I guess my genius moment happened a couple of years ago. I was at a party with one of my Army buddies at his dad's house. His dad was an experienced pipe smoker with years upon years behind the briar. Anyway, as the party was dying down, Chuck (my friend's father) said that Shawn (my friend) told him that I smoked pipes. He asked if I had a pipe with me and I told him that I never leave home without three. So as we were sitting on the deck and enjoying a good smoke, I noticed that instead of using a tamper, Chuck just placed his thumb down in the bowl and tamped it. I thought to myself; if he can do it then I should be able to do the same thing. Well I found out very quickly that I was wrong. I burnt the tip of my thumb something awful. Of course I didn't say anything at the time. I just went on, and made sure that I used my tamper the rest of the bowl.
Now comes the most hysterical part of this story. Later that night, Shawn and I were discussing the evening while he was driving me home. I told him about his dad tamping with his thumb and my unfortunate adventure in trying the same thing. He started laughing so hard I thought we were going to wreck. I said; "What the hell is so funny?". He calmed down and said; "Brother, my dad lost the tip of his thumb in a woodworking accident a few years back, he can't feel anything in the tip of that thumb." Lesson learned....Do not, under any circumstance, stick any appendage into the bowl of a lit pipe!
