Beware the stereotyping

[bobby46]

For 42 years, my wife and I attended outdoor events such as flea markets, fairs, garage sales,
etc; Being of average looks and attire, I was essentially invisible. Last year enter the pipe. I
may as well have draped blinking Christmas lights around me, for all the attention that stirred
up. Some comments are expected, like when my oom poul had a fellow address me as "holmes" and
asked if I had "solved the case". My homemade bent tomahawk had a child ask me if I was
lord-of-the-rings, and my nephew said I looked like a "stoner from woodstock". I made a danish
style tulip-shaped freehand whose dark bulbous crown was intentionally left craggy. A stranger
told me to "give that pipe a rest" followed by "you've burnt out the entire top".
Preferring invisibility, I shifted to my simple yello-bole as my public-pipe which gets no
commentary whatsoever. However, I still get remarks on the tobacco aroma. Loaded with either
Granger or Carter Hall, the comments are always positive. On no less than four occasions I was
followed-around by senior-age females......sniffing me. Every time: "you remind me of my
grandfather". Surely, they are recounting childhood memories......or do I look really, really
old?
What odd reactions to pipe have you gotten?

 

[wildcat]

Great story and welcome!
I get a lot of stares smoking in my truck. I sent an entire busload of high schoolers into a tizzy the other day! I take it they assumed I was smoking pot by the pointing , laughing and hand gesturing!

 

[hobie1dog]

Usually just the comment, "Smells like my grandfathers pipe."

 

[bobby46]

Like it or not, pipe styling is seen as a fashion statement. I didn't mention the cob incident when I was at a garage sale and was jokingly asked if I wanted to buy a banjo. Perhaps New Jersey is the nexus of harmless sarcasm.

 

[dimm]

Haha. Well smells have a powerful affect on the mind. Just the other day I spent a good 5 minutes smelling a piece of leather because the smell reminded me of my grandfathers truck. I dunno what it was but the leather smelled very similar. I probably looked like an idiot smelling it for 5 minutes straight.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Sometimes I'll have a pipe on my way to school. I'm going through an apprenticeship in a local trade union and the hall is just outside of the ghetto here in Vegas. So, I do get some double takes when I pull up to a stoplight with the windows down, Dean Martin blaring, and a pipe clenched between my teeth. It doesn't bother me at all. Other than that I've gotten on occassion "I didn't know what to think when you sat down and lit up that pipe, but it smells wonderful.". I haven't had any negative responses yet, which is good. No insane anti-smoking psycho trying to take my pipe out of my mouth. If I did I'd probably give them a good punch in the face and claim self-defense.

 

[logandow]

I've been called Sherlock Holmes by little kids on more than one occasion. Usually though I get stoners asking me if I'm smoking pot.

 

[jchaplick]

Always get weird looks, and comments, but there has been more and more people smoking pipes around my area, so its attracting less and less attention

 

[pipetrucker]

I've had the "Sherlock Holmes" comments here and there, and even a couple of crazed nanny types (my rough, bearded look and a drop-dead look in my eyes is usually all it takes to get rid of those types), but the vast majority of the comments I get are quite positive.
Women especially seem to like the look and smell of a pipe. Possibly the "grandfather/father" thing, and possibly the stereotype of intelligence associated with pipe smoking. Or maybe they just like the smell. Either way, I get a great many compliments from people of the female persuasion.
There are some times when I would prefer to not attract attention, remaining invisible as you put it, but most of the time I don't mind a little friendly conversation inspired by my pipe.

 

[sherlock]

Honestly I don't really get many comments. I smoke a lot on campus but no one seems to notice. There are a few cigar smokers, so people might be used to that kind of smell.

 

[bobby46]

Pipetrucker, I think you are onto something about women and pipe-smoke. It seems that post-menopausals smell "eligible bachelor". This is not my runaway male vanity talking, but the wife's observation having rescued me from chatty types. Again, it is not me; it's the pipe. Pre-pipe = ignored. Post-pipe = pied piper (pun intended). By the time I reach convalescent-home-age I should have enough data to confirm.

 

[spartan]

I like the stereotypes. It brings a wide variety of people to you. They all have something in their back pocket to say to you.
"You got weed in there man?"

"My dear gramps used to smoke something that smelled JUST LIKE THAT! WHAT IS THAT?!"

"Oh wow a pipe! HIGH FIVE!"

"That smells amazing."
And once they start talking to you, you can spout unto them all of your knowledge of the pipe and leaf. Helluva ice breaker for sure. And the great thing about it is that the people come to YOU. ::

 

[acme]

I got looked at rather severly a couple of time in Provo Utah.
anthony

 

[baronsamedi]

I get "That smells AMAZING!" more than anything. I typically smoke aros in public, for that reason. I love my Lat, but I'd rather be the pied piper than the Mad Lat Bomber! :rofl:

 

[marmal4de]

I'm a walking talking stereotype, it's super rare that people approach me about my pipe, it's usually my ears.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

I have gotten the "Like Sherlock Holmes?" a few times when I've told friends my age (mid to late twenties) that I smoke a pipe. Sometimes I'll mess with them and respond "No, like Gandalf.".

 

[aussielass]

I think I'd be happiest with the "Woodstock Stoner", I'd feel young again

 

[terry]

Lol...funny story.

 

[foxinabox]

Asian tourists were photographing me yesterday.

 

[bobby46]

foxinabox, RE: tourists

I attended college in manhattan in the sixties. Tourists all wore hawaiian shirts with short pants. They were always standing arched back to gape at the tall buildings. All had only one eye; the other was covered by the camera.

Oh, sorry, off-topic!