Pipe Smoking Image--Old vs. Young, Eccentric, Nostalgic or Strange????

[settersbrace]

I would give anything to see a world leader who openly smoked a pipe.
Clinton smoked cigars, so they say.

POSTED 5 HOURS AGO #
He probably had a hard time keeping them lit after knowing where they'd been.
President Gerald Ford was a pipester and I have vivid memories of him tripping and falling with a billiard sticking out of his mug.

 

[chuckles]

My two copper...
Most rightfully speak of pipes a sort of rhetorical artifact - the process of getting smoke into my mouth leads some to question my level of hipster-ism, quantities of cool and assumed archaism, or the desire to revive fallen from favor fetishes that succumbed to the advancing march of technology.
I love smoke. I also love ritual. Pipe smoking provides both.

 

[fearsclave]

46 here. Took up pipe smoking as an offshoot of my cigar hobby, and found it a lot more interesting. The ritual and infrastructure and contemplative aspects of it appeal to me. I also get a kick out of the old-fashioned gentlemanliness of it; I find researching old pipe styles and tobaccos interesting. The Victorian flavor of the hobby appeals to me. I like the effects of nicotine but I won't smoke cigarettes for the same reason that I eschew drinking Aqua Velva in favour of single malt.
Definitely not a hipster, and not quite ready to call mysel an old man yet. I'll go with eccentric.

 

[sparrowhawk]

Since I've always been regarded as the "different" one in the family, there was no comments--except for the same comments smoking in general provokes--from my family. But I'm having a pipe made for me right now, and I wonder what will happen when I make a photo posting of the pipe--a Stephen Downie creation--when I post it on Facebook. Probably the usual lectures on the evils of smoking and second hand smoke. I'm a pipe smoker of 58, btw, not quite a year, after 30 years of smoking cigarettes. I kicked the cigarettes last year, and adopted the pipe a month later--not out of an addict's desperation, but simply the desire to smoke a pipe.

 

[voorhees]

Cosmic, you know there are some that still listen to Journey and Steve Miller..also for me is Boston, Foreigner, Def Leppard, .38 Special, Van Halen, etc., etc.

I sm still stuck in the 80's. Not old, just aged to perfection.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

+1 Vorhees on music. And, last night a customer did tell me that I look like a young Richard Dreyfuss. Hey, I'm happy being called a "young" anything, lol. My ego "may need a bigger boat."

 

[cmdrmcbragg]

Voorhees, I'm on my own in the 70s-80s music department. I grew up listening to all those bands (my dad's era) and still listen to them regularly, everyone else in my house has zero appreciation for them.

 

[sparrowhawk]

Voorhees, you're a kid! I'm still grooving to Jefferson Airplane and Led Zeppelin!

 

[cuchulain]

Just to elaborate on being called an old man: I'm 23 years old. My daily driver is an 83 F-150. I listen to Cash, Waylon, Willie and Merle, along with the 90's crop of country singers. I button up my flannel shirts and tuck them into my dungarees. Hell, I call my jeans dungarees like my grandpa does. I own multiple sets of suspenders and wear them more often than belts, because they're more comfortable while working.

In fact, this is my normal look. So adding a pipe to the equation doesn't exactly make me look any weirder or older.

 

[voorhees]

Sparrow, me too. Aerosmith is my favorite band of all time.

 

[fadingdaylight]

Yep yep. Zepplin, Jethro Tull, The Dead, Steve Miller, Cash, all at the top of my playlist. Pink Floyd takes it as number 1 for me though, and no not just the trendy Roger Waters era Floyd. Don't get me wrong, I love The Wall and DSOTM, but The Division Bell is my favorite album of all time.

 

[sfsteves]

rangerearthpig said:

Clinton smoked cigars, so they say.

And sometimes, Monica smoked his cigar as well ...

