I don't always look at a 'Dislike' as a negative towards me ... but in some cases a 'Dislike' might actual be a total agreement with your position about a situation you are not happy with. For instance I just got a 'Dislike' on my comment about restaurants once accepting cigarette smokers in their 'Smoking Section' but not allowing pipe or cigar smokers. There are two ways to look at it ... a 'Dislike' could mean he also disapproved of the restaurant policy of not allowing pipe and cigars in the smoking section - or he actually 'Disliked' my comment. So sometimes it's kind of hard to hit a 'Like' or 'Dislike' if someone is discussing a bad experience. Did you 'Like' his bad experience or 'Dislike' what happened.
@ghostsofpompeii, Nice break down, as you said Dislike can be interpreted in many ways, I stay away from it myself, if I dislike something that happened to a member or express an opinion on a blend I dislike, I post it, so their can be no doubt concerning my position. Thank you for the post.
@Rebelheathen - Tow Waits said it best. The best thing about being alone is we get along so well, I can't even believe it. What if you meet someone to smoke with and you find out you really can't stand the douche bag, but they dig you and won't leave you alone. What then?
@AnantaAndroscoggin - Except that Spike doesn't seem to mind. He sort'a like the hero worship until the pup starts steppin' on toes. I'm talkin' about a person paints themselves as a person you want to smoke with and then all at once like a train wreck they are just a case of the claps.
@motie2 My 'so called' man cave is nothing more than my garage with a collection of tobacco tins stuck to a pegboard above a table with a DVD player and 32" monitor (for watching the occasional movie) and a stereo for listening to jams. It's my little 8x8 corner of the garage. The remainder has everything you'd expect to find in a garage along with all the holiday decorations neatly stacked in boxes. In the area where my wife keeps her Fall decorations are a pair of life size scarecrows (one male and the other a female). Yesterday I pulled out two lawn chairs and set a small wicker table between them for my coffee, tobacco and ashtray. And on the second chair I pulled down the male scarecrow and seated him beside me. For once I had a companion (although he wasn't smoking for apparent reasons ... namely he was packed with straw and likely to burst into flames and he didn't have a pair of lungs making it impossible keep a pipe lit). And there I sat, waiting for my wife to eventually peek in and tell me lunch was ready. I wasn't sure what reaction I'd get when she opened the door to the garage - but it sure wasn't the reaction I got. When she finally opened the door and spotted the scarecrow seated beside me - without batting an eye simply said ... "Morning Matches." Referring of course to the YouTube pipe presenter Matches 860. Then she calmly closed the door leaving me with her deadpan delivery. I've come to the conclusion we've either been married too long and I can no longer surprise her ... or she's accepted the fact that I'm certifiably insane.
Definitely travel. Check UPCA for pipe clubs, get involved even if it is far. Go to pipe shows. Before you know it you will find other guys. It is worth traveling an hour or more to socialize with other pipe guys. Trust me. Sending this from Chicago before I head back to NY state from the pipe show.
In my case I am fortunate enough to live within 8 blocks of my older brother, who also smokes a pipe. We also belong to a pipe club with some great guys, but when I first started smoking a pipe almost 37 years ago I was the only one I knew who smoked a pipe. I faced this dilemma and it almost made me quit smoking a pipe. The only ones I could find to smoke, consort, console, or ask advise of was an elderly Circuit Court Judge or a University Dr. of Theology (both in their 70's and neither of which I wanted to have a shot of Rye with). I guess the only thing that keeps the younger generation from seeing me that way now is that I am neither a Judge nor a Preacher. Ole'Pops still likes his Rye with his pipe from time to time, but I have learned to enjoy the time spent smoking alone.
