The Longest Living President....Smoked a Pipe

There are some great cabinet meeting pictures out there, and he had a team of pipe smokers. I'm sure they were just sucking up to the pipe smoker-in-chief.

I have given up on trying to post pictures for now, but here is a prime example, with a cigar or two mixed-in. If you look, there are pipe-o-plenty in hand, mouth, and on table.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/President_Gerald_Ford_meets_with_his_Cabinet_June_25_-_1975.jpg

The shortest lived President smoked a pipe too, though I think he smoked Cuban cigars more often.........

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/jfk-with-pipe-circa-1963

Jack, photobucket works great. Upload your picture, click on the URL provided for the image, and paste.
It took me less than a minute to paste this image from PhotoBucket.

Great info! And here is more:

...Gerald Ford smoked about 8 to 10 bowls a day historian tell us. His favorite pipes were American Kaywoodies. But what did he smoke.
From the research it appears that his favorite blend was the House Of Windsor Field and Stream. A wonderful aromatic of burley and black cavendish with a coating of vanilla and black licorice. With that in the pipe and that aroma you could probably understand the amount he smoked...

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http://www.pipes.org/what-they-smoked-gerald-ford/

jackswilling, if it was today, I would agree with you, ( they would just be sucking up) but in that day it was a smokers world. Most of them probably really smoked pipes. People took smoke breaks throughout the day on the job or just smoked at their desk. Pipe smokers were everywhere. Many men in that period might have smoked every form of tobacco. Statesmen pipe smokers were common as dirt. In today's environment I am sure that is quite an astounding picture, but to old timers it would not have elicited a second thought, at the time it was taken, I mean.
As I got out of my car at the store a couple of years ago I saw a guy crossing the parking lot smoking a pipe. I stopped dead in my tracks. The paradigm was how seldom I beheld such a sight in a that small town (40K people) today. Same place, 50 years ago, the store would have had 2 or 3 guys smoking a pipe in it at any busy point in the day. Football, basketball, baseball track you name it. Horrors even in the movie while it was showing. I'm not complaining about the shift away from "non-smokers have to be passive smokers". God knows they have the right not to have to participate.
I always tried to be a considerate smoker, but especially many cigarette smokers contributed to their own demise, literally. Butts were everywhere. People did and still do start terrific wildfires on Oklahoma right of ways, throwing lighted cigarettes out car windows on the interstate. Full car ashtrays were dumped wherever it was expedient, even in the middle of the street. :roll:
My point is, careless attitudes contributed to a loss of more rights than was necessary.( not an uncommon event with human beings) Even currently the pendulum swings heavily against us. Because of the rights on one side being neglected and the current belief system of political correctness, we are frequently now finding ourselves against an unfair wall.
I'll get off my box It had just dawned on me that a younger person might not truly relate to that world as it was. Even us "old guys" are forgetting.

"Pipe smokers were everywhere. Many men in that period might have smoked every form of tobacco. Statesmen pipe smokers were common as dirt."



I was born in the 50's so I "get it." I actually remember seeing the picture I linked at the time it was first published and I did notice the pipes and thought it was cool. I was joking about "I'm sure they were just sucking up to the pipe smoker-in-chief."

Most everyone smoked something when I was a kid.

Cool, jack. I was afraid it might come across like a scold. Was not meant to.

I really miss those days of easy smoking. But as you are more than aware, at your age, we have lost so many freedoms.

"...we have lost so many freedoms..."
Sad but true.

Gerald Ford was far more intelligent and gutsy than he was given credit for at the time. HIs pardoning of Nixon turned out to be far better for the country than it was for Nixon, although it looked pretty oily at the time.

There must be some link between longevity & pipe smoking (and potentially with intelligence... Not IQ.... Intelligence) .

Nothing worse than an "Educated Idiot" in my opinion ( We have all met them)...

Good lord. Henry Kissinger was even a creepy old man back then. Something's never change.
Cool pic though.

I do know that Ford stopped smoking a pipe sometime in his late 80s, but I don't think that his quitting shortened his life by much. I always loved seeing a picture of President Ford with his pipe. If I remember correctly, he was the last president to be shown smoking.

I notice that there is an ashtray in front of every seat at that oval table. A de rigeur place setting, no doubt.

....I always loved seeing a picture of President Ford with his pipe. If I remember correctly, he was the last president to be shown smoking.

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It was going along so good too.

There are times you root for someone to keep smoking cigs.

The shortest lived President smoked a pipe too

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Yes, and quite the irony there too...considering that Ford was a member of the Warren Commission. Certainly better odds at longevity when you don't cross the wrong people.