I don't remember lusting after an instrument until I'd been playing guitar a few years and had decided I had progressed as far as I could on a Yamaha FG-160 and was ready to step up to the next level. Since I was playing mostly bluegrass at the time, the next level meant a Martin dreadnaught. I didn't zero in on a specific instrument or even a specific model, just a Martin.

The only problem was where to get the money. So, I made a deal with my then wife that if I quit smoking I could get a bank loan to buy the guitar and use the money I'd been wasting on cigarettes for guitar payments. The stipulations were that I had to wait two months to show I was serious about the whole deal, and that if I started back smoking the guitar would be sold. So, I kicked a three-pack-a-day habit cold turkey, waited a couple of months, got a $700 loan from the bank and bought a brand new D-35.

Unfortunately, a tight financial situation brought on by a career change necessitated selling the guitar a few years later, but I did stay away from the smokes for ten years until I got divorced. But that's another story.