Bio? Really? ....if you insist.
Born a poor white child in Mississippi in 1955. I began picking cotton at the age of 2. I walked 6 miles to school every day in the unrelenting Mississippi snow. Eh...just yankin' yer chain. Middle class white boy, born 1955 in Mississippi is correct. Dad worked for the State. Mom worked for the Church. My true loves when growing up were playing baseball and fishing. I tried college, but couldn't stand it. After one year at Delta State Univ, I joined the US Navy as an Electronics Technician and served for 8 years. Worked several places after that including a 5 year stint with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Injured my back in a tractor roll in 1994 and have been disabled since. The wife (now ex wife) and I retired here to Boone County, AR (Ozark Mountains, near Branson, Mo) in 2004.
My smoking history:
Started sneaking my Mom's Lark cigs (nasty) at about the age of 10. Got my ass whupped many times for doing so. Got into my Dad's pipes and tobacco (mostly Sir Walter Raleigh) a few times and the ass whupping was epic.
When I started buying my own I smoked Camel cigs for about 35 years. Started messin' around with cigars around 1990 and my interest peaked around 2005 when I quit the cigs and went with the stogies only. Stogies (especially the ones I liked) got a bit too pricey so I started playin' with pipes around 2011. On an interesting side note, my first American ancestor was a man named Richard Massey, born in Cheshire, England in 1661. He escaped the consequences of the English Civil War by sailing to Virginia when he was 20. He had gotten his inheritance the year before and was able to set himself up quite nicely with a 2000 acre TOBACCO plantation. No wonder I love the stuff, it runs in my veins.