Re-thinking Wistfulness for Tobacco Exclusivity

[Chasing Embers]

Some people eat the same fast food meal every day. Some people have only one dog. Some people drive only one car and some people have only one spouse. I don’t endorse that kind of behavior, but it doesn’t mystify me, either.

What mystifies me is how a person can obsess ad infinitum over the choices that other people make.

I put it down to lack of self-esteem, jealousy, envy and the like.

The happiness trap.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Being relatively new, I still enjoy trying different blends, old and new, but am starting to narrow down to what I like the most and putting some of that away.

 

[Optimistic Pessimist]

So many ways to look at it, honestly. It isn' t bad to remember and cherish "the good old days". But, like the mirror of Erised in HP you can lose yourself by constantly looking to the past.

Somethings were better, going out to play with friends rather than being on a computer or smart phone all the time. Then again how marvelous are computers which have exposed us to how big the world really is and introduced us to so many amazing things we otherwise would not have known about whether it is music, books, art, nature, people, pipes and tobaccos?

Recently saw a reel with this clip,“ I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” — Andy Bernard, the Office.

Made me laugh and then think. We can't go back, tomorrow is always a day away, so best to make the most of now. Create tomorrow's "good ole days" whatever that is for you. Because it isn't necessarily that for others.

 

[coys]

To me, the variety is the point.

If there were only one wine or one cigar, who’d become a connoisseur?

Seems cigarette smokers tend to stick with one brand since they’re all the same junk, but we are here for something more than a nic fix

 

[warren]

Seems cigarette smokers tend to stick with one brand since they’re all the same junk, but we are here for something more than a nic fix

Speak for yourself. Many of us smoke for the nicotine. Also, your rather parochial observation regarding cigarettes. Ever tried luxury blends? Much different than grocery/drug store brands. There is a wide variety of tobaccos and, most assuredly, smokers. Please do not "tar" (pun intended) all of us with your generalizations.

 

[Merton]

To me, the variety is the point.

If there were only one wine or one cigar, who’d become a connoisseur?

Seems cigarette smokers tend to stick with one brand since they’re all the same junk, but we are here for something more than a nic fix

While I generally agree, I also agree with Warren's observation about other higher end cigarettes (although it has been many decades since I have smoked such). In the USA we are, at least for now, enjoying something of an embarrassment of riches when it comes to pipe tobacco. I frequently buy new blends just to try. Not all stick but it is fun to try new blends. I find that i frequently enjoy a long term favorite when I smoke another blend for a time and then return to the favorite. For example, I enjoy a number of newly marketed Virginia blends a lot. SPC Hogshead falls into this category, I really love it. When I take a break from it and smoke some of old favorites it only adds to the pleasure of coming back to Hogshead and vice versa.

 

[solideogloria86]

My wistfulness for tobacco exclusivity doesn't come from nostalgia. When I was a cigarette smoker, I was a one brand smoker forever. I found one cigarette that I really liked the taste of, nothing else tasted just right. I'd love to smoke one tobacco that made me not care to seek after any others because it satisfies that much. Being that I'm not addicted to pipe smoking, I may never find a pipe blend that I'll feel such an attachment to.

 

[Briar’s Echo]

I've come to realize that I haven't tried enough tobaccos yet to commit to a small handful for deep cellaring. So, my plan is not just to keep adding tins of my favorites, but also throw in one-off tins of things that sound interesting. It's probable that I'll only ever have one tin of some blends that end up blowing my mind, so my focus will be on enjoying them for the time being, and then letting go when they're gone.

Minimalism can be an attachment in and of itself.

I am right there with you. There are so many different blends to try that I’m getting a few tins to try before buying too many.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Seems cigarette smokers tend to stick with one brand since they’re all the same junk, but we are here for something more than a nic

Mostly for the nicotine myself.

 

[kcghost]

I have four blends and plenty of pipes to see to my needs forever.

 

[Papamique]

From the number of top tier estate pipes I have seen, the numerous ads for tobacco and pipes and the photos and articles I read I think there was a population that enjoyed pipes as a luxury item and not some “tool” to deliver nicotine. There still is.

1940 Keens Restaurant


Not all of us aspire to be “old codgers”. I do not. Although the old part fits me more every day.

 

[vosBghos]

For the first 20 years I only smoked Carter Hall, Christmas Cheer, Schwab's Nautical, mail ordered pound blocks of Black Frigate, Camel Wide cigarettes, and chewed straight long cut Kodiak tobacco. I found out about online tobacco sales in 2013 and had some fun buying up new blends but now mostly smoke only two. I generally eat a few McDonald's double quarter pounder cheese burgers throughout my workday and only eat Zero candy bars.

