Pipe Smoking Memories

thebadgerpiper

One reason I think most of us were drawn to smoking a pipe are the memories that they draw up inside of us. Perhaps the aroma of a certain blend takes you back to a time in your life that you're fond of and cherish.

For me, I never had any relatives that smoked a pipe, but I remember when I'd see pipe smokers out and about in the wild. I would be walking around as a kid, smell this wonderful aroma, look around and spot a piper puffing away as they went about in life. There was a man in a neighborhood I spent a lot of time in growing up that smoked a pipe. He walked with a limp, but as he'd bob in his walk you would see him calmly puffing his pipe. I never met him, but I found him both interesting and likable. I know he passed away a few years ago, so during the last IPSD, I decided to smoke a pipe in his honor and memory. He probably never knew it, but he made an impact on me and my choice to pick up the pipe.

kraigseder

The pipe always brought memories of my grandparents and their house in the wintertime, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I remember the feeling of walking into their house at a very young age with the smell of pipe tobacco and my grandmothers cooking. My grandpa would either be in his chair smoking his pipe while reading National Geographic or he'd be working on his latest woodworking project with the billiard clenched while he worked. My grandfather was a tall slender Swede that always had a smile and his classic black straight billiard in his mouth. He had a rotation of I think 4 identical black slender billiards. I'm not sure what tobacco he smoked but I think it was Sir Walter Raleigh since I remember an orange and black can. 

drac2485

Probably my only memory of a pipe in my life was a wonderful man at my local B&M when I started smoking cigars. Every time I saw him he had a wonderful Oom Paul that he was smoking and he taught me so much. I always remember wanting his pipe and enjoying all of our conversations while smelling that wonderful aroma. Finally I cracked and got a basket church warden as my first pipe and fell in love. I remember the day I finally got a meerschaum Oom Paul and think of him whenever I smoke it. I still run into him every once in a while and always enjoy his conversations, he's a crazy old coot, and a couple years ago I finally remembers to ask what he was smoking. He said he has been smoking straight perique for over ten years and nothing else (I don't think I'm that brave yet but I do love that smell).

daveinlax

The pipe always brought memories of my grandparents and their house in
the wintertime, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I
remember the feeling of walking into their house at a very young age
with the smell of pipe tobacco and my grandmothers cooking. My grandpa
would either be in his chair smoking his pipe while reading National
Geographic or he'd be working on his latest woodworking project with the
billiard clenched while he worked. My grandfather was a tall slender Swede that always had a smile and his classic black straight billiard in his mouth.

Mine was a Norwegian but my story is the same other than we lived a half hour away and saw them every week or so. When we cleaned out my parents house this spring and I found a bunch of Grandpa's carving tools and a couple of half finished pieces that still had that smell. (much better smelling than the box of burned out and broken pipes pipes I got when they cleaned out their house years ago)

I have so many great memories from almost 20 years of dinners and smoke filled hotel rooms at pipe shows with some of the great pipe collectors many who are close friends. Some of these guys go back to the first generation of  the hobby as we know it.

PappyJoe

Here's a memory. September 1972. Standing the 8 - 12 watch in an engineroom of an icebreaker and going up to the flight deck after the midnight watch relieves you. Lighting a pipe of Captain Black or Borkum Riff you stand there staring out at the solid sheet of ice that your crushing through and you see a polar bear. You are about 125 miles from the coast of Alaska at the time. Someone says, go ahead and grab a chair and sit down. You turn and the Captain is sitting there smoking a big cigar, doing the same thing you're doing.

PipeProfessor

I wish I had some memories, but I don't. I was never around a pipe smoker when I was younger....that just means I need to create my own memories!

pipeman83

My uncle, smoking Carter Hall.

thebadgerpiper

@pipeprofessor I feel the same way. I want people in my life to associate the smell of a pipe with me.

Lovely memories everyone, keep sharing!

PappyJoe

Just added a new memory last weekend. We have 3 grandsons from our oldest son. They stayed with us last week and last Friday my newest son-in-law, who is a charter fishing captain and redfish tournament competitor, took me, my daughter and the 3 grandsons fishing. I took a cob and some Briarworks Peach Cobbler along with me.

