Hello all ! I'm a 64 year old male who's been a pipe smoker on & off since 1969, but pretty much on for the last 5 years or so. That is if you don't count sneaking into the garage & smoking Dad's Sugar Barrel as a teen ! I really got into it @ 1972, while working on a golf course. A bunch of us youngsters there took it up after being shown the job by this old codger from Georgia called Gaylord. He was a very nice man who seemed to have his pipe glued to his mouth. He always smoked Holiday, which he kept in one of those fold up pouches. His pipe was a Dublin or Billiard shaped briar which had a cake built up so much, you'd be lucky if you could fit a wooden matchstick in the bowl. Anyway, we would all experiment with the many OTC blends back then, mostly the aro's like Middleton's Cherry, Paladin Black Cherry, Sail, Borkham Riff and my fav, Apple Blend. After quitting cigarettes for good in '81, I mainly alternated between the occasional cigar & tub of Sugar Barrel until I saw an ad in Thompson's Cigar catalogue for a five tin sampler of House of Windsor tobaccos. It was mainly that picture of Jean Hersholt(?) on the Country Doctor tin that piqued my interest. My order from Thompson never came through, sending me on an internet quest for Country Doctor. After a while, I found out that it had been discontinued & bought a lb. of a match blend from Pipes & Cigars. However, during my quest I discovered a world of tobacco I knew had existed but never tried: tins ! First it was Nightcap & Early Morning Pipe. Not being such a latakia fan, I quickly discovered & stocked up on McClelland, Cornell & Diehl, GW Pease & Samuel Gawith FVF, and the rare tins of Edgeworth I scored on ebay. I'm now just about cured of TAS, after loading up on a couple hundred tins of some favorites, although I'm sure I'll be back at it if the supplies start running low !
