Howdy To All

DSturg369

Howdy all, my name is Dale. I'm a Southern Boy, born & raised in Georgia. I'm X-Navy, a cancer survivor, a Grandpa, and enjoy just about everything outdoors - hunting, fishing, camping, and Mother Nature in general. Love cooking, grilling, and smoking... Also wines and spirits. Current fav adult beverage is Evan Williams Black Label, neat. Don't care for any "ball" sports. I stopped watching when it became all about the $$$ and not about the game anymore.

Laid up at home for several months now, (33 to be exact),  with a bad foot from a work related injury, so plenty of 'net time, as well as time to smoke many a bowl of my favs.

I collect and smoke cigars and pipes. Been with cigars since 1986 and with pipes since 2008. My favs are definitely my MM cobs and tobacco of choice most of the time is Prince Albert. Not into Aros too much.  

Ben a member here for a little while now and just wanted to finally say Hello. I'm having the hardest time posting here as all I'm able to do is copy/paste to here. The post body area closes as fast as I open it for some weird reason...???

Philip

Well, we're glad it was opened long enough for you to say hello. Welcome aboard.

xDutchx

Welcome to the TPL Forums Dale!

Admins have informed us recently that they are working on some upgrades for the site. In the meantime, you might try posting from a different software format, such as a cell phone, tablet, laptop, etc.

PappyJoe

Welcome. We even talk to squids.

What do you smoke besides Prince Albert? 

motie2

Allow me to add to the welcome already expressed by others. I look forward to reading your comments.

PhilosoPiper

Welcome Dale! Happy to have you!

dbh1950

DSturg369, howdy right back. Prince Albert was one of my Grandfather's pipe tobaccos, along with Half n Half. Can't say I fancy Prince, but do the HH occasionally. Usually while working outside, smoking a bowl in an MM. Well good to hear from you and learn a little bit about a fellow pipe smoker. Take care of the foot, trust a recovery is on the horizon.

ghostsofpompeii

@DSturg369 Happy to make your acquaintance Dale. Always nice to have another pipe smoker come out of the shadows and into the light. Smoke what you enjoy and smoke it with pride. I'm an aromatic guy myself and treat my pipe as a delivery system for tobacco that taste more like something from a bakery, but I also enjoy a good OTC blend as well. Sorry to hear about your injuries, and hope you're working through the pain and on the mend. A pipe is the perfect companion when you find yourself somewhat incapacitated and hobbled by an injury. I think a good portion of us on the site have been in that condition at some time or another ... or presently in a similar situation. Several retired members or guys suffering through some nagging minor or major disability keeping us from living life to the fullest. But what we all have in common is taking solice in our pipes.     

mfresa

@DSturg369 you anywhere near Atlanta?

DSturg369

Thanks for such a warm welcome everyone. Let me address a couple of issues and questions...

My right foot was broken in a work related injury. After 33 months of Dr's visits, therapy sessions, and meds regimes, and after a couple of surgeries, the Dr's say it is at maximum recovery. There was permanent nerve damage and I will have a predominant limp for life's remainder, thus I will be using a cane from now on. At least I'll have a free hand to carry a pipe as well, so not all bad.

I smoke PA about 75℅ of the time and am rarely out. Times when my PA is running a tad low I will substitute Carter Hall. My tobacco tastes vary vastly however, and range from light English to VaPer's to straight VA's to other OTC's, and I even actually smoke an ARO now and again. Just so long as nothing cherry'ish enters my bowls, it's all good. Cherry flavored tobaccos just do not agree with my palate. 

I'm in the Augusta, GA area, and if any of y'all ever get into these parts (like for maybe the Masters golf tournament or like), feel free to give me a heads up and I'll maybe be able to arrange some good eats and pipe inspired conversation & company for you.

Hiker007

Welcome.

thebadgerpiper

Welcome to the forum!

pipeman83

@DSturg369,Welcome aboard!

jim102864

Welcome!  I had to laugh when @PappyJoe referred to "squids".  I grew up in southeastern Connecticut where several members of my family worked at Electric Boat, the builders of America's submarine fleet.  We used to refer to the sailors in and around Groton as "squids" .  Here I thought we were just a bunch of little wise-asses and it was just a local "thing".

Topaz75

Apropos of very little, the term "squid" is also used by the motorcycle community to describe a young kid on a sport bike who rides carelessly and way too fast. The squid generally rides in shorts and a tee shirt, and sports a helmet with loud graphics, delicately balanced on the top of his head so that it will do absolutely no good in the event of a crash. A hot, scantily clad woman is often found perched on the back of the bike.

