I remember it well.

I was working graveyard at A.O. Smith running punch press in Mil, WI where I lived at the time. I was like 21 or so. Never liked cigs, but the vending machine sold 5 pks of small coronas. Regular, Cherry, and Blueberry. I tried them all but liked Blueberry the best. Hell, what did I know back then! Never smoked them often, and gave it up altogether for 10 yrs or so.

Sometime later in the mid-80s, I was travelling to the UK frequenty on annual vacations. My good friend was really into cigars and asked me to bring him back some Cubans. So I'd return with 4 or 5 and always kept one for myself. So each year I'd smoke 1 cigar, but never understood why anyone would like them. They just didn't taste very good to me then.

Then about 10 yrs later in the early days of the boom I was at a gathering of fellow brewers. After the supper we adjourned to the garage and one guy produced a big bag of cigars and everyone took one. Wanting to be socialable, I did as well.

All I remember is mine was a churchill, and tasted sooooo good! I now understood what the big deal was and started buying samplers from a magazine ad. Soon after I found JR, and later Mikes. My stash started growing and started my first cooler.

It wasn't until about '02 or so that I learned of the on-line thing and eventually joined the JRBB 6 mo before it shut down. That sure expanded my horizens! I migrated to HP and continued to learn more and found many e-tailers.

And the rest is history.