[ironpeddler]

Greetings to everyone here at CS and thanks to BigRonS for inviting me to join.

Sorry for not doing this sooner, I just realized I never intro'd myself to the Community.

I've been a cigar smoker for some 35+ years trained by my Godfather, my Uncle Nick Bonavita from Bloomfield, NJ...God rest his soul. When I was a kid, he used to drag me around North Jersey when he would sell 50/50 tickets for the Italian American Club on weekends and we would visit his buddies in various cigar shops, bars, Men's Clubs, and people's kitchens while "making the rounds", eating a sandwich here, having a drink there, and a glass of wine everywhere!....if you haven't guessed by now, we're Italian. All the while he would have a churchill in his mouth puffing away....that smell was like heaven.

I have humidors all over my house filled with 1200+ cigars from all over the World, some over 20yo. I regularly buy boxes and hide them away to age for quite some time before breaking them out to smoke...especially Fidel's brand.

I'm a daily smoker and love bringing people in to our community of cigar lovers and mentoring them as they go along. I have been giving away and trading sticks longer than I can remember...the way I see it, it's part of the culture, sharing good smokes and creating memories. I've been a member of CF since early 2000 but bailed on the Internet aspect of the hobby as business demands increased.

My interest has been renewed due to my son Anthony, a freshman at Ramapo College, announcing that he wanted to take a humidor back to school after Spring Break was over. It turns out a few of his buddies there were smoking cigars, hanging out, throwing a football around when it hit him...he explained to me that it was the smells of home, of his father, his Uncles, and his father's friends getting together having a great time, laughing, that smell he's known since he was a baby. You guys know what I mean. So upon hearing this, off we went to our local B&M for the "Halls of Learning". We purchased a couple of Davidoff Grand Cru #2s and I started teaching him about the countries of origin, strengths, and most importantly...."you smoke what you like, not what others say is good or how much it costs, just what YOU like". We hung out there for over 2 hours talking to the owner and all the customers that came and went....he loved it and finally understood how cool this was! I bought him a box of Short Stories, some humidification stuff, a lighter, a cutter, and a few miscellaneous sticks to sample. I got him his own brand new humidor and he started out on his journey. But what really got to him was how all my cigars buddies stopped by all week long to drop off a baggie of their favorite cigars for him to try and to welcome him to our club....and most have known him from birth. I opened up my big humidor and took 2-3 of many different sticks to sample, explaining to him that sharing is where it's at and it takes more than one cigar to judge it's merits. The following Sunday he went back to college with his humi packed with 60-70 sticks of all varieties to smoke and share with his friends.

A father couldn't have been happier at that moment....sending him back to school with a new found passion.....knowing that he's having fun while I'm going broke sending him there!

So I'm back in the mix and hope to be a proud addition to your Community.