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Invisible Smoker

oldrover said:
Is it just my imagination or do all the best IHTM threads suddenly just stop like this?
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You mean all the ghost stories come to a dead end?
 
ChesterTheVestDetector said:
Then right there beside me and I really do mean right beside me, there was, well, a lighted cigarette. I know how much BS that sounds but there was. Just about my shoulder height and how it would be if someone was walking with me, was a lighted cigarette floating. It moved beside me the whole time, no smell, no sound, but you could see the lighted end would get more deeply red periodically, just like someone was dragging on it. I could not smell any smoke and I could not see or hear any person but I clearly see the lighted end and the white cigarette.
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I've just had a thought, and to be honest I can't believe I'm getting pedantic about how an invisible man might hypothetically smoke a cigarette, but just for the sake of argument, here goes...

A question for everyone; when was the last time you saw someone walking along with a cigarette actually in their mouth?

As an ex-smoker I can testify that it's bloody hard to actually keep one in your mouth for any prolonged period of time. The smoke gets in your eyes and up your nose and it become pretty unpleasant very quickly, i.e. after a few seconds. Holding it between your lips also makes it very awkward to inhale and exhale too.

When people smoke, walking or otherwise they'll generally have the cigarette in their hand for about 95% of the time and only take an occasional draw. They might hold it in their mouth temporarily if they're looking in their pockets or picking something up etc. but the image of someone with a cigarette dangling out the corner of their mouth would seem to be a media stereotype; Andy Capp, Clint Eastwood etc.
 
I've just had a thought, and to be honest I can't believe I'm getting pedantic
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You're not, as a smoker this was the first thing that struck me. I tried to ask about it on page one, but didn't put it very well.
 
I've known only a few smokers in my relative generation (born in the 1950's) who would or could hold a cigarette in their mouth for long periods. The typical pattern is to hold it in the fingers most of the time, and hold it in the mouth only temporarily when doing something with the hand(s).

However ... It was much more common among older smokers to keep a cigarette clenched in the mouth - sometimes to the extent it seemed taking it 'in-hand' was the minority / temporary position.

Generally speaking, the majority of the 'primarily mouth holder' smokers I've ever known were or had been blue collar workers or tradespersons who smoked while working. I've also known some office type workers (mainly typists and draftsmen) who'd mastered the skill.

I always figured it was a habit or skill borne of smoking while doing something else. Come to think of it, I can't remember myself or any acquaintances being allowed to smoke at inside work positions (without retiring to a smoking area) since the 1970's.

My guess would be that fewer people exhibit that smoking style nowadays because fewer people get to smoke while working. It's certainly not a habit one develops for its own sake.
 
'primarily mouth holder' smokers
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I love that, it sounds so scientific. As for the rest of the post I think you're probably spot on.
 
I grew up in rural England in the 70's/80's and can remember farm workers, tradesmen etc who 'mouth smoked'.

I can also remember the Government, as part of the usual anti-snmoking propaganda, urging smokers to remove their cigarettes from their mouths between 'puffs' as this apparently increased the cancer risk.

As kids, our favourite 'mouth smoker' was an old guy who used to ride past us at some speed on his moped, sporting an open face helmet (or 'piss-pot') and with a cigarette clenched between his teeth :D

Great original post. It's easy to imagine a now deceased shift worker at the old brickworks in the woods using the wagon track as his route home, cigarette in mouth...
 
oldrover said:
Is it just my imagination or do all the best IHTM threads suddenly just stop like this?
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I agree: the black-eyed boy, the transdimensional petrol station... The OPs suddenly vanish when it becomes most interesting, and they systematically fail to provide the hard evidence the offered to put forward in the first post (I'm not talking of course about this particular thread).
 
Not to mention the fainting teaching assistants, and the first hand possible thylacine sighting.
 
On Sounds of the 70s tonight on BBC2, they played the video for New Rose by The Damned which featured Rat Scabies on drums - with a cigarette planted in his gob.
 
gncxx said:
On Sounds of the 70s tonight on BBC2, they played the video for New Rose by The Damned which featured Rat Scabies on drums - with a cigarette planted in his gob.
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Funnily enough I saw the same clip on Punk Britannia - which I watched on the iPlayer last night.
 
Mobile Phone text

I think you clarified this when you said you kept on walking and looking at it now and again (out of fear?) but when did you get the text message, was it just at the start of the sighting or toward the end?

If I got a text message I'd have ignored it until this weird sight had gone!

And also was the cigarette bobbing with walking movement or simply gliding?

I'm not questioning your stories integrity - I am open minded to stuff like this and not at all like a dogmatic brain-washed skeptic!
 
It would also be interesting to know if the OP knows "mouth smokers" - or if that historical bit would have been unknown to him. I know I've seen plenty of images of factory workers in the early 20th century working with cigarettes in their mouths (these would be in Detroit, where I'm from).
 
Hi, I'm Karin and I wanted to say how uplifting it has been to read through this thread. The person who started this thread was Dan (aka Chester The Vest Detector) and he was my sister's partner. Dan died from a condition called SADS on 11th June this year.
It's only recently that my sister has been able to start dealing with Dan stuff and odd as it may sound, I think reading through this last night did us both the world of good.
I remember when this happened and I think I may have been guilty of kind of laughing at him. Not because I thought he had dreamed something up but because I had never seen him fazed by anything before. Dan was a big guy and he was absolutely fearless. I don't think I took him seriously enough.
It seems people on here took him seriously for the most part and had a good conversation started by our Dan. We like that.
I'm sure he would have appreciated your interest and theories. So thank you.
From Karin and Heather.
 
Oh, how sad; deepest condolences to you and your sister; it must have been a very difficult time for you all.
 
So Dan died just four days after making the OP! Which was only a day or two after the experience itself.

This shows the whole thing in a completely different light. Perhaps the sighting was a forewarning of his death. There are many stories and folk tales about such things.

You say, Karin, that Dan died from SADS, which I take to mean Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. Perhaps he was subconsciously aware that something was not quite right with him, and his mind created this apparition as some kind of warning, but why it should take that form is still a mystery. He said he used to be a smoker - was there any indication that his death might have been smoking related to some extent?

I hope my question is not too intrusive, and that you and your sister will accept my sincere condolences for your loss.
 
It was kind of you to come on here to tell us about your sad loss, sincere condolences.
 
rynner2 said:
... This shows the whole thing in a completely different light. Perhaps the sighting was a forewarning of his death. There are many stories and folk tales about such things. ...
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I agree ... Knowing that Dan died soon thereafter opens up a whole new aspect of possible forewarning or premonition.

On the other hand, the involvement of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome opens up the possibility of somatic effects (e.g., low blood pressure; hypoxia) that may have contributed to Dan's anomalous sighting.

Karin and Heather: Sincere condolences on losing Dan ... Thank you for informing us as to why we'd 'lost' him (conversationally) here on the message board.
 
Sincere condolences. Dan's story and his subsequent replies stood out for me on this messageboard as being particularly well written and good accounts - which is why I clicked back into this thread when I saw that it had risen back to the top. Wasn't expecting these sorts of replies at all. Take care.
 
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