About a year ago...

Huh.... I bought my first Peterson, and many more after that, from a man named Melvin as well. I wonder if it was the same Melvin?

The one I know is Melvin Williams of Williams Tobacco Shop in Cleveland TN.
Anyway, Welcome Aboard!

Dan

Welcome aboard. Yup, pipe smoking can be highly evocative. Out on the porch in the fall,

at night with night noises, a little sniff of breeze.

Many blends remind me of my job in a tobacco shop back in the 80s, when I was introduced to a wide variety of blends. Others conjure up specific moments. I haven't had many transcendent moments when smoking a pipe, but I fondly recall a late spring afternoon several years ago: I was smoking an old tin of Dunhill's Durbar outside just as the sun was setting. It was a magical moment for me. And then, a year or two later, I was enjoying a bowl of SG's Brown Flake on the deck of a rental house overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. I was having my morning coffee, enjoying the Brown Flake, and watching pods of dolphins jumping in the sun-drenched surf. And then I'll never forget the March day in 2005 when I smoked my very first bowl of Penzance. . . and discovered the tobacco that remains my favorite blend of all time.
Bob

Sounds like you're a natural William.

My first pipe smoke was almost three years ago. It was early on a stiflingly hot late August morning. We had just finished setting up the first Tailgate at the first homegame for the Missouri Tigers (this was to be their last season in the Big12). By now, I had read several guides on bowl packing and lighting techniques and was anxious to put this new hobby to the test. In past years, I always started off Tailgate/Football seasons the same way; in a Parking Lot at Mizzou's Faurot Feild (commonly know as the Zou) with my friends, grilled meats, cold beer, and my favorite cigar...a Kristoff Criollo Matador. However, on this particular August morning, I would forsake my cigar for my newly purchased pipe. A simple bent billard. The tobacco, for my first smoke...Sutliff Privite Stock Molto Dolce. The rest as they say, is history.

I still remember my first pipe because it was a total surprise. I worked in a B&M in college and had a friend who I met through a cigar forum that I did a good deal of trading with at the time. One day we were chatting and he told me about his new fondness for pipes and asked if I had ever tried one? A few days later a package arrives in my mail box completely unexpected. Inside is a brand new Peterson 68 Flame Grain, a nice leather pipe bag, pipe tool, and a tin or Cornell & Diehl Cross Eyed Cricket. I was shocked at such a generous gift and couldn't wait to try it out.
After a quick course on packing and lighting, I remember thinking "Wow, this is different!" It was an enjoyable contrast to the Padrons, Fuentes, etc. that I was smoking daily. The pipe just had such a classic look and feel to it and I found smoking it to be such and enjoyable ritual. Looking back, the crossover English/Aro that is Cross Eyed Cricket may have not been the ideal choice for most new smokers but it was just the right flavor to get me hooked and I still enjoy that blend to this day. Just bought a new 8oz. tin of it last week!
I still have that Peterson and the pipe bag he gave me and I enjoy them just as much 14 or so years later as I did back then. I still can't get over the generosity of my friend who introduced me to this hobby and I make it a point to pay forward that kindness every chance I get and introduce someone new to pipe smoking.

Nice, msandoval858, thanks for sharing. I love my Peterson's flame grain, it is one of my favorite pipes and smokes like a dream. It is a straight billiard shape 106 and has a yellow stem with silver band. It actually looks exactly like a Rosslare, but is labeled a flame-grain.

Welcome aboard! Thunderstorms are always a good mix with pipes!