As a child, I would love to go to my grandfather’s house. It was the house where my mom grew up with her 2 sisters. It was full of old and strange things. My two favorite rooms where the garage and my grandfather’s library.
The garage, I always remember accompanying my dad while he fixed old broken down cars and electrical equipment. I would hand him tools while the radio played old Cuban songs. Joining my dad in the garage always meant that it would soon accompany a familiar sound….strike…poof, poof, poof…and then the best smell in the world, a freshly lit cigar. He would puff and put it down while he did his thing. I would linger while loving the smell.
My grandfather on the other hand, was a still a practicing attorney, he would always be in his library which was located between the first floor and the third. He didn’t let me play in his library, I would always be in the living room which was located down stairs from his office. He unlike my dad would smoke pipe. Everyone in the house knew when he lit up. The sweet smell would travel up the stairs into the main room and out the windows, or downstairs through the living room and out the back door. I would absolutely love it.
As an adult, I started smoking cigars in college. Being a college athlete it wasn’t recommended, but it helped calmed my nerves and toned down my ADD (still have it). I still believe that for me it was more beneficial than the opposite.
Now as a father of 3 boys, every time I light a cigar it reminds me of my father and grandfather. The smell of a San Andres Maduro wrapper from a Padron Cigar brings back all sorts of memories. The smell from a Flor De Las Antillas (Flower of the Antilles, Cuba) from My Father takes me back to the times where my dad was full of grease with a stogie in his mouth and telling all sorts of jokes. Priceless