Age

[BCF]

Pretty much in the same boat, though I’m just doing it now because I’m very much addicted. I stuck with dipping when I quit smoking cigarettes, then, when I started pipe smoking, my goal was to give up the dip but now I just do both regularly with the intent to quit dipping someday so I can enjoy the pipe for the rest of my years, it’s just too expensive and ya can’t cellar dip. My love affair with lady nicotine started at the age of 12. I remember the very first signs of addiction, my brother and I walked across the golf course to pick up a can of dip from the store that usually sold to us but the person that day carded us. I actually shed some tears that night because I couldn’t have my dip while watching Aladin. Haha!

I understand! It's just completely automatic, firing in a chew.

 

[Briar Lee]

How old were you when you started smoking a pipe?
I was 14 but did not seriously start smoking a pipe until 16 to the amazement and mocking of my peers! Lol

14

 

[bullet08]

Asking bunch of smokers when they started smoking. There bound to be early starters. No surprise there. To those hobbyists who smoke for hobby, I think that's still called smoking. Or do you go around saying "I'm practicing my hobby"?

 

[Home Brewing Piper]

48 when I started. 50 now and going on 51.

 

[tklee]

I've been smoking cigarette since 18 until now. Started smoking pipe end of 2021, December, which I was.... 42.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

I started smoking cigars occasionally when I was 21, and would have a few during the summer while sitting around the fire pit. I started smoking cigars regularly when I was 33, and pipes when I was 34.

 

[Wet Dottle]

I was an 18 year-old college freshman. Still going strong at 60.

 

[DesertDan]

15, I am 59 now.

I did have a few dalliances with cigarettes and there was about 20 years during which I smoked cigars more than my pipes. I still enjoy a nice cigar occasionally, but I've been back to smoking pipes for a long time now.

As a young man I did not suffer much ridicule mostly because I was a musician, and my social circle was mostly other musicians, authors and artists. I was also an RPG and wargamer and spent 20 years heavily involved with medieval recreation, so pipe smoking was not considered odd even for a young person.

 

[tobakenist]

10, now 67 but with a 5 year gap.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

 

[PipeWI]

Just found this thread!
Never smoked a cigarette in my life, but smoked my first cigar at 11, and first pipe at 22.

 

[El Capitán]

Pipe at 32 but cigars since 7.

 

[RudyG]

In the 60s I started to enjoy the Tolkien books and thought I should smoke a pipe like his characters in the books.

I was 14 and BS white was my first smoke. Good way to begin I guess

 

[didimauw]

Weed 14, cigs 16, pipe 23. Cig free for 4 months, but I filled that gap with dip and the occasional nasal snuff.

 

[PipeWI]

Pipe at 32 but cigars since 7.

You got me beat!

 

[PaulRVA]

First pipe smoked age 12 smoked occasionally age 17 full time 23 off an on again 30- 48 full time again
49.

 

[huntertrw]

Age 16, as recounted here in the Forums in a post dated September 6, 2014:

"I smoked my first pipe of tobacco on the night of Saturday October 27, 1973. The pipe itself was a Dr. Grabow bulldog which I purchased under false pretense (I claimed that it was to be a birthday gift for an Uncle, for otherwise I do not believe that the owner would have sold it to me) from a local combination bookstore and office supply shop where I was not known. The tobacco was a pouch of Irish Meade which I purchased from the drug store where I was known, and again under false pretense, this time at the request of a 'visiting Uncle from out of state.'

"After supper I waited until it got dark, and then excused myself to take a walk. The question was, where could I go to sample these new wonders without drawing undue attention? I'm not certain why, but I ended up on the athletic field of the local junior high school. As I gazed around me I felt somewhat conspicuous, the darkness not withstanding, and so (and to this day I am not certain what possessed me to do it) I climbed one of the goal posts and sat on the crossbar with my right arm around one of the uprights. Fishing pipe and pouch from the pockets of my denim jacket I loaded by feel, and then lit-up using a kitchen match, just like I had seen my Grandfather do on occasion.

"Sitting atop my perch I felt something akin to what the owl must feel as it surveys the night. Cars hissed by on the streets to the south and west, their headlights chasing the corners, tail-lights dimming with distance. A couple nearly a block away walking their dog could clearly be heard chatting as they passed - isn't it funny how some sounds seem louder in the dark? The stars and planets shone bright in the clear cold sky over my head. And I changed.

"In the time that it took to smoke that first bowl I discovered what I had so hoped for. The enticing aroma as I opened that pouch. The sweet fullness of the smoke as I rolled it in my mouth, the live warmth of the bowl in my hand. A feeling of utter contentment embraced me, and I was sorry to have to eventually climb down and start the trek homeward. As I walked alone in the dark I reached for and felt the comforting bulk of pipe, pouch, and matches in my jacket pockets, and my spirits lifted."

 

[VA_Red]

Been noticing odd sounds when on the phone lately.
Bowls per day, age ..... I'm nervous about folks collecting demographics!

'click'

 

[PipeWI]

Age 16, as recounted here in the Forums in a post dated September 6, 2014:

"I smoked my first pipe of tobacco on the night of Saturday October 27, 1973. The pipe itself was a Dr. Grabow bulldog which I purchased under false pretense (I claimed that it was to be a birthday gift for an Uncle, for otherwise I do not believe that the owner would have sold it to me) from a local combination bookstore and office supply shop where I was not known. The tobacco was a pouch of Irish Meade which I purchased from the drug store where I was known, and again under false pretense, this time at the request of a 'visiting Uncle from out of state.'

"After supper I waited until it got dark, and then excused myself to take a walk. The question was, where could I go to sample these new wonders without drawing undue attention? I'm not certain why, but I ended up on the athletic field of the local junior high school. As I gazed around me I felt somewhat conspicuous, the darkness not withstanding, and so (and to this day I am not certain what possessed me to do it) I climbed one of the goal posts and sat on the crossbar with my right arm around one of the uprights. Fishing pipe and pouch from the pockets of my denim jacket I loaded by feel, and then lit-up using a kitchen match, just like I had seen my Grandfather do on occasion.

"Sitting atop my perch I felt something akin to what the owl must feel as it surveys the night. Cars hissed by on the streets to the south and west, their headlights chasing the corners, tail-lights dimming with distance. A couple nearly a block away walking their dog could clearly be heard chatting as they passed - isn't it funny how some sounds seem louder in the dark? The stars and planets shown bright in the clear cold sky over my head. And I changed.

"In the time that it took to smoke that first bowl I discovered what I had so hoped for. The enticing aroma as I opened that pouch. The sweet fullness of the smoke as I rolled it in my mouth, the live warmth of the bowl in my hand. A feeling of utter contentment embraced me, and I was sorry to have to eventually climb down and start the trek homeward. As I walked alone in the dark I reached for and felt the comforting bulk of pipe, pouch, and matches in my jacket pockets, and my spirits lifted."

Coming up on your 50th anniversary! Congratulations!

 

[HRPufnstuf]

1988.