Memories and nostalgia

Sherlockian221

So I’ve been a pipe smoker for over 20 years and have sampled hundreds of tobaccos from the drug store brands such as Borkum Riff, Captain Black and Sir Walter Raleigh to the more expensive and exclusive blends like Erinmore, Mac Baren’s Mixture and Sobranie. Recently I started smoking Sir Walter Raleigh again. It brought back a memory of my paternal grandfather, one of the only memories I have, as after my mother and father divorced when I was around two, I didn’t see him much any more. He smoked Sir Walter Raleigh. I remember the distinct foil pouch in red and blue. While some may turn their nose up at the idea of buying pipe tobacco over the counter at a local drug store, I can recall some older tv shows in which a man walked into a store and asked for a pouch or tin of pipe tobacco. And after a moment or two of smoking it, memories return to me of the smell when sitting in my grandfathers lap. The smoke is smooth to me, and the aroma brings a sort of calm and peace to my mind. Anyone else have similar thoughts and experiences?

Tommy

PappyJoe

@Sherlockian221
I can relate to this. My grandfather was a pipe smoker and he only smoked George Washington until the stopped making it around 1974. I jumped at the chance to acquire a factory sealed 14 oz. tin of George Washington about three years ago. It was still fresh and moist and a good smoke. I jarred it and still have about seven ounces of it left. If I smoked it on a regular basis it would be gone by now. It's a burley based blend with a light molasses topping for those interested.

The story I've heard from some more knowledgeable old pipe smokers was that R.J. Reynolds was reducing the number of tobacco blends it produced back in the 70s and somewhere in the process it came down to a decision whether to keep George Washington in production or another famous "drug store" blend named Price Albert. We know which blend they kept. 

As for people "turning up their noses" at some of the old blends, in my opinion, a lot of that is because of what they read on the internet and what they learn talking to people working in pipe shops. They have the mentality of, "I don't want to smoke a blend so bad they had to sell it in drug stores." They are wrong. The old codger or drugstore blends have been around for a long time and they still sell. That means they are not bad blends.

I bet if people would really look, they would find there are popular blends today that are very similar to some of the old blends.

RockyMountainBriar

I personally enjoy most of the “old codger” blends.  I was not around anyone that smoked a pipe, so I don’t have any of those memories.....just my dad and some of my uncles that smoked cigarettes😖.  My dad uncle, and grandfather smoked pipes for awhile, but my grandfather passed a few months before I was born, and my dad and uncle also gave up the pipe for the easier cigarettes before I was born.  I have found an old (empty) tin of McBarren Scottish Mixture and of course my dad had Velvet around for his roll-your-own cigs.  The Velvet can has nuts & bolts in it, it’s missing the lid🙁.  I think there is an El Dorado tin (another roll-your-own tobacco) around with some small parts in it as well.

KA9FFJ

My great grandfather and grandad owned and ran a tobacco farm, mostly Burley just outside Cadiz, KY. As a child I can remember helping to tend one large field of the plants (they owned five very large fields). In between those that rolled their own or chewed, there were two uncles that smoked a pipe. 
I can still remember thinking to myself as a kid, the way to smoke is a pipe. It just looked right and smelled right.
Anyway,  little flickers of those memories still happen from time to time while enjoying a bowl, along with remembering a simpler and more peaceful time...

opipeman

My first memory of pipes was in a foot locker that was left at my grandfather's house(where my mother and I lived) by my father after he and my mother divorced. He was a career military man and would eventually marry 4 or 5 times. The tray in the foot locker had several pipes, which I wanted to keep. I was 5 or 6 years old. I was told no and the pipes were tossed along with whatever else was in the trunk. When the tray was taken out, there was a mouse nest and a hole where the rodent had chewed into the trunk. The nest had several babies, which I wanted to keep also. I was told no and the babies were fed to my dog "Puppy". She eat them like M&M's. I have often wondered if there were any pipes that would be valuable since the late 40's. I have also wondered what baby mice taste like. Well, not really.

AnantaAndroscoggin

To look down on blends because they're sold in the drug stores  . . .  In the 1500s and 1600s in order to buy any tobacco at all (in Britain), you pretty much were limited to going to the apothecary shop, the drug stores of that day. This even though England did not obsess on the idea of tobacco being a "cure all medicine" like France did in those days.

ghostsofpompeii

It's amazing the way our five senses can trigger a memory. Be it a sound, aroma, or a taste that creates an immediate flashback to a certain event or person in our lives.

I can be transported back in time when thumbing through the yellowed pages of an old Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine, taking me back to the neighborhood drug store (Judy's Drugs & Dairy) where I once purchased most of those magazines as a kid. And in October when I'm watching an old Universal Classic Horror Film with the patio door open and the sound of the autumn leaves rustling past by a brisk wind, a wave of nostalgia washes over me and I feel I'm 12 years old again and experiencing the film for the first time.

@Sherlockian221 - they all smoked the inexpensive OTC drug store blends. Yet it was the scent of those blends like Prince Albert, Half & Half, Velvet, Middleton Cherry Blend, or Carter Hall that piqued my interest enough to take up pipe smoking. And I'll defend one of my first OTC blends - Captain Black - til my dying day. I may smoke more expensive tinned aromatics today ... but I have no problem returning to them as well. And my cellar is chock full of vintage OTC blends.    

opipeman

@ghostsofpompeii;
Put me down as a Captain Black Fan. Through the years, I've probably smoked more CB than any other single tobac. 

thebadgerpiper

As someone who never knew any pipe smokers until becoming one, I truly enjoy reading threads like this one. It gives me a chance to live a bit vicariously through others with an experience I wish I had. My mom gets these nostalgia/remember the good old days magazines full of recollections of everyday life from the past. I'll often read them at her shop when I get a haircut with the main purpose of looking for any stories that reference pipe smoking in them. It's not uncommon to find a story or picture involving a pipe somewhere hidden away on one of the pages. The smell of a pipe sticks with people, even many years after their loved one passed away. 

motie2

RSPiper

I enjoyed the stories written above and I agree, the old cogger blends have stood the test of time and in my opinion are very good. Lately all I reach for is Carter Hall and Half and Half.

RSPiper

I came across some of the Dick Proenneke videos on YouTube recently. I am a fan of these old frozen north outdoor movies.

According to YouTube, "There were 4 one hour videos produced on Dick Proenneke's life up at Twin Lakes. For more than 30 years a man by the name of Dick Proenneke lived alone in the Alaskan Bush. His only neighbors were the wolves and grizzly bears."

I just happen to notice his pipe tobacco in one of the scenes, I found this interesting.
This is taken from  "Dick Proenneke in The Frozen North"