I LOVE Cigar People, by Tommy Zman
I just love cigar people. I love hanging out with cigar people – talking about cigars, discussing brands and blends, and best of all, I love smoking them (cigars, not the people.) If you are reading this blog, then I would have to guess you feel the same way as well.
When I was a little kid, I remember my uncles coming over to watch pro football – they ate good food, drank beer, bullshitted for hours on end, and yes, they smoked cigars. The feeling of camaraderie was very apparent to me, even at a young age, and I loved watching the guys yell at the TV while the luscious scent of viscous cigar smoke wafted through our northern New Jersey apartment. Jeez, you know if they did that now the Division of Youth and Family Services would be busting the door down and confiscating your offspring while having you evaluated for 50 counts of abuse. Yeah, the world has gone a bit off kilter since those days (all the reason we have to keep fighting for our right to smoke the cigars we love.)
So, early on in my life I was shown the joy that a cigar brings and how people from all vocations and walks of life, bond and live for the moment. Hmmm… that makes me want to digress for just a few seconds – smoking a cigar really allows us the opportunity to live in the present, providing us a way of not only living in the moment, but enjoying the hell out of it while we’re at it. Whoa, deep, man… (Damn, I smell an article coming on this subject for my “What Really Roasts My Robusto” column in the JR Catalog.)
So, around 17 years ago I started smoking premium hand rolled cigars and it was definitely the camaraderie factor that drew me back time and time again. I used to hang out in a small lounge in Morristown, New Jersey, that is long gone, but really indoctrinated me to the bonding power of the Latin grown leaf. Guys of every make and model smoked there nightly, unwinding their pummeled brains from the relentless pressures of the world, and I was one of them. There were garbage men, waiters, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and I believe a real live indian chief as well, who gathered nightly for their favorite cigar and a chance to escape from absolutely EVERYTHING the world had thrust upon them that day. It didn’t matter where you were from, how old, what color, or how much money you had, it was that you loved premium aged tobacco – that’s ALL you needed to be a part of this special brethren.
And, this is why I love cigar people – there is no other group of humans like us that I know. First of all, we smell damned good, something that our spouses and significant others will argue, and how I love parading around the Central American scent of ligero in the morning. And we are without question a very caring and giving group and will share our best and most expensive smokes with our fellow brothers and sisters of the leaf at the drop of an ash. It’s simply amazing, but people who were perfect strangers only an hour earlier become best buds in the whole world – all because they enjoyed a cigar together.
So be sure to take part in your nightly and weekend smokes my brothers and sisters, and hopefully you will enjoy them amongst your leaf loving friends as the troubles of the world disappear if only for a few fleeting moments in time.
As Always, Stay Smoky My Friends,