Fished about 3 hours but the big fish weren't feeding so all we caught was undersized or trash fish. The oldest grandson was just not getting the hang of casting and setting the hook and was getting bored because he hadn't caught anything. So I brought him up by me and told him to watch my hands as I cast. I threw the line out, set the bail on the spinning reel and handed him the rod. I then coached him on how to just pop the cork. That's when he hooked his first speckled trout and the light bulb went on. He put another live shrimp on his hook and tried casting out again as I pulled out my pipe and lit it. Drake then caught 4 speckled trout in a row but unfortunately the were all between 10 and 11.5 inches when they have to be 12 inches to keep.

Anyway, back to the pipe. So, I'm standing there smoking my pipe and watching the action. When one of the other grandsons, Luke, says, "Hey! Who's eating fruit? I'm hungry too. 

Turns out no one was eating. I was just smoking my pipe.

drac2485

@pappyjoe I love that story

PipeProfessor

Great story @pappyjoe!

LostMason

For me the memories are of seeing Bing Crosby in the Minute Maid commercials.
That was the standard of adult relaxation.Kicking back in a hammock,with drink,a pipe
and my gal.No one in my immediate family smoked and neither did my grand parents.
Dad passed away at 29 when I was 3 months old so my heros were on TV.And since I
watched a lot of Bing Crosby,Danny Kaye,Bob Hope,Dean Martin,and Jerry Lewis, you
can imagine how damaged I am.I need my pipes to act NORMAL.

Topaz75

My grandfather was a wonderful story teller, so I have fond memories of him at the old farmhouse, sitting in his chair, smoking a pipe, and spinning a few yarns. My grandmother was afraid that he was boring me, but the truth was that I always found it fascinating and could listen for hours.

Also, when I was in high school I had a part-time job at the Monmouth County Library in New Jersey. The head librarian there was a pipe smoker and he almost always smoked while he was working. The aroma of pipe smoke was part of the unique appeal of the library. How times have changed.

drac2485

@pipeprofessor  I love how many of my friends actually associate the pipe with me.  I try to smoke more pleasant things around them versus Lat bombs but there are times they ask me to smoke just so they can smell it.  I love that they like me smoking the pipe as much I do.

Topaz75

Once upon a time, I was smoking my pipe while shopping in an antique store. A gentleman approached me and asked if I could "please put that out".

I understood and was happy to oblige. The strange thing was that he just continued to stand there in front of me. I guess he was waiting for me to drop the pipe on the floor and step on it.

Darmon

Don't have any growing up, but I have 3 brothers that all smoke pipes and its always a good time when we get together and get a chance to catch up and share our favorite blends. Also earlier this week, I was getting a pipe out from where I store them and the aroma was in the air.  My wife commented that she doesn't mind the smell anymore, now when she smells that it makes her think about ME   That one made my night. 

thebadgerpiper

@topaz75

That's when you should've said "Hmm, there's something wrong here." Reach over to his ear and pretend to pull your pipe from it. And say, "Well, there's your problem!"

PappyJoe

Just had another memory pop up yesterday while smoking my pipe and watching it rain. It was in 1977 and I was stationed in Seattle at the District Office building. We had a new man report into the office who was a pipe smoker. Like me, he rode the bus to and from work and we would often walk to the bus stop together. The first time I saw him with a pipe was when he stopped in the lobby, pulled out his pipe and lit it. 

It was raining outside and I asked how he was going to smoke it while walking in the rain. He said, "No Problem." Turned the pipe over and stepped out into the rain.

Topaz75

I believe it was the French poet Arthur Rimbaud who was the first spotted smoking a pipe upside down. Rimbaud was a trifle weird, so I don't think he cared whether it was raining or not.

IndyJG

My main memory is visiting my grandfather as a young kid with my family on Saturday evenings and him smoking his billiard pipe with a drugstore blend out of his tobacco pouch in his chair. He gave up smoking, on doctor's orders, when I was 6 or 7. After that I have few memories until taking up the pipe myself. I do remember while in college back in 2000/2001 seeing one student smoke a pipe on campus and thinking back then how strange it was to see someone that young choosing to smoke a pipe.  