Camel wides oh the memories , still smoke the filterless for convenience here and there

 

[PipeIT]

Rhetorically speaking of, are we really talking about nostalgia, or is it actually an understanding of how life was in the past before certain levels of advancement and technology, when it was truly more limited in resources.

nos·tal·gia
/näˈstaljə,nəˈstaljə/
noun
a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

The summarization; with happy personal associations.

So am I understanding this correctly, looking back on time, as to why things were a certain way?

1. Let’s put personal belief, tastes, aside.

2. With #1 out of the way, availability and connections, going back generations, would make obtaining more difficult.

3. In regards to #2, if there were no local sources, or always limited, then you took what you could find, unless you had connections to get somewhere else, or from someone.

The truth is, not including someone’s beliefs or likes, but going back generations, these people lived in a world with limited resources, which is why many of them simply smoked one pipe and one blend.

But today, in the world of eCommerce, we are certainly far from that past, but if you want to live that way, even living in a world, where consumption is plenty, you just have to make the choice to exclude yourself from the world, and live that simpler, limited resource world, that was a way before in the past.

Nostalgia today, is a choice to live that way!

Just remember, we’re not talking always about people that did what they loved, but that they loved what they had.

P.S. Don’t look back on the so called good ole days, they are still right here in front of. That Nostalgia today, is contentment for what you have, no matter how little you have, and enjoy that little in life. Nostalgia is a way of thinking!

 

[Chasing Embers]

1. Let’s put personal belief, tastes, aside.

2. With #1 out of the way, availability and connections, going back generations, would make obtaining more difficult.

3. In regards to #2, if there were no local sources, or always limited, then you took what you could find, unless you had connections to get somewhere else, or from someone.

4. Most things cost three times as much as they did thirty years ago. Can't live like that anymore. Back then I could get a pound of tobacco from a B&M for $25 that is now $80 and my Dr. Grabow Omega that I bought for $17 is now around $50.

 

[PipeIT]

4. Most things cost three times as much as they did thirty years ago. Can't live like that anymore. Back then I could get a pound of tobacco from a B&M for $25 that is now $80 and my Dr. Grabow Omega that I bought for $17 is now around $50.

I was replying in regards, to what I thought was about Nostalgia and why things were the way they were back then, as to why someone found joy, in what little they had, like only owning one pipe and smoking one blend.

And then to the many reasons as to why someone would live like this, and since these reasons can be many, I said exclude personal reasons.

With the personal reasons excluded, I was just painting a picture of a time, when the advancement and technology of a society was extremely limited, and with personal reasons aside, as to why someone only smoked one blend, and only had one pipe, because it was all they could find.

I’m not sure what the higher costs in tobacco have to do with my reply before? Of course poverty could of certainly been an issue looking back for many.

 

[coys]

Speak for yourself.

I always and only speak for myself

 

[Sam Gamgee]

My personality leans to finding what works and sticking with it. I loved variety when I was younger, but middle-age finds me enjoying the simplicity of one thing. Variety, at some point, became distracting.

Guitar is my main hobby, and I find it distracting (and even somewhat stressful) to have more than one. Plus, with more than one, I have to find the perfect set of strings for the other one, etc. In this way, more purchases usually end up equaling more purchases.

I’ve been searching for the perfect Tobacco for a while in order to simplify my smoking life.

 

[mso489]

I'm a variety junkie, but I can see that this is a sort of stasis too. With one blend, or just a few, the experience is more dependable and in a way more various, being more attuned to a particular set of variables, and more inwardly directed toward your perceptions and moods and thoughts, rather than the latest stimulating new experience.

Either way, there are advantages, but right now I'm in a state of endless flux.

 

[coys]

My personality leans to finding what works and sticking with it. I loved variety when I was younger, but middle-age finds me enjoying the simplicity of one thing. Variety, at some point, became distracting.

Guitar is my main hobby, and I find it distracting (and even somewhat stressful) to have more than one. Plus, with more than one, I have to find the perfect set of strings for the other one, etc. In this way, more purchases usually end up equaling more purchases.

I’ve been searching for the perfect Tobacco for a while in order to simplify my smoking life.

I’m a lot like you in these respects. I’m learning the value of a few trusted blends and getting to know them extremely well. I’ve tried dozens but stick to two or three now.

I used to own 10 or more guitars and basses but have only two of those now too.

 

[coys]

Following on to what’s been said, I didn’t appreciate burleys at the start. I know that’s where most pipers begin but I tended to avoid them because I don’t appreciate the room note very much, and because they seem to be the staple of lower quality blends that I don’t like.

But there are some good ones out there, and I sometimes like having a pipe that I don’t have to manage much. Especially when reading or working in the workshop, I am clenching and I don’t like juggling the pipe and the matches and my book or tools, etc. A good old SWR or Ready Rubbed is good for that.