At what age did you pick up a pipe?

[jerwynn]

1980ish... I was in my mid-20s... then stopped. Maybe another pipe-seizure in my mid-30s which also didn't last more than a couple weeks. Then about 5 years ago, when I was about 55, I picked up one in response to my then college-student son who got one to look more professorish/OxfordDonish sort of thing. And the heaven's opened, beatific visions occurred, and I never stopped or looked back... PLUS, now my son and I are smoking buddies and I couldnt have asked for or expected anything better! (My dad, uncles, grandfather all were pipe men in various seasons of their lives. It's nice to feel the connection to them as well.)

 

[smeigs]

24 for me.

 

[perdurabo]

Well let's see, I was 34. But if you count the fact that Cracker Barrel used to sale Corn Cob pipes in their little shop as a kids toy, it was age 5. That's should give the FDA goons a heart attack

 

[peckinpahhombre]

First tried a pipe at age 31 but didn't have the patience for it. I returned to the fold at 43.

 

[mso489]

I'm guess about 33 or 34. In college I didn't want to look like I was imitating professors. In the Navy it was nails or nothing, so I only smoked an occasional cigar in port. Grad school I was on GI Bill, so didn't smoke.
I still have the pipe.

 

[framitz]

I thought we did this before. Started in high school age 16 now age77 and still puffing. Shel

 

[markus]

I started smoking a pipe about 2 years ago, I was 45. I had always dipped snuff and chewing tobacco while in the Army and decided to quit after I retired from that. I still found myself looking for that tobacco fix, so I turned to the pipe. I wish I had quit the snuff and started the pipe sooner. I was a always curious about the pipe, my grand father smoked a pipe and I have fond memories of the smell of it. It gives me a nostalgic connection to him I suppose. I love the various pipes, tobacco's, rituals and so on.

 

[Chasing Embers]

At 17, and that was 25 years ago.

 

[ravkesef]

Age 17, and I'm 74 now.

 

[stephenw]

I picked up the pipe on September 17, 1970 at the ripe old age of 18.

 

[davidintexas]

3 years ago at 55

 

[username]

20 if I remember correctly might have been 21.

 

[iamn8]

So Stephen, what's with the exact date?

 

[tinsel]

about 24-25 when I bought my first pipe and was an occasional smoker until last year (age 29) when I kicked coffin nails and became a full-time pipe smoker.

 

[pipesofsteele]

Tried it a few days after my 18th birthday. Found out my father owned 5 pipes ::

 

[pipedreamin]

19, almost 30 years ago. I recall trying to cure cornsilk in a plastic tub on my windowsill at about 11 with the intent but no means of smoking it. Can only imagine I got that idea from Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer but not sure.
Still have the stem from my first pipe, a MM. It's recycled onto a newer MM but the button has been chewed then filed off. Don't know where the remainder got to.

 

[stephenw]

So Stephen, what's with the exact date?

I just remember dates for some reason. That first bowl made such an impression on me I knew that I was going to be sticking with the pipe for a long time. To get even more granular... it was a Thursday and I lit the first bowl at 7:15 in the evening in my dorm room. Other dates that stick in my mind... the date I met my wife (April 14, 1972... it was a Friday) my wedding date (May 10, 1974, also a Friday)

 

[tbradsim1]

At 19, around a campfire passing pipe around among the Hmong people, kinda unsanitary but when in the Jungle what isn't. ::

 

[gambit88]

I want to say I was 24. First few years it was pretty much a way to smoke at reenactments. I'm 27 now and it wasn't until last year that I really dove into it.

 

[newbroom]

My introduction to tobacco was typical of many. A pilfered cigarette from an 'unwitting' parent that my neighbor and I shared by the RR tracks behind the hill. That was well over 50 years ago.

My relationship with the leaf persisted intermittently till High School when I realized I was probably addicted.

Since then, I've smoked cigarettes,(some cigars and a few bowls)for years and quit for years several times.

2 years ago, another try at pipe smoking and Eureka! I think I can live with this.