[shilala]

I started smoking cigars when I was a teenager because they were on a rack right next to the Galaga machine.
Middleton Cherries. I loved them.
Later on, I always made a point to stop and get some cherries whenever I was headed to a party. That party lasted for about 20 years, so I smoked a mess of cherries.
Whenever there were no cherries, I'd get Backwoods smokes.
I wasn't even aware there were other kinds of cigars until around 2001 when I picked up a Thompson's catalog in the lunch trailer at work.
A couple of my buds would collect the copper scrap, cash it in, and order a fistful of singles, smoking a different one every lunch.
I had a lot of fun jabbing at the goofy names, but the trailer and the cigars smelled so awful I never even considered trying one. Plus they were HUGE, especially when my only frame of reference were the little girl cigars I was used to.
Last year I was on vacation and picked up a tourist magazine. It was an "All The Best" magazine. I was doing a lot of sitting and bs'ing, and I thought a cigar might be nice. So I hunted up the 90+ rated world famous highly touted box of cigars and dragged them around with me sharing all the way. They were brutal, but I persevered and quickly grew to really like them.
It's all been uphill since then.

What's your story? How'd you get dragged onto the slope?