History of Former Smoker--Turned to Vape

The first time I quit smoking, I was upset at the latest price hike in cigarettes. In the early 80s I was bookkeeper at a huge apartment complex. During my lunch hour I stopped by the convenience store at the rear of the complex, a regular and frequent destination. The man behind the counter wanted to charge me a dollar--a whole dollar for one pack of twenty cigarettes. Shoot, that meant that smoking one cigarette was like putting fire to a nickel. That was certainly burning up money for no good. I told the clerk I wasn't going to pay that much, and that he could just keep his cigarettes.

My youngest smoking experience was at the fountain counter of the local drug store. They had a vending machine where you dropped your 35 cents in, pulled the lever of your cigarette brand choice, and voila--smokes in hand, no matter what your age. The kids who had just promoted themselves to being smokers would hang out at the soda fountain, buying one soda, and taking up all the booths as our smoking section, until people disappeared, being expected for family dinner. The soda fountain sold big pickles. My best friend across the street, who was six months older and wiser, and wilder, told me that eating a pickle or drinking pickle juice would kill the smell of smoking..

Having matches was never a problem. Matchbooks were free for the printed advertising, or cost a penny. People used to collect match books from bars and restaurants, and keep them in a big jar. I don't remember which year the Click my Bic appeared, but I remember there was a time before Bics. Before, was the silver metal flip top lighter that one had to keep going with maintenance fuel and flints, on their own effort. A lighter used to have pieces to service to extend the life of the product. Now we buy, use up, then toss. Almost everyone has a 2-click lighter or 1-click fire stick for their larger fire needs. Yes, in the past, I did use a fire stick to light a cigarette. I can also light a smoke from a gas stove, and even an electric stove. When you light a cigarette from a candle, you have to be careful not to get any wax on your smoke. Candle wax was never meant to be smoked. Smokers need fire to do their thing, and as a previous smoker, fire is where you find it.

Did you catch that pack of cigarettes price? A pack of smokes cost a quarter, twenty-five cents when I started hanging out, but they cost 35 cents a pack before I actually bought my own. Of course, buying my own did not include acknowledging anything about cigarettes to parental units. A couple of times I snuck one cigarette out of my Dad's pack of Salem, which he often left on the dresser in my parents bedroom. I was too afraid that he would miss a cigarette, and the finger would be pointed at me, before the dog could get blamed. My parents went out once a week for league bowling and when teen years took me on, they allowed me to stay by myself rather than have a babysitter. I can remember taking puffs of menthol nicotine, or good old basic for beginners Marlborough in a red box.

I was not a regular smoker. Maybe I smoked other peoples' cigarettes at the skating rink during my high school years. It was definitely cool to smoke there. Perhaps you had to be there, or perhaps you have been in a similar situation to understand that kind of peer pressure. During my junior year of high school, my high school opted to have a smoking section, outdoors by the gym. Wow did the establishment bend to the left! But that school, in 1972, allowed their high school student to smoke--but just in the open area, and not in the bathrooms. I was one of those people who went by the smoking area, bummed a cigarette and lit it, and waited to hear the awe in peoples' voices, repeating they had seen me smoke. Certainly that kind of smoking fit into the cool category.

When we got out of work that day in the eighties, I hurried to another convenience store, prepared to pay a dollar, or even more. I was a smoker. I was in my first semester of college when I became a habitual daily smoker. I met John on campus during college in the spring. We both smoked, but different flavors. I remember one time when John bought me a pack of cigarettes. I thought that was the nicest thing in the world. It made me believe we would indeed marry, have children, and smoke our cigarettes along the way. I was living at home with just my mother then, my father having died of lung cancer in 1974, I never enjoyed a Salem after that. But every time I smoked a Salem, I thought of my Dad. Yes, he had been a smoker, and he passed the hunger for smokingdown to me. My mother never did like it, but she tolerated second-hand smoke from my Dad. She always gave me a hard time about the stink from smoking cigarettes. I quit in 2009, and started again. I just didn't smoke in front of her, and tried my best not to smell like I'd been smoking. One of my Mom's caretakers spotted me as a smoker, when we spoke later on. She said I always smelled like fresh perfume when I came inside my mothe';s house. My the things we do for love.

Now, I am four months along after having quit cigarettes. I have had serious neck and lower back pain for at least 15 years. Aches and pains show up when your body gets older. My neurosurgeon said he would not do my necessary cervical surgery if I were a smoker. I told him I quit, and I did quit right then. I snuck one cigarette from a friend's Marlborough Red box, and I have it stashed away in a drawer. It's in case of emergency. If I slip, it's just one cigarette, rather than buying a pack. That cigarette is so stale now that it's not at all appealing. Four months, and I haven't smoked a cigarette.

Instead of smoking cigarettes, I vape on electronic cigarettes. By now I've invested in three different brands. There are subtle differences among them, and flavor cartridges can only be used on their particular brand of e-cig. There is a bit of learning involved when you begin to vape. Unless you have a vaping friend, it's a self-taught lesson. I will share what I have figured out about the matter of vaping. I am for vaping. I like the different flavors.

