Today while perusing a favorite used-book shop I came across and purchased a copy of "my brother Bill - An Affectionate Reminiscence" (Trident Press - New York - 1963) by the late John Faulkner, a younger brother of the late author William Faulkner. Flipping through the pages at random, the following, from Chapter 24, caught my interest:
"Bill was a pipe smoker all his life and finally got to blending his own pipe mixture. He smoked cigarettes and cigars on occasion but mainly he stuck to his pipes. He bought good pipes, like Dunhills, which were his favorite, and Ben Wades, Sasienis and the like. He was never a collector.
"At first he used to send his pipes off regularly to a "pipe hospital" to have them cleaned and freshened and polished. That's the first I ever heard of a pipe hospital. I was down there one day when a package of his pipes came back. They looked like they were brand new. Later, though, he stopped doing that. He'd buy six or eight new pipes, smoke them until they no longer tasted good to him and then give them away and buy six or eight more. He gave me several after he was through with them and I have them in my collection. I still smoke them.
"Bill liked variety in his pipe tobacco. He would blend it differently at times to get a new taste and every time he would go into a pipe shop he'd buy several selections of ready-mixed tobacco. He would smoke from one can and then another, like a man trying different foods at each meal.
"Bill smoked a heavy mixture usually, but in summer he'd cut it with Virginia bright to lighten it. One trick he taught me was that if a mixture seems to go stale it can be brought back by crushing up a light-strength cigar in it.
"Bill's pipes were all for smoking, Most of them were briars, for hard service, the kind of pipe a man smokes outdoors. I never knew him to have but one meerschaum and that was long ago when we lived on the campus. Mac, I think, now has most of the pipes Bill owned. Estelle gave them to him. Mac is a pipe smoker too. Bill taught him, so it is a fitting place for his pipes to go."
"Bill was a pipe smoker all his life and finally got to blending his own pipe mixture. He smoked cigarettes and cigars on occasion but mainly he stuck to his pipes. He bought good pipes, like Dunhills, which were his favorite, and Ben Wades, Sasienis and the like. He was never a collector.
"At first he used to send his pipes off regularly to a "pipe hospital" to have them cleaned and freshened and polished. That's the first I ever heard of a pipe hospital. I was down there one day when a package of his pipes came back. They looked like they were brand new. Later, though, he stopped doing that. He'd buy six or eight new pipes, smoke them until they no longer tasted good to him and then give them away and buy six or eight more. He gave me several after he was through with them and I have them in my collection. I still smoke them.
"Bill liked variety in his pipe tobacco. He would blend it differently at times to get a new taste and every time he would go into a pipe shop he'd buy several selections of ready-mixed tobacco. He would smoke from one can and then another, like a man trying different foods at each meal.
"Bill smoked a heavy mixture usually, but in summer he'd cut it with Virginia bright to lighten it. One trick he taught me was that if a mixture seems to go stale it can be brought back by crushing up a light-strength cigar in it.
"Bill's pipes were all for smoking, Most of them were briars, for hard service, the kind of pipe a man smokes outdoors. I never knew him to have but one meerschaum and that was long ago when we lived on the campus. Mac, I think, now has most of the pipes Bill owned. Estelle gave them to him. Mac is a pipe smoker too. Bill taught him, so it is a fitting place for his pipes to go."
