Where/when a pipe?

[aquilas]

Great story of your beginnings to present, 12pups! And to everyone else! It's really interesting to hear everyone's pipe beginnings.
Mine isn't as interesting, but I'll tell it anyways. Growing up in the Philippines, watching American TV shows/movies was a great luxury. I was always fascinated by the characters who smoked cigars or pipes, for example, Popeye and his pipe, and I always thought it was the coolest. No one in my family smoked pipes, only cigarettes and I never liked the thought of cigarettes, but I did fancy the thought of smoking pipes and cigars. So I can't relate to that "smell of grandfather's/dad's pipe," but after moving to California and hearing that, just as many of you have stated, has always interested me and made me wish I could have experienced that. When I started working where I work now, there is a man who would smoke his pipe on his every break and lunch. It was then my interest in pipe smoking really piqued and it was what I imagined what many referred to as that "smell of grandfather's/dad's pipe." Every time I saw him, it just made me want to jump into pipe smoking. I always wanted to be that dad or grandfather that smoked a pipe and handed down his pipes to his future generations, so I just jumped into it after realizing that cigars aren't really for me. I picked up a cob and some Capt Black White at a local walgreens and the rest is history.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Now... after that LONGGGGGG introduction, here's my question to you: Why did YOU first start smoking a pipe? What lured you to this gentlemanly and honorable hobby?

It's been on my to-do list for years. My genetics are half UK and half Scandinavian, and while I don't have any immediate family who use one, I can be pretty sure there's a lot of pipe smokers going down the family tree.

I'd give my reasoning a 50/50 split between tradition and plain old curiosity.

 

[brudnod]

My grandfather was the district attorney of Cuyahoga County, OH. He was a very steady pipe smoker (but he inhaled). My father also smoked pipes but was swayed by the muse of cigarettes. Both died of cardiovascular disease. That being said, I do not inhale and have not had heart problems well into my seventh decade. I have some but not all of the pipes that they smoked, one Dunhill but mostly routine pipes. I started smoking pipes in 1969 and have done OK with the practice since. Not very romantic a start but it does run in the family.

 

[foggymountain]

Well, since you asked. I started smoking cigarillos at age 12. When I was 14 I found a junky pipe and dried tobacco abandoned by my father and appropriated them. By age 15 I had my first good pipes, paid for by working a paper route. There were a few Wilkes and a few Stanwells. I got my first Dunhill when I was 16 or 17. Discovered Balkan Sobranie at about that time. This was in the mid 1950s.

 

[murf]

I spent a summer session study abroad in Russia, and my host father smoked a pipe. He sent a pipe (Lorenzetti) home with me as a gift to my dad, along with some MacBaren silver cube. I smoked cigarettes almost daily when I was there (cheap), but not really over here. My dad gave me one of his father's pipes for me to have. Smoked some old Borkum Riff bourbon and scorched my tongue.
I went back to Russia the next fall for a full semester and smoked with my russian dad on occasion. I smoked about every day: smoked too hot, only ever tamped with my finger, scorched my tongue a few times, inhaled alot. My russian dad inhaled too, I think.
I came back and smoked some bday tobacco from my russian dad (WO Larsen 2010) on occasion. Really got into it a full year after being back home from Russia. Got a few more pipes, picked up some blends from P&C, and haven't looked back since.
I have the members here to thank for helping to refine my technique and increase my enjoyment of it. Pipe smoking started out as something to do, but then turned into a hobby. With the weather warming up, I've been smoking a little more.
So, I guess I started smoking a pipe in Russia back in fall 2010, and re-discovered it spring 2012. I smoke the occasional cigar, but it always reminds me that I am truly a pipe smoker. Although I do enjoy a cigar once in awhile. I'm looking forward to many more years with my pipes

 

[youngpipesmoker]

I started smoking a pipe when I was eighteen (being nineteen now), mainly because that's when I could actually buy one with some tobacco to smoke. As to why I started smoking, it's a combination of things. Firstly, I am an avid Lord of the Rings fan, not so big that I can name of places on their map or speak elvish, but I do enjoy it greatly. One thing they happen to have a great deal of in Lord of the Rings is smoking pipe and that is probably when my interest was piqued. I also liked the professor like quality to them and one day while surfing through YouTube I came across a how to smoke a pipe video series and the next day my grandfather(who I live with) bought me a pipe with a pouch of Captain Black Gold. While CBG is an OK tobacco I later advanced into a better quality tobacco, though that comes later. While in the beginnings of my pipe smoking journey I happened to set upon a venture into London and it was there where I had the time to smoke my pipe more often and in a more leisurely location in a secluded area of a garden. A good friend of mine who had been smoking pipes longer than I have been alive introduced me into a rather splendid aromatic that I later learned was called Black Gold. So throughout the time from then to now I have grown my own pipe a tobacco collection to a rather comfortable selection. I have also had the good grace to inherit my friends pipes due to the fact that he could no longer smoke, and I am still sincerely grateful for his gift. And this is the conclusion to my story.

