lap at the end of the day to get ready for bed and give me that big hug and some cuddle time. She said that one of the most notable things she remembers is that I smelled like cigar smoke from all the cigars being smoked around her and it reminder her of all the fun they had that day and that she was home, safe and sound....but more than anything, it reminded her of ME. Now that she is a young adult, she says that when she's out with friends and she smells someone smoking a cigar, she gets rushes of family and fun times from her youth! Pretty powerful stuff, right?
Listen guys, none of us smokes a cigar and blows the smoke at our or anyone else's children...damn, my Uncles and Dad smoked in the house and car and we didn't die of lung cancer as children! I think that the pleasant smell of a nice cigar involves not just us, but our children too and impacts us all in a positive way. We all know that our different senses play a huge role in our thought patterns, and cigar smoking is definitely one of them in our Family.
My kids say they wouldn't trade those memories, based on my cigar smoking, for the World...it's part of who we all are as a family and it's a tradition I've passed down to my son as he started smoking cigars that very day he first smelled one in college...4 years ago this Spring!
People will say what they will, but the God's honest truth is that it impacts all of us in a more positive way than negative one. Cigar smoking represents fun times, relaxation, great food and drink, laughing, large gatherings of Family and friends, and those quiet times as well. Hell, all of the dogs we've had over the years enjoyed it too, they invariably would be found sitting under my chair or next to me outside on our deck as I puffed the day's worries away. Even now, when I open my Aristocrat, our cats come running to sit next to me and take in the fresh tobacco smell...you can't make this stuff up!
If you could ask any of the children of some of CPs senior members who are parents of older kids, I would imagine you would hear very similar stories from their past as well.
So, if any of you younger Fathers out there are ever asked to give this pleasure up for the sake of "our children's health", please take a moment to explain the other side of the argument...it definitely represents more than just the burning of some tobacco leaves.
As with every conversation with a man's wife...YMMV!
