Back in the 1970's Texas A&M had a head football coach by the name of Emory Bellard. He was, in fact, the inventor of the famous wishbone formation back when he was an assistant coach under legendary Head Coach Darrell Royal at the University of Texas. In my former career as a television sports broadcaster, I would always attend the Southwest Conference Football press tour prior to the start of each season and interview players and coaches for each team in the league. Bellard was the head coach at Texas A&M during those years and he always came out for his interview with the media smoking a pipe.Would like to read that ??
I was in the local shop just this morning buying an el cheapo reamer. The owner told me about this old guy, long-time customer who started complaining about their blends and how they’ve changed them and this place ain’t what it used be, etc. Owner assured him they haven’t changed in a thing and asked him to bring his pipe in. He said the cake was so thick the guy was having to use toothpicks to stuff the tobacco down in it. He was a one pipe guy, and basically never cleaned his stuff. After it was cleaned up, the guy was happy again with the blends he’d been smoking for 40 years.No, can't say I have. I 've seen some old timers come in to the local shop and you could tell they only had one pipe. They wanted to get the owner to drill the carbon cake out so they could get tobacco in the pipe.
Thanks Steve! I knew I wouldn’t have gotten any of the details and killed the punch line!Back in the 1970's Texas A&M had a head football coach by the name of Emory Bellard. He was, in fact, the inventor of the famous wishbone formation back when he was an assistant coach under legendary Head Coach Darrell Royal at the University of Texas. In my former career as a television sports broadcaster, I would always attend the Southwest Conference Football press tour prior to the start of each season and interview players and coaches for each team in the league. Bellard was the head coach at Texas A&M during those years and he always came out for his interview with the media smoking a pipe.
Fast forward to 2010 when Bellard was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame (I was CEO of the museum at that time). Prior to the ceremony I asked Bellard if he still smoked his pipes. He said that he actually only smoked one pipe and quit smoking it back in the mid 1990's. He said that he had a GBD pipe that he loved and smoked at least 10-15 bowls out of every day for 19-years, and smoked Sir Walter Raleigh exclusively. He said that for some reason, the pipe quit tasting good to him, so he threw it in a trash can and never smoked again. I was thinking to myself as he told the story that if I ran 10-15 bowls a day of Sir Walter Raleigh for 19-years through even a Bo Nordh pipe, I'd probably quit, too!
I have a Savinelli I’ve dedicated to just aromatics. But after Lakelands, Cult Blood Red Moon, Vanillas, etc., literally everything tastes the same in it. Makes me sad. Mainly bc I spent a grip on that pipe.I use corn pipes for a few aromatics that I smoke. For example I use MM General pipes, for Condor, Amphora Full, St. Bruno, one aromatics for each pipe. Mixing everything in one pipe, I would make a salad of aromas, and I think I would be very angry.
So, he only smoked a Grabow with a crack in it and we're the ones who are crazy!!!If I remember correctly I think it was @didimauw once posted a story with pics of a guy he met in the wild who was a genuine codger with only I pipe that had a big crack in it...a Grabow I believe it was.
I remember the look on his face in the pic gave the impression he would consider all of us to be batshit crazy.
Who is this? And any more pics?View attachment 143893
This gentleman started out with just one pipe, but as you can see, things got out of control.
Can't take the credit, but I reposted that story. I'll have to find that thread! It was an opera pipe I believe.If I remember correctly I think it was @didimauw once posted a story with pics of a guy he met in the wild who was a genuine codger with only I pipe that had a big crack in it...a Grabow I believe it was.
I remember the look on his face in the pic gave the impression he would consider all of us to be batshit crazy.
Can't take the credit, but I reposted that story. I'll have to find that thread! It was an opera pipe I believe.
I was lucky, my father in law gave me some of his pipes, he gave up the pipe after getting cancer, so he wasn’t using them anymore but he really perked up when I showed interest in his pipes and after some time he was buying tobacco again and we smoked together on many occasions (his cancer wasn’t related to his smoking, he was free and clear of it for years by this time). He gave me 5 or 6 pipes from his collection, I smoked those for about 6 months before I started buying my own, I just wanted to be sure I was going to stick with it before spending $80 on a pipe, which seemed ridiculously high priced at the time, haha. I knew I was going to stick with it the moment I lit up a Latakia blend. I don’t consider myself a pipe collector, I’m way more interested in tobacco, that being said, I started with 6, I now I have over 100 pipes and that is just too many for me. Eventually, I plan to whittle them down to just 40 pipes that I absolutely love.I think everyone started out with one pipe at some time.
I understand, my friend. And it's frustrating, having a rich variety of tobaccos, to end up in a pipe that is going to offer you a horrible smell, due to the amount of stewed and re-burned oils.I have a Savinelli I’ve dedicated to just aromatics. But after Lakelands, Cult Blood Red Moon, Vanillas, etc., literally everything tastes the same in it. Makes me sad. Mainly bc I spent a grip on that pipe.
That's why it's best to have a pipe for each genre of aromatic.I have a Savinelli I’ve dedicated to just aromatics. But after Lakelands, Cult Blood Red Moon, Vanillas, etc., literally everything tastes the same in it. Makes me sad. Mainly bc I spent a grip on that pipe.
Or this...I’m going to test this theory one day by selecting three separate but complimentary blends in three completely different size, shape, style and brands of pipes - I might even go crazy and further differentiate by smooth, blast and rusticated, British, Danish and Italian, bent, straight and churchwarden, briar, meerschaum and cob (or maybe clay?), and choose a VaPer, English and an aromatic, and sit there rotating from one to the next until all three are smoked, my brain and palate are smoked, or the piping police come to arrest me and cart me away to some gulag for unspeakable crimes against tobacco.
Hmmm, this has serious potential. ?
Please advise.