 

[saltedplug]

I've smoked cigarettes on and off over the course of my life, but as they are so very damaging, I prefer not to smoke. I've been clean since 09/01/2013 though in the past I've amassed even more clean time several times before. What's kept me away from them since then is knowing that if I smoke even one cigarette, I'll smoke thousands more before I quit again.
The pipe came into my life quite unexpectedly in late 2001 and has a firm place in my life.
I smoked cigars in my early 20s and then not again until 2010, at which point I smoked them exclusively for two years, quitting due to their expense and starting again slowly last fall.
My father smoked cigarettes for 30 years.

 

[deithial]

Great stories gents, and thank you and a big welcome 12pups.
When I was little we would visit my grandparents house, my grandfather had been a piper but had very recently given up the hobby. My grandmother smoked cigarettes til her last day as did my father. My grandpa still had his pipes in a 6 pipe holder sittingin the front room. I used to sit and stair at them for hours, I was very fascinated by the different shapes and colors.

My father got me started on cigs when I was young "a man has a smoke and a beer!" during my visits xmas and summer visits (divorced parents). He was a veteran of vietnam, and in small town america all the older men (vets) went to the VFW, to drink & smoke and tell old stories. I do miss hearing the old stories but that's another tale.

The real bug for pipe smoking hit when I was in highschool (early 90's) a girl I dated throughout highschool had a father that would chain smoke a pipe. Always filled with Smokers Pride Vanilla. at about 17 I finally bought my first pipe, a Grabow, and a pouch of Capt Black. I enjoyed it from time to time but it never "really" took. Always just an occasional thing, cigs where still a daily habit. In the army I complely gave up on the pipe, but came back to it on an occasional basis after my divorce as a means to relax.

In 2011 it became a daily habit, that was the year that we moved my grandpa into a hospice, he was a proud Korean war veteran (Go 25th!) emptying and cleaning up the old house getting things ready for the upcoming auction. I was sitting in the great mans bedroom with my mother and step father. My grandpa grabbed his pipes and old pipe rack and said "would you like these?" it was the greatest gift, the same ones I had stared at as a boy. I gratefully accepted, less than a year later he passed. I took his passing hard, during his funeral service they played a slideshow and one of them was him sitting at his desk when he was stationed in Vietnam holding one of the pipes that he gifted to me. I have since found out that all of his pipes where gifts to him from my grandmother. Another proud thankful owner and pipe smoker carries on the tradition, I hope to give them to one of my kids down the road. I do not buy pipes, all of my others are gifts from my spouse (usually xmas). Every pipe has a story.

 

[voorhees]

I smoked my first cigar at 15 years old(never smoked nails), a Tampa Nugget. And continued to smoke them on and off until 2 years ago when I picked up a mid 50's Kaywoodie for cigar nub smoking. That did not work well, but my interest in pipes grew from that. Now I rarely smoke cigars and smoke pipes 4-5 times a week.

 

[plateauguy]

Technically, I started "loving" a pipe when I was 4 and sat on my Irish Grampa's knee while he smoked his. The pipe was humble and the tobacco was George Washington. It was my "job" to open the new tin. I can still remember how good it smelled.
When I was 18 I bought my first pipe from Tinderbox - A Comoy Guildhall. I still have it and smoke it on special occasions. I've now been smoking over 44 years. I'm not a pipe a day guy, just too busy and when I finally sit down, I'm too tired. When I do have a pipe, it's special and ultra relaxing. When I retire in 2 years, there will be more time to enjoy life and relax. I've bought several pipes this year looking ahead to that time.
I'm fortunate, my wife doesn't care how much I spend on pipes and tobacco and enjoys the pipe aroma. I smoke aros, so not sure how she'd feel about Mixture 79.
My middle brother (no longer with us, I'm sad to say) started smoking a corn cob pipe at 12. He'd buy several at the Puyallup Fair, have a few smokes, my dad would find them and throw them away. It was the same every year. Since he was a kid, he didn't figure out that dad was looking for them at fair time.
I love a pipe, or is it the memories? Either way, a pipe is special to me.

