By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com
I’m not quite sure just when my love affair with cigars first started.
For a guy who still remembers an incident from third grade it doesn’t say much about me that I can’t remember the start of a beautiful friendship.
I think somehow my brother-in-law was involved, as he smoked cigars. When in doubt, blame a brother-in-law.
Now at least 15 plus years later, cigar smoking is part of my overall lifestyle.
Now before I go any further, let me just repeat the following warning from the Food and Drug Administration: “Cigar smoking can cause cancers of the mouth and throat, even if you do not inhale. Cigar smoking can cause lung cancer and heart disease. Cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes. Tobacco smoke increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease, even in nonsmoker. Cigar use while pregnant can harm you and your baby. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.”
Yes, I get it, but people who know me know I’m a thrill seeker, living on the edge!
During my childhood my parents did not smoke. My dad smoked pipes and cigars but had quit that habit by the time I was born. I believe he did chew tobacco every now and them because as a young child I remember seeing plugs of chewing tobacco around the house with a bite taken out of them. I found them fairly disgusting artifacts.
As a kid I had no interest in smoking. I never tried a cigarette to this day. Few, if any, of my friends smoked, either. There was no peer pressure.
So, it wasn’t until I reached my fifties that tobacco manifested itself into my life. My tolerant wife gave me the green light provided I didn’t smoke in the house, so cigar smoking was seasonal and confined to the great outdoors.
With the repairs to our home following the 2011 tornado, we now had a nice, three-season roof porch and that has become the smoking lounge for most of the year.
Now I’m deemed as moderately intelligent and I’m sure plenty of people reading this column will wonder why I indulge in such a habit – re-read the federal warning above.
I think the lure of smoking a cigar is the fact it is not an act of addiction, such as cigarettes, but instead a conscious habit to slow down for a moment.
You make an appointment with yourself to smoke a cigar. Depending upon the stick and how you smoke, a single cigar would easily last and hour to 90 minutes. During this time, you have time to think, converse, read something, watch something and generally not work.
For a film fan who is in love with the movies of the 1920s and 1930s, cigars were a regular part of the way actors created characterizations. Many comics used cigars as a wonderful prop. Groucho Marx and George Burns were among the funnymen who used a cigar in their performances.
And cigars can be matched with both Scotch and bourbon, two of my other weaknesses. The combination means that for the duration of the cigar and drink, I’m not doing much at all.
It’s taken me a while to learn about which cigars I like and which I don’t. Generally I enjoy a milder cigar, but I have liked full-bodied robust stogies as well. Right now, Rocky Patel Vintage 1990s are my go-to smoke, but I also enjoy a Java mocha flavored cigar as well.
I’ve had to learn how to cut the cigars and how to light them. There’s an art to it all.
Luckily for me, my guide for the past two years or so has been Joe Hendrix, owner of the world famous Smokey Joe’s Cigar Lounge in Springfield. Joe knows cigars inside and out and has always steered me in the right direction.
In this today’s world of constant communication and where the borders between work and free time are constantly blurred, my cigar habit creates moments that allow for some mindless relaxation. Don’t we all need a little of that?
G. Michael Dobbs is the managing editor of Reminder Publishing LLC, and Prime’s local columnist.