The pipe - a thing of the past ?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

redpanda

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 11, 2015
286
1
I can see how this is probably going to sound unusual to many, but I want to share anyway. There are simply no pipe smokers on the sunny island of Cyprus where I live. I have been smoking for about a year now and in that time I have seen 5 people with a pipe, one of them was a very old man in the park and his pipe had gone out. Not counting the tobacconist where I sometimes go (also an old fella) and his son. I admit I feel kind of strange sometimes. I notice people looking at me funny all the time, mostly when I am driving. I guess I have seen people look at me with interest, but many people look like they have seen something pretty strange. Maybe if I was dressed like men dressed hundred years ago, it would have made more sense. Nothing has changed in the way I look or dress in the last year. I did not acquire a new indentity or become a new person. I just added the pipe. It can be kind of weird sometimes, doing something no one else does. Ok you might say, it's a small place. That's true, but 5 people for a whole year? So I have been wondering, is pipe smoking a thing of the past?

 

elbert

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 10, 2015
604
28
I've met one pipe smoker in my home town, seen a few others driving around, and talked to my neighbors boyfriend recently who told me he smoked a pipe a lot of years ago before he switched to cigs--"dumbest thing I ever did", he told me. Go figure!
I think we could see a small resurgence, but we'll forever be in the rather tiny minority.

 

conlejm

Lifer
Mar 22, 2014
1,433
8
I would have guesses you would see more pipe smokers in Cyprus ... Isn't that where they make Cyprian Latakia? Probably a naive assumption of mine.
Count yourself lucky seeing five people. Here in NH, USA I have seen two people in the last year, and one of them is my smoking buddy. The other guy was an older well-dressed gentleman walking down the streets of Manchester with a similarly well-dressed lady. Unless I go to L.J. Peretti's in Boston, I rarely see anyone smoking a pipe.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,346
Tobacco has had major ups and downs for centuries. With the advent of forums, we have more of a sense of community, and adding new enthusiasts daily. I myself have gotten five guys that I work with into pipe smoking. Carry an unsmoked cob and some tobacco with you for someone curious, and pass along the serenity of the hobby.

 
In my area of Alabama, I see and know quite a few pipe smokers. We are also well represented on this forum. But, maybe this area just has greater ties to the way things used to be. When I switched to pipes a few years ago. No one around me thought it odd at all. It's just smoking like cigars or cigarettes in the minds of most people. And, we don't have the same sorts of bans that I hear about from most on this forum. I can still fire my pipe up in most of the places that I would go, and my favorite restaurant brings me matches when I come in.

 
Jan 4, 2015
1,858
11
Massachusetts
I never thought much about it but you're right. There aren't many of us around and certainly not like there used to be. When I was growing up there was nothing unusual about a guy with a pipe. Not so today.

 

clangillespie

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 7, 2015
106
2
Ironwood Michigan
New people are picking up the pipe everyday, I can tell by all the pipe groups I belong to on Facebook, also sales are up for Artisan pipe makers. I think it's probably like everything else, it goes in cycles. The Hipster movement has added to the surge for sure here in the States. Many of my personal friends have become pipe smokers recently, with a pipe you can have variety of blends, flavors and types and I think that is attracted new smokers, I also think we are getting people who are moving on from the Hookah fad, that went through in the last couple of years.

 

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
I guess I have seen people look at me with interest, but many people look like they have seen something pretty strange.
Good. Keep 'em guessing and look like you're having the time of your life. Curiosity begets interest. Fly the flag!

 

newfie

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 19, 2015
210
0
Shearstown, NL
I live in Newfoundland Canada and in 7 years, I've seen 3 pipe smokers, 2 were driving and the other, only one I spoke to, was in a line-up to board a ferry.
Can honestly say I only know 1 cigar smoker but it seems like 1/2 the people are on cigarettes.

 

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


 

aggravatedfarmer

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 9, 2015
865
3
I have never seen a pipe smoker here in Ohio till I started three years ago. Usually old guys and hipsters.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,565
27,068
Carmel Valley, CA
Not having thought much about it, I've not seen another pipe smoker in my little city of about 8,000. But I haven't been looking for any, either.

 

fearsclave

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 9, 2014
209
0
Yes, pipe smoking is old-fashioned. It's an indulgence from a by-gone age. And that is precisely what draws me to it. Smoking a pipe is a statement of taste, a rejection of the joyless and mass-produced engineering of addiction that is the cigarette. It's an enjoyment of the slower, the more refined, the ritual as opposed to the habit. It's single malt instead of cheap vodka. It's quality versus quantity. It's mindful appreciation instead of a quick fix.
And that is why I like it.

 

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
Smoking a pipe is a statement of taste, a rejection of the joyless and mass-produced engineering of addiction that is the cigarette. It's an enjoyment of the slower, the more refined, the ritual as opposed to the habit. It's single malt instead of cheap vodka. It's quality versus quantity. It's mindful appreciation instead of a quick fix.
Great statement. I don't associate it with an age, but with the mentality you describe above. We are pointing ourselves in a different direction than most, but with reason and deriving enjoyment from it.

 

peteguy

Lifer
Jan 19, 2012
1,530
906
I have seen a total of one other person smoking a pipe in my area. He was walking his dog and looked like he was enjoying his walk. I have seen two people pass by in vehicles with a smoking pipe but I cannot say what they were smoking.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.