 

[bphilli75]

I picked up the pipe at 34 and have been puffing for about four years now. I was worried my wife might feel it was old man-ish, but as it turns out, she thinks it is really nice. She bought me my two nicest pipes and a pipe rack. When we travel, she enjoys visiting B&M shops with me. My early teen sons both think my pipe smoking is very "cool" too. I've always been a heavy reader, lover of good conversation, philosophy, theology and the outdoors. I also pick the guitar and mandolin and play a little irish whistle. My family says the pipe fits my personality perfectly. The only conflict I have had is that my family, my friends and I are all fitness enthusiasts, and the smoking stigma is hard to shake, even though pipe smoking, if done sans inhaling and in moderation, is far different from cigarettes. My circle of friends and family all know I smoke a pipe now, after a few years of coming my out of the closet with it. I have a couple friends who, when the time allows, want to try a pipe with me.
I think the "old man" image just stems from the fact that the fellas who thrived in the glory days of pipe smoking are now in their latter years.
May God bless pipe smoking. May it lead to much contemplation, good conversation and a willingness to just slow down a bit now and then.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

I took up pipe smoking when I was 33, a little over 3 years ago. I was and still am a cigar smoker and had always wanted to enjoy a pipe. Not because it was "cool" or because of the "hipster movement" or even because of movies like Lord Of the Rings; which I know has got many young individuals into pipe smoking. I took up the pipe hobby, because since I was a little kid I always enjoyed the aroma of pipe smoke and just liked the whole idea of relaxing with a pipe and enjoying the tobacco, just like I do with my cigars.
When I tell people I smoke cigars and a pipe I occasionally get a weird look, but many are more intrigued by it. Mainly because its traditionally an older person's hobby and there is not a lot of pipe smokers like there have been in decades past. Though now that marijuana has been legalized here in WA state I have to clarify with some that the pipe is for tobacco and not weed. Unfortunately in today's anti-tobacco society, smoking weed is almost more acceptable to some than smoking tobacco.

 

[andystewart]

When I feel self-conscious or get a funny look, I invariably remember one of my heroes - WIllie John McBride. The epitome of a rugby player, WJM was a quiet gentleman who was invariably polite, cheerful, uncompromising on the field and great fun off it. And as hard as seasoned teak. Have a look...
http://www.smokemag.com/0698/pipes/cover.htm
http://www.thescore.ie/willie-john-mcbride-lions-birthday-939407-Jun2013/
http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/95689812-british-lions-manager-willie-john-mcbride-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=9QMziWNtBI6whP66vhs4oVcLbVCPaytEbfKLRh3eSsvFVLSbx9eQj0sV7EJDLJkF72gY4OJtcCLKN%2bD%2fRk%2fCbA%3d%3d&bmi_orig_img=1

 

[mso489]

As they say in the South where I've lived most of my adult life, I came by pipe smoking honest. My dad was a conventional pipe smoker,

puffing in the commuter train smoking car and most of the time around home and on errands. I didn't smoke a pipe in college because

I thought it was too professorial; smoked a cigar now and then, often those little Hav'a'Tampas with the wooden bit. Pipes came to me in

the mid-1970's, then stopped for a long time to support my wife who quite smoking. Took it up again much later. I've never related it to

any kind of social group or giving an impression. Most people are surprised to hear I smoke a pipe, and few have seen me do it. I have

a blind composer friend who has smoked pipes for decades, and we occasionally share a bowl with conversation. I hope I am a creative person

with some interesting traits, but I don't think I've ever been hip, a hipster, cool, beat, jive or groovy.

 

[kanaka95]

Rangerearthpig said "clinton smoked cigars so they say".I heard that to from somewhere else just cant remember.But i also heard he smoked a little more than cigars if ya know what i mean.(LOL).But he didn't inhale

 

[ssjones]

Five years ago, my wife saw an older man at a vacation hotel in FL smoking a pipe said she wished I smoked a pipe instead of a cigar. I said I was too old (47 at the time). Now, I went from a casual cigar smoker to an avid pipe smoker/collector.

I think we all beat to a different drummer than the average person. My daughter is on a roller-derby team. The husbands/boyfriends of her teammates smoke pipes. They thought it was interesting but odd that her dad smoked a pipe. I think that is the hipster trend at work.

 

[bowler1]

Thanks for all the responses. Good insights!

 

[darwin]

I seen nothing wrong at all with younger pipers coming on board, whatever the reasons. Greater numbers can only bolster the commercial possibilities, and ultimate longevity, of our beloved pastime. I took up the pipe when I was not yet nineteen, 1967, but then it wasn't viewed as particularly odd, even by other youngsters, since pipe smoking was still very common. Among my age group however I may have been one of the few who always and only used tobacco in my pipes.