As a small kid, I think I was fascinated by other people smoking. I mean come on: there's a gleaming fire stick coming out of your mouth!!
But also, even as a tiny boy with a single-digit age, I was wondering why anybody would voluntarily pick up a habit that everyone knows raises your chances to get cancer? I liked the idea of being "cool" (which to me was the only real "pro" point of smoking), but when compared to a terminal illness, there really never was any temptation for me.
In thinking back about how times have changed since those days, what I find even more interesting though is that smoking was all around you _all the time_. People smoked, you didn't even think about it twice. Inside restaurants where you ate, inside cars when you were given a ride, everywhere.
I remember going to clubs when I was a young man, and that feeling of waking up the next morning with you ears screaming and your clothes, your pillow, your hair, everything smelling of cold smoke. Disgusting.
Coming to think of it, I wonder why I wouldn't want to pick up smoking out of fear of getting cancer but obviously didn't mind ruining my hearing by spending hours each weekend in unreasonably loud clubs. I mean, I certainly found it perverted that in that environment, when you were talking to someone, you were literally screaming into their ear (just think about that...) but I kept going there every weekend.
I suppose in the end, I did it because I wanted to belong. Which, in turn, I'm sure is one of the major reason for people to pick up smoking...