Revelations on Classic Pipes From Versailles to the Yalu River

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Drucquers Banner

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
5,645
15,922
Humansville Missouri
After a milk run to the local courthouse I stopped by Chuck’s Barber Shop to visit and get my hair cut, which led to me having a revelation about pipes from the Classic Era, which began with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and began to end when MacAuthur drove towards the Yalu River in late 1950 in North Korea and utter catastrophe.



Chuck is the oldest barber in town and the subject yesterday morning was moments that all Americans were only Americans and me and Chuck and an 88 year old man could all remember the Twin Towers, and we told our stories of just where we were when we heard it.

And me and the old man could remember exactly where we were on November 22, 1963 when Kennedy was shot in Dallas.

But when I asked the old man if he remembered Pearl Harbor he said no, he was only four, but he had two older brothers in the war. What he remembered was Christmas 1950 when his mother cried all day afraid he’d have to go to Korea, and he bowed his head and was quiet.

Chuck and I were quiet too, until Ray Price came over the satellite radio and all three of us started playing air guitars and imaginary fiddles and singing along and holding up fingers and counting to three to “Heartaches” with Ray and his Cherokee Cowboys.:)


And this morning as I was checking eBay to see if my $20 Marxman Jumbo was on it’s way to me I had a revelation when I heard

That’s the Way it Was in 51.



There is no way in hell Kaywoodie would have went to varnished Supergrain three hole stingers and Bob and Helen Marx would have sold $5 Jumbos like the one I’m waiting on before the entire nation of the United States of America knew, we were not always invincible.

IMG_8716.jpegIMG_8718.jpegIMG_8719.jpegIMG_8722.jpeg



A classic era USA made pipe was shipped after victory in 1919 and before stalemate in 1951.

There might be a few exceptions.

Merle Haggard had a Chuck’s Barber Shop grade classic era nostril nosed twanger one name hit in 1978 with “51”.:)
 
Last edited:

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
5,645
15,922
Humansville Missouri
That pipe looks like it was in the Korean War.

On January 26, 1951 Congress passed a price freeze upon request of President Truman.


Kaywoodie, Marxman, Lee, Weber, and Mastercraft could no longer raise prices.

Meanwhile Lefty launched the classic twang era with

I Love You a Thousand Ways (1951 version)



What is most significant about Lefty and his guitar is every little hillbilly boy who dreamed of pretty girls in his shiny big Cadillac only had to learn to imitate Lefty’s twang.

Me and Chuck and that old man and Ray Price over the satellite radio were all Lefty twang imitators.

Ray was the best, but we were helping him.:)

And if classic era pipes, were classic era twangers, then the WDC Milano would be “A Thousand Ways 51 version”.:)

(When we hillbilly twangers are performing before a crowd we call out the songs or take requests like that.)

But if somebody just requests I Love You a Thousand Ways, then the only version we sing is the 1959 version.

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: greeneyes

cosmicfolklore

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 9, 2013
36,005
86,153
Between the Heart of Alabama and Hot Springs NC
Price freeze... with all of the things that my grandparents sacrificed during the war, people pulling together as a team, neighbors helping neighbors... In seeing how people reacted to just being asked to wear a mask during a pandemic... it's pretty obvious that if we had to come together to defeat some great enemy again, we wouldn't be able to do that again.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
5,645
15,922
Humansville Missouri
Price freeze... with all of the things that my grandparents sacrificed during the war, people pulling together as a team, neighbors helping neighbors... In seeing how people reacted to just being asked to wear a mask during a pandemic... it's pretty obvious that if we had to come together to defeat some great enemy again, we wouldn't be able to do that again.

Harry Truman and Congress jacked the WW2 taxes right back up again in January 1951, as well as a nationwide price freeze,,,,,

Not on everything, though ——

Yesterday at Chuck’s Barber Shop, once again, I heard an 88 year old man who turned 14 in 1951 tell how you could buy a brand new truck with the cattle it would haul or tow to the sale barn, and an acre of good land was worth a good feeder calf.

Farm prices and farm products were exempt from price freezes.

Sing “Buck Was Still Silver 81”!


Guess how high livestock and farm prices will end up the next recession?

And yesterday Chuck and me and the old man counted all the customers of Chuck that used to sit in his chair that died of Covid. Our county lost 38 boys in WW2 and 76 souls to Covid.

Chuck laughed how when I got my hair cut he’d lock both doors.:)

Sing “Nowhere 2020”

 
Last edited: