Greetings from DC:
Hi all. I'm originally from South Carolina but have lived here in the DC area since the early 70s, when I was stationed at Bolling AFB. I've smoked pipes on and off since I was 17, mostly as a casual smoker. There was an interesting article on the home page today, in which the industry insider Russ Ouellette observed that upwards of 90% of pipe smokers use COTS store brands with pipes that cost less than $50. That was me for the most part.
I did get serious for a while in the 80s, when I purchased a Petersen and a fabulously fantastical Ben Wade free hand, a Meerschaum gord, and few other decent pipes. I stepped up to stored blended bulk tobaccos but never ventured to tins. I think I thought they wouldn't be as good as the stores custom blends.
But as the political climate changed, it became unacceptable to smoke in public. I gradually abandoned pipes for the convenience of hasty cigarettes guiltily smoked in garages and outside doorways.
A number of years later, I realized that I was using cigarettes for the nicotaine fix and really and truly only enjoyed maybe a single cigarette out of the entire $5.00 pack. So after quitting for hours or days or weeks or months dozens of times over several years, with the help of my God, Nicorettes, nicotine nasal spray (man, what a kick!), Nicoderm patches and Chantix, 6 years ago I put down my last cigarette after for some 40 odd years of being a butt-head. (Hey, I just made that up!)
After about 5 years off the butts, I consciously decided to re-ignite an old flame - my love affair with cigars. I smoked them seriously in the early 80s. But I was newly wed, and there was the one month when I spent more on cigars than I did on my new wife - and as bad, on the rent. My wife was unreasonably jealous and forced me to break up with my Cuban-Nicaraguan lover.
I've spent the last couple of years and more than a couple of grand, reacquainting myself with cigars. But cigars are still an expensive mistress and I've decided to cheat on her with my earliest love, the tobacco pipe. At first, I was just smoking pipes during weekday evenings, as a relatively inexpensive alternative to my cigars.
Alas, I fear that I've gotten pipe fever. I find myself spending time with the pipe for it's own virtue, rather than just as the cheap whore I took her for. I feel ashamed.
So, now I'm acquainting myself and dabbling with tinned tobacco. G.L. Pease Sextant made me realize that pipe tobacco could be as appealing - different yes, but as appealing as most cigars. I've since acquire about a dozen tins, mostly from the G.L.Pease family, and have started rebuilding my pipe collection. First with some Missouri Meerschaums, then a Nording, some so-so briars, and coming soon, Mr. Brog. This will be my starter rotation.
I will be much more selective going forward, looking for pipes that I can love for their virtue and beauty. I'm looking at a few Ben Wades and other Danish estate pipes, as well as some Italian and American made pipes.
I promise I will be more faithful this time around.
Nice meeting ya'll.