Pay it forward with cigars

Earlier this week I stopped by the Famous Smoke Shop store to have a cigar and found the usual group of regulars hanging out. Among them were Big Dave, Mike, Tony, Gary, and a few others. After a few minutes of the usual "What's new, how 'ya doin'?" small talk, Mike directed my attention to a large carton filled will bags of cigars.

"What's up with this?" I asked.
"We're sending cigars to the troops again for Christmas," said Big Dave.
"Nice."
"We're making up bags of 20 cigars and shipping the boxes to a bunch of different units overseas."

Suddenly, for some reason a sense of "duty" came over me. After all, it's the giving season. I thought about the box of cigars. I keep in the back of Famous's humidified warehouse; it's overage from lack of space in my house. So I went into the warehouse, pulled down the box, and rummaged through the stash. When I returned to the store I put a bunch of good cigars in a cigar bag and dropped them in Mike & Big Dave's box. It felt good!

Over the years, I've received a lot of emails from soldiers, and cigars have become one of the primary forms of relaxation for the troops, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, Famous receives a lot of cigar orders from military bases overseas, while also having donated cigars for the troops.

A couple of weeks ago I ran a CigarAdvisor poll asking readers if they had ever sent cigars to the troops. It was pretty close, with 47% responding "yes." As I see it, that's pretty encouraging.

So let's keep paying it forward. Many of us have family and friends serving abroad, or know someone who's son or daughter is in the Armed Forces. And with a new "surge" heading to Afghanistan in the next six months, there's no time better than now, especially during the Holidays, to send cigars.

Neither Mike, nor Big Dave, nor the others who contributed this year (myself included), are looking for a pat on the back. Sharing cigars is what cigar smokers do. And sometimes it's also the right thing to do.

~ G.K.