One way to start vaping is to select the offer that frequently pops up on your computer. This e-cigs package arrives quickly, and you will find your method of payment has been tapped for "refills"" every month. This offer will pop up as a reward for interacting with certain sites, If you select the option to try Free e-cigs brand electronic cigarettes, you will begin where I did.

I like the look of the cigarette-looking product, but it's very heavy. I find it uncomfortable to try to hold itt in your lips/mouth like a cigarette. The started kit comes in a nice box. The cartridges come in a small box, and are truly a light flavor carried on a mist of modified and flavorful vapor. The flavor cartridge seems to last about as long as it would take you to smoke a pack of cigarettes. Note: If you behave like a chain smoker, your electronic smoke wil be used up in a couple of hours, Cartridges are priced by a box of five units, and usually an ant-theft piece of white plastic is included inside the plastic wrap. They don't want these things stolen. If you try it you will get caught.



the one that rewards you with a choice of offers, and one is e-cigarettes brand. The name of what you get matters, mostly because you want to get matching parts that work together. Different electronic cigarettes require different cartridges. However, which ever brand you choose, you will have a battery (that looks like the long cigarette part--not made of paper but some variety of plastic, a cartridge which looks like the filter end of the cigarette. Flavors available include not only regular nicotine and menthos, and depending on where you order, you may have a choice in the percentage of nicotine in your cartridge. Vapingdoes not get you away from nicotine. However it is considerablybut exotic flavors like "Java Jolt," Mint," "Berry," "Chi," {Vanilla Creme, and the list grows every day. You can learn to mix your own vape fluid, but that's more than I know now. and my favorite, "Peach Schnapps."

My favorite electronic cigarette for the natural look and feel I experienced in my relationship with nicotine, is Vuse. The cigarette-looking charger is black, and a tad longer than the other e-cigs I've seen. My convenience store is only stocking original and menthol now, and I'm satisfied with that Vuse puff. This brand sometimes makes me cough, just so you know. I suspect a higher level of nicotine in the Vuse brand. Information about flavors and percentages of ingredients are listed somewhere in the starter pack information, or on the box itself. You can also visit the web site of the brand of e-cigs you anticipate using.

You will vape less than you have smoked in the past. There is less to inhale. It's water-based flavored vapor--not smoke-- Instead of directly inhaling burning nicotine leaves. If you want to vape without the ingredient of nicotine, I believe it is possible, but you need to read all the fine print on the cartridge. Most e-cigs web sites state that nicotine is one ingredient, big letters and blatantly. So you are smoking nicotine, but what I consider a meniscule amount compared to smoking cigarettes.

The third part a new vapor must know about it charging. I figured out, you have to have stuff/flavor in your cartridge, and you have to have sufficient power stored in your battery-e-cig, Either one or the other of these situations, and your vape is unable to vape. It won't go. If it won't allow you to puff some visible vapor, unscred/unpop the flavor cartridge and put on a new one. If your e-cig won't smoke with a brand new cartridge, it needs a charge. If you are able to see the end of your e-cig when you are puffing on it, you will notice that your Glowing digital flame or blue or white, you will find it blinks when it is nearing empty. Once the "flame end" starts blinking, it's time to stop vaping and charge up. You can suck on a dead battery all day if you want to, but you won't experience flavor or smoke.

The charging process takes longer than you would like. You can't plug your cigarette battery into your charger, and wait for it to pickup charge enough to smoke. If this is a problem for you, buy a second e-cig of some sort so you have one to charge and one to smoke. I figured that out pretty fast. These things aren't cheap, but in my twon they cost a lot less than a pack of cigarettes. If you misplace an e-cig, it doesn't cost an arm and leg to get another starter pack. It's an opportunity to try a different brand, and a different set of options for flavor.

I'll share a couple of reasons that vaping has kept me away from cigarettes.

The doctor told me to quit smoking cigarettes to benefit my health. At 60, I need to start emphasizing life styles that better benefit my health. No more buying damn expensive cigarettes, that I suck up, smoke to the butt, and toss. I still have nicotine intake, but I estimate that what I'm ingesting now is a hundreth, or thousandth of what I previously smoked daily.

I breathe better. Since I was recovering from neck surgery, the fresh air worked it's way to me after I first went outdoors. I can smell secondary smoke now, and where smokes have been smoked, and I think it stinks. And I haven't smoked a cigarette in four months. An e-cig is not used to inhakle and ingest a big bunch of anything. Vaping is more subtle than smoking.

This is a beginner primer essay

Still to learn--how to use liquid to fill your own flavor cartridges

What sort of e-cig are all those people in China using? There are offers on eBay.

An e-cig gives you something to do with your hands. You can twirl it. You can hold it vertically and rub you grip up and down, you can click it against your nails to make a sound, and you can hold it just like a cigarette between puffs.

One dangerous consequence may result from vaping. One does not necessarily take a drag, and set the cigarette in the ash tray until time for the next puff. Because this item has an electronic/LED flame, if you drop it in your sofa, or bed, or car, nothing will catch on fire. You may find yourself resting your e-cig in your lap, only to find it when you stand up and it falls to the floor. So far, all the e-cigs I've tried don't fall to pieces if you drop it once or twice, but the LED part can chip off.

It's not smoking. Vaping is a more subtle taste experience. But it's working as a substitute for cigarette smoking for me. And I am healthier for it.