A Pipe Smoker to Remember...

[Searock Fan]

Title edited for caps. Please understand Rule 9. -jpm

Share your memories about a memorable pipe smoker from your past. I start off with....

Harry (not his real name) was a pipe smoker I met at a pipe shop back in the mid sixties. I was not yet 21 and he was about 30. We ran into each other occasionally at shops over the years. Then in the 90s when I opened my shop he started coming it regularly. The thing about Harry was that he was so cheap he would squeeze a penny till Lincoln cried. He would come into my shop, fill his pipe from the sample jars and pretend to try to light it. Oops, out of butane... every time. Then he would ask for a "squirt" and fill his lighter. Now he is smoking my tobacco and lighting it with my butane. I let it slide, even though he almost never bought anything.

Once he will filling his pipe from a sample jar I had just filled. He dropped it and the glass jar smashed on the floor in a million pieces. I remarked that that was going to cost me so he reluctantly peeled off $3 from his wallet to pay for the jar. I had to throw away about $50 worth of glass ridden tobacco. Of course, he never mentioned that.

The last straw was when several regulars were in the shop and everyone decided we would send someone out to bring back lunch for the group. Harry volunteered to go with another customer to get the food. When they got back we all paid up for our orders. Later the guy that Harry had gone with told me how Harry had lied to all of us about how much we owed so we all overpaid and Harry got his lunch free. That was the last straw. Harry was no longer welcome in my shop. Cheapness was one thing, but dishonesty I won't tolerate.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I recall Mr. Dunlap leaning against his 1940's car fender smoking a pipe. I always try to remember him when I see threads on coatings and such. He just smoked a coon hunted.

 

[cigrmaster]

I owned a pool hall for 20 years and we had card games for 19 of those 20. If you wanted to play cards, you paid the morning or evening flat rate. If you tried to weasel out of it, all the other guys would call you out and embarrass the shit out of you.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I'd recall a good man, the Dean of Students at my university. He was my inspiration and sometimes mentor in smoking a pipe. My fondest memory is a group of us leaving together and it was howling wind and rain outside. As he stepped out, he flipped his pipe upside down, first time I had seen that. He did it so naturally, automatically that I was amazed.

 

[augiebd]

Jim was my friend’s dad. He was a great guy, friendly, successful, nice house, vacation cottage, involved in the community and smoked a pipe. The smells of his tobaccos and pipe collection called to me. My friend and I did try his pipes one weekend but it never stuck because my friend was not really interested and I had no clue what I was doing. My curiosity did lead me to smoking pipe tobacco in roll your owns and eventually picking up the pipe decades later.