I have been a pipe smoker since I was twelve years old in 1973. I have always like the aroma and the gentlemanly art and style. To me, it completes a man, and the pipe he chooses says as much about him as the fact he chooses to smoke a pipe. I had a heavy influence from my Grandfather and his eldest, my Uncle Bill. Grampy smoked nothing but cobs, Uncle Bill Dr. Graybow straight billiards and apples. Both smoked Half & Half. That was my starter (of course) but I soon discovered aromatics at the local mall pipe shop. I was hooked. Back then, there seemed to be more pipe smokers, but mostly older gentlemen. Needles to say, I stuck out in the smoking area of my high school in th late seventies. I didn't let on about my habit at home until I was well into my college years, although my folks must of smelled it on me past the cigarettes they smoked. Along the way, I would meet and befriend the occasional briar friar, but for the most part, a loner. As a gay man, I have spent a lot of nights at the bars as the lone pipe man. Once in a great while I'd meet a fellow pipe man, but they were usually from out of town. Then came the annual conference of Gay Pipe and Cigar Men (Yeah, that's a thing) called SMOKEOUT, held in Las Vegas. There I saw quite a number of pipe enthusiasts, but we were overwhelmingly outnumbered by cigar smokers. Don't get me wrong, I like the occasional cigar myself, but it's always nice to be around a band of briar brothers. It is a brotherhood, perhaps more so today than in it's more popular heyday of the past. I'm on several pages featured on Facebook that cater to the art. The numbers are indeed growing, particularly among the hipster set, but not exclusively so. Older puffers, like myself, find much much in common there. On many, the language gets pretty salty, but the brotherhood and comradery are real. I sense that here as well. If you are still with me here, I'll give a hearty "Howdy, brother!" to the current ranks and an equally hearty welcome to the initiate.
<giggle> I was ordained in 1973. Everyone in seminary smoked a pipe, students and teachers alike. And, as now, the division was English/Latakia and VaPers on one side and aromatics on the other. Then, I was on the English/Lat team; these days, I smoke aromatics.
Welcome! Good to see your generation continue the practice, even if sparsly.
@OlePops@Briarbear - I think I have told the story behind my pipe smoking before but I can't remember where or when. The only grandfather I knew was a pipe smoker. He had three or four pipes but pretty much only smoked George Washington until he could no longer get it and then switched to whatever he could get. I inherited two of his pipes after he died in 1979.
So, there I was, on a Coast Guard icebreaker getting ready to head into the ice along the upper northern Alaskan coast in the summer of 1972. For some reason, I decided to buy a pipe and some Borkum Riff to pass what passed as free time while underway. We had a number of other pipe smokers aboard (or else the small ship's store wouldn't have carried a supply of Borkum Riff or Captain Black and some pipes) and they would sit on the mess deck or on the fantail and smoke their pipes. The more senior types - the first class petty officers and the chiefs also had their own areas where they could smoke. I was fortunate to be allowed to join some of the older guys on the fantail and was taught the proper way to smoke a pipe. As my chief told me, just sit there with the pipe in my mouth and only answer questions directed at me. Obviously, this was back in the days when smoking was allowed aboard ship everywhere except the bridge, sickbay, the science lab and the armory. No smoking was allowed during meals or in the berthing areas between the hours of 10 pm and 6 AM.
After that unit, there always seemed to be at least one or two pipe smokers wherever I was stationed.
@PappyJoe - My son was born in 1983. I had an older daughter that didn't live with me at the time so up to that point there were no kids in my house. I smoked cigarettes freely and I smoked a lot of them. My second wife went into labor in the middle of the night and we made it to the hospital "just in time" for me to see my son born. I was so excited they threatened to sedate me. They didn't...it wasn't necessary, I "calmed my tits" as his mother aptly put it (only in present tense at the time). But he was the most perfect thing I had ever seen in my life. On my way home during the next day to get some much needed rest I decided to stop by my local B&M. The 3-10 Pipe Shop, now out of business, supplied me with my first taste of piping. I bought an Israeli Alpha BigBoy and 2 oz. of Lane Limited: Burley Lite Without a Bite. I was determined that not another cigarette would be smoked in my house and he would not be exposed to it. I would smoke a pipe outside. Not only that, my dad smoked a pipe when I was a boy and I had wonderful memories of Paladin Black Cherry wharfing through the house. I also thought it made me look cool as shit. OK, first, let me say "Without a Bite" is a bunch'a B.S! When Lane Limited named BLWB they had an experienced pipe smoker in mind, not some guy who was switching from cigarettes to a pipe because he thought it looked cool. My only saving grace was...I really wanted to quit cigarettes. I just stuck with it. I tried different tobaccos. I laid it down. I smoked with old men that whittled on the court house lawn. I laid it down. I tried something different. I bought a Dr. Grabow at a hospital gift shop. I tried OTC's. I picked up every tip I could along the way and I LAID IT DOWN! In 1986 I smoked a cigarette. It was the worst thing I ever tasted in my life. I remember it was one of my mother's. It was a Kent! From there I went to the pipe shop and bought a Peterson Shannon bent billiard and an ounce of BLWB. I have been in love with the stuff since. I mix it with everything. I smoke it straight. It is my go-to. (The tobacco, not the pipe) I still have the pipe, and still smoke it from time to time, but BLWB will always be a staple in my rotation. I play music in cafes and clubs so cigarettes are no stranger to me, and I have battled them off and on through my life, but my pipe has been my FRIEND since that day in 1986 although I struggled with it for 3 years prior to that. I draw your attention back to the second line of this story where I mention "just in time". We got to the hospital, they took my wife and I registered her. By the time I got up to the room they took her to...she was having the baby. They suited me up and sent me in. If she had allowed me, I would have name him "Justin Time..." but she said no. The end result was "Justin Tyler...." Thanks for reading.