Woodsman

Dad was a Master Sargent in the Army, 19 Years and 9 Months when he died in 1950. He smoked a pipe and I used to sit by him to smell it. Started smoking the pipe at 15.

tim12string

My Dad smoked a pipe. I loved the smell and how the smoke "danced" around him. I couldn't wait until I could start smoking a pipe without getting into trouble.

johnscs

These posts trigger a couple of pleasant memories. I loved spending time w/my grandpa and the aromatic scent of Amphora. When my dad took up a pipe when I was 11 or 12, he started out w/an even more alluring scent (in retrospect, I'm pretty sure it must have been 1Q or RLP6). The aroma drove me crazy - couldn't get enough of it. That's when I decided I'd smoke a pipe. Like tim12string, I couldn't wait until I could start smoking a pipe w/o getting into trouble. Thankfully, I avoided trouble when it came to smoking my pipe as a high school kid. ;-)  Right before I started my first quarter as a college freshman, I walked into the same little tobacco shop where my dad had picked up his pipe years before. The instant I went through the door, I smelled that sweet rich aroma of 1Q. The guy running the shop was smoking a bowl, and even though I probably looked even younger than I was (barely 18), he asked if I smoked a pipe. I said yeah - kinda taken aback by being taken seriously as a very young pipe smoker. The dude helped me pick out a decent no-name basket pipe, a straight billiard that I still smoke (great pipe). Naturally, I chose 1Q for my initial break-in smoke, which was amazingly delicious. I'd been smoking Amphora and Borkum Riff, so I was accustomed to OTC aromatics, but 1Q really elevated my pleasure as a still-newbie pipe smoker. I think that purchase was one of the first times (maybe THE first time) that I enjoyed smoking my pipe in public. 

tbonevffv

I have a lot of memories from the past with my grandfather. However I have a new one that was just created during hurricane mathew. While riding out the storm my oldest son who just turned 18 asked me if he could smoke one of my pipes with me. What an awesome feeling. We have started smoking a bowl together every evening. I sure didn't see that one coming. 

PappyJoe

@tbonevffv - That's a great memory to have. Now just go buy a good lock to put on your tobacco.  

dbh1950

My maternal grandfather, Walter was a pipe and cigar smoker. I will always remember walking into his little den/ office and smelling one or the other. A number of his friends were pipe smokers. 

I would also mention a late friend of mine, Jim, who owned a pipe and cigar store. Jim was a unique individual, a very intelligent and thoughtful individual but somewhat gregarious. I was running maintenance for an investment company that owned a shopping center where Jim's shop was located. While working in his shop on a problem with his A/C, he offered me a pipe at his costs, a Savory's Argyle Bulldog, which I still have after 41 years. Jim and his wife introduced me to a young lady, that I was fortunate enough to talk her into marriage. Jim passed away a few years ago, I will always count myself fortunate for having known him. Whenever I fill a pipe and light up, I think of my grandfather Walter, Jim, and of course the young lady I married. 

motie2

Take a look at the G.L. Pease Tobacco website http://glpease.com/Articles/Remembrance.html where there's a wonderful article titled In "Remembrance of Things Past."

A most enjoyable read with a nice bowl.

motie2

There's another nice article titled "Tracks We Leave" at http://glpease.com/Articles/tracksweleave.html

Hitz53

When I was a young apprentice machinist some 40 years ago I started smoking a pipe. At the same time I was in the Naval Reserve as an IC Technician.. The few sailors on my ship, a destroyer, who smoked pipes, preferred black cavendish blends such as Captain Black or Tinder Box's Lamplighter. The few pipe smokers in the machine shop (and they were much older men than the fellows I served with in the Navy) preferred the old American blends like Sir Walter Raleigh or Velvet or Prince Albert. One of the men older men was referred to as Perma-pipe because he always seemed to have a pipe in his mug.

For some reason I took up with English blends heavy on Latakia. Another apprentice did the same. We smoked Tinder Box's Philosopher (probably because the name made us feel smart and sophisticated) or a local tobacconist's "special blend" called X-B-1.

One day I was working on a machine that was unusual for me and the boss showed up despite his not being told that I wouldn't be where my normal duties demanded. When I asked him how he knew I was where I was he said, "I followed the smell. I knew that I'd find either you or John."

Since those days I learned to appreciate burleys and Virginias.

Watchmaker61

Both my grandfather and my adopted grandfather, a man who lived next door to me who was child smoked Prince Albert in a
can I will always remember them packing their pipes and lightning them!!

Woodsman

 Pappyjoe  I also do the upside down in  the rain method. Pack tighter and don't smoke it sitting down. (Unless your outfit is wet.)