What was grandpa/professor smoking 30 years ago...

[thnaks]

that smelled so nice?
The pipe smoke I smelled as a youth smelled great to me. Various professors, granddads, New England papas.
They obviously didn't have the mega variety in tins we see today...but it smelled great nonetheless!
What were they likely smoking? Half and Half? Cherry-laced something? If so, cherry on what tobacco? Burley smells nice to many regular folks, I've heard.
I cannot ask them...the greatest generation is disappearing from our midst.

 

[theediabeticman]

New England...check with some of the LJ Peretti Blends...blend 100 is an old codger blend and smells incredible

 

[pappymac]

In the 50s and 60s they were smoking over the counter blends like Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Half & Half, Velvet and Mixture 79. There are numerous old blends but those are the ones my grandfather smoked up until he died in 1979.

 

[thnaks]

Wow, look at that place. It would be worth a trip for certain. Thank you for the suggestion.

"old codger" is funny.
Pappymac, I imagined as much, but I wasn't sure which of these old brands smelled "nice". I know the pipes of my past smelled nothing whatsoever like cigarettes nor cigars.
I had an uncle whose house was filled to the brim with cigar smoke...not the smell I enjoy.

 

[jitterbugdude]

I have a lot of tin's from the '60's that were my dad's. Mostly Edgeworth RR and some MacBaren Burley. I remember him smoking aros too, mostly the OTC variety in the plastic pouch.

 

[warren]

I suspect professors smoked to attract coeds, nubile, naive coeds. So it was most likely something from Middleton's. "Cherry Blend" perhaps?

 

[newbroom]

Well, my gramps smoked Days Work and like that. A burley plug he'd carve off from and break up in the palms of his hands. Pretty sure it was Days Work...whatever the cheapest plug there was I'm guessing. It was more like 60 years ago, not 30.

 

[philobeddoe]

+1 on the Middletons Cherry Blend if the tobacco smoke had a cherry smell. Captain Black white if it had a vanilla smell, both of these would have been smoked by old men in the past 50 years.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Professor at my Uni smoked Burlington Arcade (Harry Tint and Sons, Philly: long defunct, but BA contained both Latakia and Perique) and Balkan Sobranie.

 

[warren]

I bet he could only attract coeds who were suffering with head colds.

 

[pitchfork]

I'd bet it was Captain Black.
I remember that certain smell, and I know people who smoked back then, and I remember those big black and white cans. I never knew pipe tobacco smelled like anything else until I started smoking myself.

 

[mcitinner1]

I've always wondered what one of my uncles smoked. My dad and most of his six brothers smoked a pipe, but the husband of one of Dad's sisters, (my aunt) was from Sweden, and his pipe smoke smelled the best of all. I'd love to know what blend that was.

 

[stephenw]

30 year ago I was smoking Borkum Riff. Am I now in the grandpa segment of the pipe smoking community?
Many of the men who smoked a pipe when I was younger (50 or more years ago) smoked Prince Albert or Cherry Blend. Some smoked Carter Hall. It all smelled great too.

 

[bigpond]

Walnut. At least for the elbow-patch set.

 

[condorlover1]

Gold Block, St Bruno, Condor, Mellow Virginia to name a few all British OTC's!

 

[derfatdutchman]

Grandpa smoked mainly Prince Albert with the occasional tin of Half & Half, or Sir Walter Raleigh.

 

[jpmcwjr]

@Warren-
That particular guy was married, but more importantly, it was all males back then.

 

[jon11]

My Great Grandpa smoked Prince Albert.....mostly rolled cigarettes with it.

 

[12pups]

I *am* a grandfather, and 30 years ago... make it 40... it was Argosy Black. Tried some Argosy match a year ago. Sheesh. How did I smoke that crap? LOL

 

[brudnod]

Ha, ha. Since 30 years ago I WAS a professor it was my pipe that students were smelling! In those days it was Iwan Ries Three Star Blue and Balkan Sobrani.