Good and Bad Experiences Smoking in Public

[SlayerGG]

Very interesting and different stories you all have here!

My positive pipe smoking interactions were with my friends, especially with smokers (cigarettes). I also try to invite them to join me for a smoke once in a while. I give them my packed cob, we smoke, and after that I listen to their comments about how relaxing it is.
Wasn't able to get anyone to join the brotherhood of briar... yet.

Most of the time I just get odd looks or "At least better than cigarettes" comments. As I would like for people to see pipe smoking as something more normal I just don't pay any mind and focus on enjoying my pipe.

 

[warren]

The last thing I'd want to do is get a friend into burning up his moneys using tobacco and and into all perils so often mentioned here. High prices, scarcity of blends, the inability to find blends, guys hoarding blends in order to resell at higher prices.. Plus, I have no need of "smoking buddies". I just wouldn't do that to friends or, strangers for that matter. If someone seriously asks me about pipe smoking, I explain its a selfish, expensive choice and to weigh the risks against perceived benefits before making the decision. I love nicotine, have since I was twelve when introduced to cigarettes. But, sitting around watching my dollars waft to the ceiling is simply one of the many mistakes I made over seventy decades.

I would never, under any circumstances introduce anyone to smoking. There are just so many other, enjoyable things to buy. Thankfully, I have the means so I really want for nothing. But, that's for another thread, posted years ago.

 

[Brig]

But, sitting around watching my dollars waft to the ceiling is simply one of the many mistakes I made over seventy decades.

I must say, you look awful good for 700 years old. What's your secret?

 

[warren]

Living the good life. I really ought to proofread before posting.

 

[DeerparkDays]

The last thing I'd want to do is get a friend into burning up his moneys using tobacco and and into all perils so often mentioned here. High prices, scarcity of blends, the inability to find blends, guys hoarding blends in order to resell at higher prices.. Plus, I have no need of "smoking buddies". I just wouldn't do that to friends or, strangers for that matter. If someone seriously asks me about pipe smoking, I explain its a selfish, expensive choice and to weigh the risks against perceived benefits before making the decision. I love nicotine, have since I was twelve when introduced to cigarettes. But, sitting around watching my dollars waft to the ceiling is simply one of the many mistakes I made over seventy decades.

I would never, under any circumstances introduce anyone to smoking. There are just so many other, enjoyable things to buy. Thankfully, I have the means so I really want for nothing. But, that's for another thread, posted years ago.

In my experience, everybody has "selfish expensive" hobbies, and we all waste our money on a variety of things/choices/hobbies through life. I suppose that's one of the points about living a life, and enjoying it in a way that is ones own choice.
The people you wouldn't want to waste their money on tobacco will be already wasting it on some other thing....I see all the people buying coffee at roadside stalls on my way to work every morning and wonder how so many people don't have kitchens.....or guys at work, all out buying lunch everyday while I'm eating leftovers. My friend is as tight as a snare drum, yet he buys model trains like they are going out of production!

Health wise....who really knows! The bread and sausage I just had for lunch has god knows what in it as well as the "grown in China" garlic. I was in the wood workshop before cutting timber, what's the sawdust particles doing to me? The health conscious people I know still get hit with cancers and all the things we wouldn't wish on anyone.

Would you view people that have any "vice" be it coffee, junk food, over medicating, addiction to mobile phones/social media, restoring or collecting things etc, as being selfish choices?

I don't mean this as a dig at you at all.....just wondering about your train of thought, and I have often wondered when reading your "this is selfish" posts.

Happy smokes mate,
Adam.

 

[Servant King]

one of the many mistakes I made over seventy decades.

I must say, you're doing something right! For being 700 years old, you don't look a day over 550.

 

[kcghost]

I rarely smoke in public, but I have never encountered anything negative though on occasion I do get the occasional odd look now and again.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I'm pretty sure pipe smoking wasnt even a thing in my part of the country (east southern Alabama) even back when it was a thing everywhere else. When I smoke my pipe out in the world, people look at me like I've got three heads.