I realize that all of this has nothing to do with pipe smoking, but I'm old and expect to be cut a bit of slack.

motie2

@Topaz75 - Just so we know who our elders are, how old are ye? I'll open the bidding with 70; 71 in September. 

@PappyJoe and @Woodsman, et. al., I put forward for your consideration, "Who's the Geezer on TPL?"

Topaz75

I'm but a mere 69 and will not officially be 70 until September. However, as my wife delights in reminding me, this does mean that I'm currently in my 70th year.

motie2

I've been told that, at 70, I'm not over the hill, but I'm on it.

PappyJoe

I'm just a young child at 64 physical years of age.

My wife says emotionally and mentally the Coast Guard stunted my growth for almost 22 years so but her reckoning I'm just new reaching 42. Sometimes she claims I haven't reached 21 yet.

motie2

I hear that a bit myself, Pappy.

Wolf41035

Welcome to the pack @DSturg369 sounds like you will fit right in here and there are a few of us Navy guys here. One day we need to talk Cigars lol I have a Cigar thread somewhere on here or you can message me.
For the rest of you old farts I guess I am one of the young ones at 51 but 52 is coming fast (month in a half) but I feel like I am 95 so maybe by that I can be the oldest?  lol 
I hate falling apart, the only good thing about it is I have more time to smoke and drink!

Woodsman

Welcome to the gang, I'm up here in NJ but I spent a long time down in Augusta at Fort Gordon in the old MP School. Is that portrait still on the wall at the Busy Bee Diner? I hope they still serve that Ham Loaf at the old hotel there on Sundays. Augusta had that Civil War Memorial  that was so tall, first 1 I ever saw. Summers there were a bit too brutal there for a Jersey Boy running on the Black Top for a few miles daily.(Now I can't run 100 feet.)

Woodsman

Motie2, I'm 75 and have learned a year or two ago that I was no longer "Middle Aged Man to the Rescue!" I was lucky that all I got was a broken arm and I'm no longer able to drive my 2001 Audi A4 Quatro 5 speed. Grumble, grumble.

DSturg369

I'm a mil brat and grew up in the Augusta and Fort Gordon area, but little time there once I left home and joined the Navy (joined at 17)... So sorry, no info on the diner. The Civil War monument still stands but will probably be coming down soon... The South, she is a changin'. Seems like anything or anyone that wants to associate themselves with Confederacy related anything is instantly labeled a racist... Sad.

I'm 50 currently, 51 in December. Looking like I'm the baby so far. 

And I am always ready for a "sit down" over a cigar or a few bowls of some choice 'baccy. 

Philip

I believe here, as well as in the military, the terms Squid, Jarhead, Grunt, Coastie, Flyboy, etc . . . are all terms of endearment. 

Of course each can be broken down into many subcategories such as skimmer puke or bubblehead. 

PappyJoe

@philip - You are pretty much correct. During my 21-years active, I attended many joint-service schools and there were "pet" names for every branch with the most derogatory ones used by the instructors. Some, we came up with ourselves. Story time:

I remember one early school when I was sitting at a desk and staring out a window during a test period ( I had finished the test but still had 45 minutes left.) A new instructor looked at the ball cap on my desk and asked, "USCG? What is that?" My response was "At the moment it stands for Uncle Sam's Confused Group." He wasn't happy but the senior instructor who was training him burst out laughing and said he had to remember that one. He picked up my test paper, looked it over and told me I was dismissed and gave me 5 bonus points on the test.

motie2

My dad was in the US Navy during WWI. He said enlisting got him out of the orphanage early. He served at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and always said that he, ".... fought the Battle of the Great Lakes."

PappyJoe

My father was a towboat captain licensed to work the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. I got interested in the Coast Guard when I took him to the Captain of the Port office in Port Arthur so he could renew his license. It just so happened they had someone from the recruiting office plus a doctor there that day who could conduct physicals. I took the physical and passed but was told I would have to go to the recruiting office in Houston to do the paperwork. 

When there in Dec. 1971, I was told the waiting list for getting sent to basic was 8 to 12 months because the had a backlog of people who didn't want to get drafted and sent to Vietnam. I gave him my name and the paperwork I had been given in Port Arthur and he looked at it and said, "Oh yeah. I got a note from the Captain mentioning you." He gave me the entrance exam and told me to be there the morning 1st Friday in January because he had a slot for me.

Philip

Whenever I talk to a Marine I usually say " I wanted to be a Marine too, but my ASVAB score was too high". For some reason they don't think it's as funny as I do. 

PappyJoe

@philip - That's is just below the all time favorite:

Question: "How did you get in the Coast Guard?"

Answer: "My parents were married to each other when I was born so I was over qualified for the Army."

Philip

That's going into my lineup!