 

[brdavidson]

My Grandfather was Mr. Rogers to me. When I was a young child we would stay up there during the Christmas holidays in Montreal. He would come home from work, take off the fedora and over coat, take off his tie and put on his slippers and cardigan. Grandma would have dinner ready and we'd all sit down together. After dinner we were not allowed to bother Grandpa for a half hour so he could light his pipe and read the paper. When the half hour was up we would go into the den and he would start playing the organ while he puffed away on his pipe. It was magical.
Last year I started smoking a pipe myself and found out that he smoked Edgeworth Ready Rubbed. I found the match and when I lit up the first bowl I was instantly transported back over 30 years ago to my visits to Grandpa in Montreal.
Brian

 

[psychpipes]

Really interesting story 12pups. I can totally sympathize with the anti smoking sentiment in school. I am a school psychologist. I even, as part of my job, counsel students about the dangers of drugs (including smoking). I don't find myself to be a hypocrite though as I simply discuss the dangers of smoking i.e. the known health risks. I am also a rule follower by nature, and express concerns about underage smoking.
Back to your question though: I started smoking because of my father. He, like you, was a cigarette smoker who quit once he had his first kid (my sister). Once his three kids hit the teenage years, he was making excellent money as a service manager at a prestigious dealership. At this point, he too, got into cigars. A few years later, he lost his job. He held many random jobs and is now a corrections officer. For him, pipe smoking was a cheaper way to engage in smoking. He is not a PAD or TAD guy. He has bought 3 pipes in 10 years, and smokes HGL or Dunhill EMP. He only buys tobacco when he is out of what he has.
As for me, Dad and I are very similar, but different. He is a hands-on, blue collar, man's man. He is not a talker, and he doesn't express himself to anyone but my mother. I would ask him, as a child, to teach me about car mechanics and the like. He always responded with, "Don't worry about that crap. I'm making sure that you kids have a great education so that, when your car breaks down, you will have enough money to pay someone to do it for you." His own ideology.
We had a hard time connecting, but I've always known he loves me and is proud of me. (The latter he's actually said.) The awkward silences between us disappeared when I started taking an interest in pipes. Suddenly we had more in common. We talked about what we liked and didn't like, puffing away. It even led to friendly phone calls, and discussions about life, marriage, money, etc.
While this is all the bonus that helps in part to maintain the habit, I smoke a pipe for my health. A pipe gets me to slow down. It takes me away from technology and stress, and let's me relax.

 

[judcole]

I never smoked cigs. Started a pipe in college because that was, in my eyes, part of being a "college man". (1968) Switched to cigars in the late 1980s, then came back to the pipe about 10 years ago. I am now probably 98% pipe to 2% cigars. Never have done cigs.

 

[instymp]

Great Grandpa stories, reminded me of mine. He was a pipe smoker as well as my favorite Uncle. & I am 66.25 years old.

 

[12pups]

I could not have imagined beforehand how wonderful this thread would become.
I think these stories should be saved from here. Don't know what to do with them. Just don't want to lose them!
(But don't let me interrupt too long. Others have stories to tell yet.)
Pups

 

[drew]

Well, I grew up in Wisconsin and they have tobacco/gas stations on the Native American reservations and I bought a Grabow when i was 21, it was a teribble experience due to my incompetence, lol. I filled it with cig tobacco and lit it wtih a crack pipe, the clear plastic ones, I don't smoke crack... Eventually the lighter blew up in my hand and i fell backward in my chair. I put it up and just smoked cigs up until about 4 months ago, I'm 28 now. Me and my gf resorted to buying the bulk pipe tobacco, which isn't really that bad, and i was "Well, why am i smoking pipe tobacco out of a cigarette tube?" So we went to a head/knife/tobacco store here in SF Cali. and i got a basket pipe, I'm not even sure if it's briar, no markings, square shape and it's oddly soft, but smokes good... I smoked said mystery pipe and bulk, with some Cap'n Black until my birthday on the 9th of this month. My parents got me a Bent Lorenzo Spitfire and my gf got me a straight Chacom Punch, and they both got me various not bulk tobacco, two blends were house at a place called Bosses in Green Bay WI, and my gf ordered me HH Black House, which I love and she says it stinks lol. But, now i suffer from PAD which i can't afford, and I'm lost forever. Oh i quit cigs shortly after the basket pipe. My uncle planted the seed too, he still smokes a pipe and it was the only tobacco product that ever smelled good to me, never really got into cigars...