It's getting to be that if people see you smoking a cigarette they look at you like that, though...

 

[Streeper541]

Enjoying another fine public experience now.

 

[sablebrush52]

The last thing I'd want to do is get a friend into burning up his moneys using tobacco and and into all perils so often mentioned here. High prices, scarcity of blends, the inability to find blends, guys hoarding blends in order to resell at higher prices.. Plus, I have no need of "smoking buddies". I just wouldn't do that to friends or, strangers for that matter. If someone seriously asks me about pipe smoking, I explain its a selfish, expensive choice and to weigh the risks against perceived benefits before making the decision. I love nicotine, have since I was twelve when introduced to cigarettes. But, sitting around watching my dollars waft to the ceiling is simply one of the many mistakes I made over seventy decades.

I would never, under any circumstances introduce anyone to smoking. There are just so many other, enjoyable things to buy. Thankfully, I have the means so I really want for nothing. But, that's for another thread, posted years ago.

Warren, one of the things that I admire about your posts is their unflinching honesty, even when the thoughts expressed are going to be unpopular. If anyone squirms because of it, it's probably a good thing.
Smoking IS a self centered activity, period. It's not doing anyone around us any good. We don't care. I do smoke ONLY outdoors and I have adopted a few practices regarding it when I'm smoking around others. Oddly, I don't see myself as the Alpha and Omega of all existence, just my existence.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

It's been a while since I've smoked in public, but when I have, I've rarely got a reaction positive or negative. I've had a few comments such as nice pipe, or that smells reminds me of my grandpa, or my grandpa used to smoke a pipe. I don't recall any negative comments. Most people just walked by and smiled or nodded to say hello.

 

[jpmcwjr]

It's been a while since I've smoked in public, but when I have, I've rarely got a reaction positive or negative. I've had a few comments such as nice pipe, or that smells reminds me of my grandpa, or my grandpa used to smoke a pipe. I don't recall any negative comments. Most people just walked by and smiled or nodded to say hello.

That's a better description of my experience.

There was one negative, but laughable: Walking in an open area on Maui, a women started fake coughing as I passed her. Big whoops!

 

[anotherbob]

The worst reaction I've gotten to smoking a pipe was one polite guy told me about his uncles health issues that were possibly pipe related. That's the worst so far. Actually better then the girls that ask if they can smoke it.
Oh one time a little three or four year old kid asked me why I smoked. Didn't feel like that was a moment for trying to explain nuances, so I just said "Because I am not that smart".

 

[Brig]

"Stop smelling your supervisor" is something I've had to tell people at work more than a handful of times.

 

[warren]

"Because I am not that smart".

That seems to cover all of the "nuances"! That would have been my answer if I was that quick.

 

[anotherbob]

That seems to cover all of the "nuances"! That would have been my answer if I was that quick.

If it was a teenager on the older side of teenager I'd have been willing to explain. But a little kid....
Another time I was smoking though I had a kid stop me to show me he had a picture of a megalodon and I said "that awesome".

 

[OzPiper]

I must say, you're doing something right! For being 700 years old, you don't look a day over 550.

I must say, you look awful good for 700 years old. What's your secret?

Having a grandfather named Methuselah

 

[trouttimes]

I smoke in public all the time. I can’t remember a bad response. Usually no response or a positive response. Most people don’t approach me pipe or no pipe.

 

[Douglas]

Pipe smoking is selfish? Very few things, if any at all, are truly selfless. At the moment of choosing, within the confines of the choice to be made, we always choose what we want the most. The very definition of selfishness maybe?
How’s that for overthinking it to death?!

 

[warren]

At the moment of choosing, within the confines of the choice to be made, we always choose what we want the most.

Some maybe. I usually choose to do what is correct, although I can and have opted for what I prefer. Unfortunately my chosen career didn't allow for such discretion in many decisions I was daily called upon to make.