@PappyJoe I don’t expect you to know this person, but a Coast Guard friend of mine was station in Alaska around that time. He was a crew member of a helicopter, navigator I think? and at a northern island base I’m pretty sure it was Kodiak Island. Anyway, I don’t know how many Coast Guard stations there are or even if different MOS cross paths, but maybe you guys did. His name was Duane Lightheiser, he may have been too young at the time you were there, he was 18 in 1974. Sadly he passed away last year at a measly, short, 62 years of age. Curiously, just trying to see how small this world may be?
@RockyMountainBriar - Well, I have been to Kodiak and there was a Coast Guard Air Station there but that was when I was working in the engine room of an icebreaker. My last time in that area was in early 1973. Didn't really get to know anyone in the aviation side of the Coast Guard until I started flying photo missions after 1975.
Comments
(-10 pts. for the preposition)
<giggle>
You experience parallels my own, vis-a-vis my SWMBO and yours.
Along the way, I would meet and befriend the occasional briar friar, but for the most part, a loner. As a gay man, I have spent a lot of nights at the bars as the lone pipe man. Once in a great while I'd meet a fellow pipe man, but they were usually from out of town. Then came the annual conference of Gay Pipe and Cigar Men (Yeah, that's a thing) called SMOKEOUT, held in Las Vegas. There I saw quite a number of pipe enthusiasts, but we were overwhelmingly outnumbered by cigar smokers. Don't get me wrong, I like the occasional cigar myself, but it's always nice to be around a band of briar brothers.
It is a brotherhood, perhaps more so today than in it's more popular heyday of the past. I'm on several pages featured on Facebook that cater to the art. The numbers are indeed growing, particularly among the hipster set, but not exclusively so. Older puffers, like myself, find much much in common there. On many, the language gets pretty salty, but the brotherhood and comradery are real. I sense that here as well. If you are still with me here, I'll give a hearty "Howdy, brother!" to the current ranks and an equally hearty welcome to the initiate.
Bear
Welcome! Good to see your generation continue the practice, even if sparsly.
So, there I was, on a Coast Guard icebreaker getting ready to head into the ice along the upper northern Alaskan coast in the summer of 1972. For some reason, I decided to buy a pipe and some Borkum Riff to pass what passed as free time while underway. We had a number of other pipe smokers aboard (or else the small ship's store wouldn't have carried a supply of Borkum Riff or Captain Black and some pipes) and they would sit on the mess deck or on the fantail and smoke their pipes. The more senior types - the first class petty officers and the chiefs also had their own areas where they could smoke. I was fortunate to be allowed to join some of the older guys on the fantail and was taught the proper way to smoke a pipe. As my chief told me, just sit there with the pipe in my mouth and only answer questions directed at me. Obviously, this was back in the days when smoking was allowed aboard ship everywhere except the bridge, sickbay, the science lab and the armory. No smoking was allowed during meals or in the berthing areas between the hours of 10 pm and 6 AM.
After that unit, there always seemed to be at least one or two pipe smokers wherever I was stationed.
I don’t expect you to know this person, but a Coast Guard friend of mine was station in Alaska around that time. He was a crew member of a helicopter, navigator I think? and at a northern island base I’m pretty sure it was Kodiak Island. Anyway, I don’t know how many Coast Guard stations there are or even if different MOS cross paths, but maybe you guys did. His name was Duane Lightheiser, he may have been too young at the time you were there, he was 18 in 1974. Sadly he passed away last year at a measly, short, 62 years of age.
Curiously, just trying to see how small this world may be?
Well, I have been to Kodiak and there was a Coast Guard Air Station there but that was when I was working in the engine room of an icebreaker. My last time in that area was in early 1973. Didn't really get to know anyone in the aviation side of the Coast Guard until I started flying photo missions after 1975.
I figured it was a longshot