Actively reading the forum over the last few days put me in a nostalgic mood. While ruminating about those thrilling days of yore, I realized I was smoking the first "real" pipe I ever bought and brought a question to mind.
A little backgound. I first picked up a pipe as a sophomore in college; a Medico black bent billiard. Despite being tortured with a steady diet of Borkum Riff cherry, it performed admirably. Before the year was out, I had another Medico and a Dr. Grabow and I fancied myself an authentic piper.
Those were my only pipes for almost a decade, as I came and went with pipe smoking. It was in the mid-1990s that I returned to piping for good. I had fallen in with a group of older pipe smokers at work and they took me in hand and gently but firmly guided me away from the false path of cigarettes into the inner circle of pipe smoking knowledge. After setting me on the path to better and more varied tobacco, they suggested I consider expanding my pipe collection. I took their advice and over three months in the spring of 1994 bought three Aldo Velani pipes. I still have them and after innumerable bowls and a few nicks and dings, they are still great smokers and in my regular rotation.
So, my question is, who remembers the first "real" pipe they bought, what was it, do you still have it, and, if you have it, do you still smoke it? You know the pipe I am talking about: that pipe that let the world know you were a confirmed piper.
Cheers,
Chili
A little backgound. I first picked up a pipe as a sophomore in college; a Medico black bent billiard. Despite being tortured with a steady diet of Borkum Riff cherry, it performed admirably. Before the year was out, I had another Medico and a Dr. Grabow and I fancied myself an authentic piper.
Those were my only pipes for almost a decade, as I came and went with pipe smoking. It was in the mid-1990s that I returned to piping for good. I had fallen in with a group of older pipe smokers at work and they took me in hand and gently but firmly guided me away from the false path of cigarettes into the inner circle of pipe smoking knowledge. After setting me on the path to better and more varied tobacco, they suggested I consider expanding my pipe collection. I took their advice and over three months in the spring of 1994 bought three Aldo Velani pipes. I still have them and after innumerable bowls and a few nicks and dings, they are still great smokers and in my regular rotation.
So, my question is, who remembers the first "real" pipe they bought, what was it, do you still have it, and, if you have it, do you still smoke it? You know the pipe I am talking about: that pipe that let the world know you were a confirmed piper.
Cheers,
Chili
