Cultural Pipe Anthropology

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fred

Lifer
Mar 21, 2010
1,509
4
Today, at the B&M I was talking with the store manager about one of the

old time Pipe smokers that comes in every week and a half for 8oz of one

of the shop Aromatics. He smokes a Billiard, with a good part of the plateau

cut away on one side, sporting a bit that doesn't quite fit entirely into the

shank. I commented that he will never buy a Pipe cleaner and likely dries out

the dottle to burn later on. He's one of the guys that considers a Pipe little

more than a tool, to be repaired when needed. While we were laughing, she

started talking about her great grandfather, who when he burned a hold in the

bottom of his Pipe, would drive wooden matches into the holes. The last Pipe

she saw of his had easily a dozen of these repairs. As we laughed, I told her

about the old Pipe smokers I saw in my youth, who liked the Kaywoodie because

they could take it apart during the smoke and blow the juices out of the stinger

in the bit. The topic of hardwood dowel inserts came up in the conversation,

when she told me about her Uncle, who didn't have anything around to repair

the burnt out bottom of his Pipe. His inspiration was to drive a copper penny

into the reamed out chamber bottom. Things were going well until, while working

on his car, he grabbed the Pipe by the bowl and quickly got a burned image of

Abe Lincoln on his palm.
I feel that there are more stories in this Forum Membership about these old time

Pipe guys that would repair Pipes until there was no option but to get another

one, or simply bought a card of Cobs, to keep themselves supplied between

trips to town. If you've got a story, let us hear about it.

 

fred

Lifer
Mar 21, 2010
1,509
4
I've often wondered whether we are doing it right. Rotating pipes & tobaccos, regular cleaning & worrying whether our tobacco has dried enough. I'm sure that those old time pipe-smokers would laugh at us & our carrying on.

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,638
Chicago, IL
Could that have been during The Great Depression? Pipes may have been hard to come by for many folks -- and not just unaffordable. I remember my dad telling me how, as a young teenager, he carried sacks of coal for 10¢ a day. Enough to buy a pound of pork chops. Trouble was, you couldn't find pork chops anywhere.
The same may have been true for pipes ...and tobacco, for that matter.

 
Nov 14, 2009
1,194
2
Flowery Branch, GA
Lol, I used to hear stories from my grandfather about having to steal coal from the trains just to help heat the house when he was a boy. I have a feeling that during those times, pipes were a little unattainable amongst the masses and they were seen as tools and a simple enjoyment of luxury than how we see them today.

 

seakayak

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 21, 2010
531
0
My family is from Italy. That may have something to do with the fact some of my earliest childhood memories involve old men treating their pipes like works of art. La dolche vita.

 

jwp159

Can't Leave
Jan 1, 2010
365
2
My grandfather told me that he didn't really know what a briar pipe was until WWII. Around here everyone made thier own pipes out of hickory, smoked them until they burned out and made another. They all grew tobacco, so there was no shortage or great expenses. They couldn't afford much, but they had plenty to smoke and all ways had hickory drying because they used it for tool handles.

 

fred

Lifer
Mar 21, 2010
1,509
4
Yes jwp159, back then there was a lot of that Hillbilly Burley

grown for personal consumption and as a cash crop. Some of this

still goes on in families that have been growing small crops of

tobacco for years.

 
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