WHen did you start smoking pipes and why?

[Nick]

WHen I was 17 I was walking through a store parking lot and smelled a fantastic smelling smoke. It was febuary and it was a cold and drizzly morning. I saw an old man sitting in a beat up toyota pickup enjoying a pipe. His face and truck showed signs of a hard fought life. I walked away thinking how comfortable and content he looked puffing away slowly on a piece of briar, I could tell his pipe or pipes were one of the prides of his life.

everyone close to me had smoked cigs my whole life (i tried them a couple times and cigars as well) but they never appealed to me. When I saw that man smoking his pipe on that cold and rainy day I knew that I had to give it a try. Bought my first pipe a couple months later when I turned 18 and never looked back.