@Cigary43 @CWS & other FOGs
How did y’all store you collection & regulate your Rh back then?
Humidors have been around for 100s of years and when I started in this hobby at such an early age it wasn't an issue for me to store them. The Tinder Box was close enough where I would swing by and grab about 5 cigars...( 1 per day ) and didn't worry about storage as I kept them in ....get this....tupperware. My Grandfather and a friend of the family ( Cuban gentleman who was the mayor of our city in Antioch, Ca.......his name was Pete Lopez and could have been a doppleganger for Fredo in the movie Godfather) told me that RH and proper humidification were necessary if I wanted to store them over a period of time. The Mayor would visit often and every visit he'd bring me one of his Cuban Cigars ....this was in 1967 and he warned me not to tell my folks or he'd have to stop giving me these amazing cigars. When he did visit I'd make it a point to be close enough to him so I could smell the aroma of these things...it had to be the
precursor to the word...awesome!! I was hooked just with the aroma and for years he'd come by and slip me cigars from his private stash....I loved this guy!
As I got older and traveled down to Miami each month to visit my "new friends" when I was in college these guys would give me pointers in storage....how long to rest certain tobaccos...why they needed rest....and how to smoke a cigar. These days the answers are pretty available to us but back then smoking really good cigars was a rather sophisticated enjoyment and the cost for the times was a bit daunting to a college academic living on a fixed and pitiful allowance. It was these great group of men who knew my plight so when I came to visit them 3 hours away ( they would band together and give me a Care Package of Cigars....so each month I'd have nearly 50 cigars to get me by and these were very good cigars btw...no dog rockets...they gave me what they smoked and this was during the time when the Embargo was fresh ) and obtaining CC's at this time wasn't easy but they managed to slip me their contraband in my CarePackage.
I was educated by these fine men in the little peccadilloes of proper cuts...lighting...purging before it became famous. On my last year of college these guys gifted me a humidor that at the time was around $300....in 1975 that was a lot of money and when I opened it up it was full of CC's and the humidor held around 300 so this was an amazing gift to say the least for a 21 year old kid. They explained to me how they seasoned it which was basically what we do today but even then they used the passive way of seasoning which took about 3 weeks they said. When I first opened it....just the aroma of the tobacco and the cedar was enough to bring me to cigarorgasm and I was so grateful to this group of men...memories that have lasted many years with admiration.
I was fortunate to have this relationship because at that time cigar smoking was considered very snobbish and when you see an 18 year old kid smoking a Cuban Cigar at that time it invited comments from some real a-holes. These days we encourage our young proteges as to the nuances of cigar smoking and don't really look down our noses at them....that's just rude! When I see a young man at the B&M's I tend to walk over and start a conversation with them....just like the men who helped me so many years ago and even today...cigars can be intimidating in what to buy....how to store...etc.
BTW....hygrometers were on the expensive side in the mid 70's but were necessary for the serious cigar smoker and our humidor(s).
