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Newbie from the Big Easy......

Good Afternoon everyone, Hope y'all are having a good weekend.... I'm Dave, I picked up my first pipe in 1984, The year my Pawpaw passed away, I was a big fan of wanting to be in any room that my Pawpaw was smoking his pipe, I loved the aroma. When he passed, he left me his pipe. It was an old briar, drug store brand. Over the years, when I seen a pipe I liked, and was financially able, I purchased it. I've purchased a few on e-bay, which were restored, My taste for pipes were in Ben Wade, Preben Holm, Caminetto's, A Savenelli millennium 2000, a meerschaum, and a couple of my personal favorites Il Cepo's. 

I've never had anyone to show me how to smoke a Pipe, and have over the years damaged a few, due to removing the stems to run a pipe cleaner through it to mop up the spit, which really loosened the stems, and I was always getting real bad tongue bite, to the point I put the pipe up and grabbed my cigarettes again. This last Wednesday, I took a peek inside of another forum, really not knowing what to expect, and after introducing myself, and where from, was promptly greeted by a super nice guy, who dispelled much of the bad advice I had received, only to find out he was the president of a pipe club in my area. The very next night, I attended my very first pipe club meeting, where I met the President of the club face to face, along with several members of the club. I probably asked the President of the club and it's members 50 questions, being anxious to learn. A pretty big myth I was told, was Tin Tobacco's were a lot like taking your first dip of Skoal, unless you were very seasoned, it would cause you to turn green, and make you sick, because they weren't smooth. The same fellow also opened a Tin of pipe tobacco for me to smell, I have to admit it smelled awful, I couldn't imagine smoking that around anyone, It wasn't the nice warm aroma I had grown to know around my Pawpaw. I stuck to Aromatic store blends, that had a nice aroma, and I only wanted a tobacco that had a good room aroma, and a good taste. (The search continues) I found the store blends, were hard to light, were hard to keep lit, and generally didn't have the aroma while burning, that it had in the jar. To me, it was a very big let down. 

Thursday Night, while meeting the President of our Pipe Club, Mr Joe, gave me a couple sample packets of pipe tobacco. One was Amphora Burley Blend, The tobacco convincingly looked like beef jerky. I spent a half an hour trying to crumble it up, to pack my pipe, Honestly I was pretty unsatisfied with the appearance of my accomplishment, and when I did the false light, I noticed it swelled up, and didn't appear anything like the catastrophe I had just packed into the bowl, The room aroma wasn't too bad, and I didn't have to light it every 5 minutes. The aroma in the packet wasn't very attractive, but it smoked well, and the room smell wasn't that of nasty smelling cigarettes. 

Anyway, my pipe club President sent me a link to your page yesterday, and told me if I have questions, here is a great place to ask, He said y'all were a patient group, and good with questions. I guess I kinda wore my pipe club members out with all the questions, so he pawned me off on y'all lol j/k. With my newness to your site, and my newness to the Hobie, I'm positive I'll have more questions to ask. Especially in my search to find a great tasting tobacco that has a fantastic room aroma also. Thank You for allowing me the opportunity to join Pipe Life, and if y'all are anything like the great bunch of guys I met at my club meeting, I know I'll deeply enjoy your site very much, for just meeting someone new, those guys were very friendly, had some extraordinary looking  pipes, Were anxious to meet a Newbie, and asked a lot of questions of me as well, trying to get a feel of my experience levels. Each offered to share a bowl of tobacco, but I could only smoke one bowl at a time. Great Bunch of Guys. Oh and also my personal e-mail in case you have any questions or feedback for me that you would rather not post in an open forum is "Casper00223@aol.com" Thank You......

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