The first cigarettes I smoked were filterless the same as those smoked by a character in the book In Cold Blood. I was 12 and didn't smoke for too long.But the character was a murderer and in my pre-teen idiocy I felt sorry for him and thought he was romantic.
I became addicted to cigarettes at 21 and smoked menthols , the brand was Kool , I later switched to Newports . I smoked the menthols because non menthol cigarettes such as Marlboros were smoked by the white kids and it was too predictable a choice. Where I worked at the time cigarette preference was divided by racial demographics.I don't know why, this was 25 yrs ago .