@jacobramsey74 Huh, as a boomer, I read your compliment comment “you’re f’in sick man” as ‘you’re sick in the head’…not a compliment to a boomer….ahh, the tides of slang through the ages across generations🙂
@jacobramsey74 Oh, by the way, as one ages, you’re give a shit factor goes down and you don’t much care what others think of you. Just don’t be rude and respect other people’s space, and they should respect yours. Think about it, why should you care if someone else sees you smoking a pipe and giving you the stink eye? It’s for your enjoyment, not theirs. Unless you are smoking a pipe just to be different, stand out and be noticed? If so, you should probably drop the pipe.
Other than at the shop I rarely smoke a pipe in public but I do smoke cigars every week at a summer concert series in the park. My strategy is to get there early set up somewhat apart so that anyone who sits near us knows what’s up. In all the years we’ve been going I’ve only had a handful of comments to which I reply, “I’m keeping the mosquitoes away!”
While I don't give a rat's patooti what people think generally speaking, I do work at not being close enough for my pipe smoking (public and outdoors) to be an issue.
However, I have a post retirement part /full time job driving a dump truck delivering land scalping supplies and aggregates.
Each day I smoke 2 to 4 pipes while on the job and as a bent pipe smoker (almost exclusively) my pipe is always in my mouth (while being smoked) when interacting with the public.
In the years I have been doing this I have never received a complaint; I have received many compliments and short reminiscences from people about how they loved the smell of a pipe when in their youth.
In fact my last delivery today was to a guy of Polish or Russian origin and when I got out of the truck he exclaimed "I love the pipe and it's a great look" and then he shook my hand.
My observation is that most people are OK with it or don't mind and the self righteous ass holes (a small minority) who complain about everything (because they are always unhappy just don't matter and I ignore them.
@mapletop; A few years ago my bride and I went to an outdoor flea market. I lit my pipe and some women that was up wind of me looked at me and started coughing. Aside from that experience I haven't really noticed any reactions. I rarely smoke in public, but I do try to avoid blowing smoke in anyone's direction.
Out of all my years of pipe-smoking outdoors, I’ve only had one negative experience.
My children were playing at a public park and I was smoking as I watched them. A kid, whose head was no doubt filled with the educational outrage du jour, told me I was “going to die.” His mom gave me a nasty look and whisked him away before I could do any more irreparable damage to her precious boy. But every other encounter has been positive. Most people say they like the smell, think that pipe-smoking “looks cool,” tell me it reminds them of their grandfather, etc.
At this point in time, with the ubiquity of pot-smoking, I don’t see how anyone could legitimately complain about pipes. Few things smell worse to me than pot, and I smell it now while I’m out and about way more than I smell cigarettes, especially in traffic. It’s always lovely to think how many of my fellow drivers are high on pot as we share the road.
@TakeMeToTheShire; Your statement "At this point in time, with the ubiquity of pot-smoking, I don’t see how anyone could legitimately complain about pipes." is absolutely profound. I never thought of it that way.
I live in DFW and smell pot all the time when I’m out. I was at a fast food restaurant in Dallas not long ago ordering a milk shake. The guy in front of me ordering was smoking pot in his car, and when I got to the drive-thru window, it appeared that the entire kitchen staff of the restaurant was smoking too. Again, it is rare to smell a cigarette (almost nonexistent to smell a cigar or pipe), but pot is everywhere here.
I was in Boston just before the Covid meltdown/lockdown happened. People were openly dealing drugs in broad daylight on the Boston Commons, and many people were smoking pot walking down the street. I proudly puffed my pipe and let out some clouds that would’ve made Gandalf proud.
Since they made recreational weed legal here in Montana, people smoke that $#!+ everywhere. Freaking skunk smell😖. I was sitting in a restaurant eating dinner when I smelled skunk. I turned around and there was an asshole with a hoodie(hood up indoors) toking on a joint then putting it under his hoodie until the next drag. WTF…smoking/vaping in public places is not legal here in Billings. A rude muther-fer in my opinion, it made for a crappy evening. By his interactions with staff, I think he was employed there, but off shift. I didn’t bother to lodge a complaint, I could see it would go nowhere. I have not been back since. It was not a cheap dive hole-in-the-wall either.
@RockyMountainBriar Wow. I’ve yet to encounter pot-smoking in a restaurant but I’m sure I will at some point. I also think it stinks and makes for a very unpleasant atmosphere.
@PappyJoe; At my Grandfather's visitation in 1974, his old(90 something) next door neighbor took me aside to give me the secrets to a long life. 1.- get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. 2.- never use tobacco at any time. 3.- never let alcohol touch your lips. 4.- keep your feet dry. I still have some work to do on the first three.
As Colonel Potter on MASH once said to Radar "I've smoked 5 cigars a day for 45 years and never got the habit"
Vices are part of human existence. Back in the old old old days water would kill you so they drank beer all day long (the brewing killed bacteria). My mother drank 3 martinis every evening the entire time I was alive...and these weren't measured shots, mind you, but probably 2 1/2 to 3 ozs of Beefeaters each and she lived until she was 86. My old man who I never got along with and never heard from after I was about 16, when I spoke to a friend of his after he croaked and asked her if he still smoked a pipe, cigarettes (Merit) and cigars, and like my mom 3 martinis a day, until he died at the age of 85, she said 'yep, he sure did' while sitting with me and my wife in a restaurant at 11 am downing a Long Island Iced Tea...and she was pushing 90 herself.
Like @RockyMountainBriar indicated, it's all luck (and some genes); I would much rather live a few years less and enjoy myself than go out jogging, get hit by a car and die that way, or go through umpteen million knee and hip replacements doing the same thing.
Comments
Huh, as a boomer, I read your compliment comment “you’re f’in sick man” as ‘you’re sick in the head’…not a compliment to a boomer….ahh, the tides of slang through the ages across generations🙂
Oh, by the way, as one ages, you’re give a shit factor goes down and you don’t much care what others think of you. Just don’t be rude and respect other people’s space, and they should respect yours. Think about it, why should you care if someone else sees you smoking a pipe and giving you the stink eye? It’s for your enjoyment, not theirs. Unless you are smoking a pipe just to be different, stand out and be noticed? If so, you should probably drop the pipe.
@RockyMountainBriar
You also learn how to shout, "Get off my lawn!"
A few years ago my bride and I went to an outdoor flea market. I lit my pipe and some women that was up wind of me looked at me and started coughing. Aside from that experience I haven't really noticed any reactions. I rarely smoke in public, but I do try to avoid blowing smoke in anyone's direction.
Yeah that compliment came from a high schooler lol.
Your statement "At this point in time, with the ubiquity of pot-smoking, I don’t see how anyone could legitimately complain about pipes." is absolutely profound. I never thought of it that way.
@TakeMeToTheShire dude, where the hell do you live? You do that crap here in NC and they'll bust your ass
I have had a similar occurrence but it was a 20 something adult say that to me. I just looked at him and said, "We are all going to die eventually."
I saw a meme the other day. It read:
Eat Healthy
Exercise Daily
Abstain from alcohol...
And die anyway.
Wow. I’ve yet to encounter pot-smoking in a restaurant but I’m sure I will at some point. I also think it stinks and makes for a very unpleasant atmosphere.
At my Grandfather's visitation in 1974, his old(90 something) next door neighbor took me aside to give me the secrets to a long life. 1.- get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. 2.- never use tobacco at any time. 3.- never let alcohol touch your lips. 4.- keep your feet dry. I still have some work to do on the first three.
And yet George Burns lived to be 100 smoking cigars, drinking and staying up late.
I guess there is no easy secret to living long.