What Brought YOU?

[dieseltech]

I have smoked pipes off and on for years. No matter what I move on to I come back to it eventually. I like the nostalgia of it. Like cars and trucks from the 50's and 60's it's got style and flair. I love the options of flavors. I love the way a pipe looks and the way it feels in my hand and the memories of past it brings back. What Brought YOU to pipes?
Travis :puffpipe:

 

[cmdrmcbragg]

Same thing. I'm 28 but have always loved "old things."

 

[claypipesarchaeologist]

After "smuggling" a box of Cuban Romeo and Julieta cigars from Bangkok for my dad, I took up smoking cigars. At $7-$30 a smoke, I wanted something more economic and I thought pipe smoking was a good alternative. I was wrong. It's not an alternative; it's something entirely different and not exactly a money saver, as it turned out. I smoke more now than ever.
When I was twelve, I started looking at churchwardens on the internet. I though they were so beautiful and I planned to have a pipe when I was older, as a decoration. That appreciation for the artistic quality of briars popped back up full force when I first considered smoking a pipe not even a year ago.

 

[antbauers]

Lol a pipe filled with Pall Mall? That does sound pretty awful. Maybe you didn't pack it right.

 

[phil67]

I started out with plastic bubble pipes when I was about 4 or 5 and slowly graduated. I still occasionally pick up one of them, forget about my having placed bubble solution in it and inhale the crap. Hey... maybe that’s why I detest Lakeland blends so much! :?

 

[grouchydog]

My high-school friends and I didn't do booze or drugs and we were all way to nerdy to get girls, so we did tobacco in all its forms, pipes included.
I got into cigars a couple of years ago, but that's way too spendy a habit. So I went back to the pipe. As ClayPipesArch noted, it's a different world and not an inexpensive thing itself.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Being that my ancestry is 50% of UK origin, I figured it wouldn't be proper not to have a pipe. That and growing up we loved Tolkien almost as much as Star Trek (Mum even has a copy of the Silmarillian), and I call my mother "Mum".
All good reasons to smoke a pipe.

 

[mso489]

My dad who chain smoked Granger from just after breakfast until shortly before bed. Long stretches as

an occasional cigar smoker and non-smoker altogether. I started again after being a widower, and later

when my second wife had serious health problems as a way to relax. I joke that she drove me to Cavendish,

not because that's all I smoke, but because it sounds funny.

 

[lostandfound]

I think I was born a pipe smoker. I just had meet a few prerequisites before I was able to join the ranks.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

+1 loastandfound, I was designed to process nicotine. I graduated to the pipe so as to do it in style. ::

 

[derfargin]

I always said when I turned 60, I was going to take up pipe smoking, and wearing hats all the time. Mostly because I thought pipe smoking was reserved for older gentlemen. Well, apparently only in my mind. Well...things changed a bit so I started 21 years earlier.
I really wish I would have started this about 10 years ago.

 

[roryrumfelt]

I saw my dad smoke pipes for years. The smell, the process, and of course the look made me VERRY intruged, I remember going to cvs with my dad to go pick up 1.5 oz packets of borkum riff cherry Cavendish. oddly enough ive NEVER had the same nostalgic feelings for my mothers habbit of cigarettes.

My dad gave it up oh- 4 or 5 years ago now? He inhaled and he stopped because he felt it was shortening his life- he switched to snus (the safest HIGHEST nicotine Swedish mouth tobacco).
At that point I was NOT interested in smoking but we both walked into an old tobacco shop, So he could pick up some of his snus~ And I was confronted with childhood nostalgia, and was IMMEDIATELY attracted to the walls of tobacco.

There was so much variety- I felt guilty but then I started researching everything and found out normaly... NOBODY inhales and its a pretty safe hobby considering WHAT you are doing. I loved the history and the attachment I had- I wouldve never done it if I hadent found one of my old mans old corncobs lieing about and decided to take a plunge, GLAD I did.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

-derfargin
I always said when I turned 60, I was going to take up pipe smoking, and wearing hats all the time. Mostly because I thought pipe smoking was reserved for older gentlemen. Well, apparently only in my mind. Well...things changed a bit so I started 21 years earlier.
I really wish I would have started this about 10 years ago.

I'm glad I did, this seems about right.

Had I tried when I was 20 it probably would have felt too "rebellious", I didn't have a thick fluffy beard and people didn't call me "Sir", but right now having a pipe in my mouth seems pretty natural.

 

[foggymountain]

I was a 6 foot tall 12 year old kid who did not want to become a freak. So I started smoking to stunt my growth. It seems to have worked. I didn't get taller. That was cigars. At 14 I found one of my father's old pipes and tried it. Liked it better than cigars.

 

[terry]

May sound weird but when I was in my teen years, I knew I was destined to be a pipe smoker at an older age.

 

[dread]

I started with a pipe when I was 19 in college. I think I thought it was neat and my Grandpa used to smoke a pipe, which I think subliminally had something to do with it as I picked up the pipe right after he passed. I smoked throughout college and the first few years in the Navy but then stopped and started smoking cigars and cigarettes. I quit cigarettes few years ago but kept falling off the wagon, and then decided to give a cob a try. Now I'm back to only pipes and loving it.

 

[ravkesef]

I started in September, 1959 as a college freshman, because pipes were noted for being the cool thing among the collegiate crowd, and I wanted to be cool. The pipe was a nondescript bent bulldog with a stinger, probably cost about two bucks at the drugstore and the tobacco was Edgeworth Ready-rubbed, an old-time classic that I wish were still around today. I packed the Pipe way too tight and lit it. From the very first puff I was in pipe smoker heaven--I knew that I had found a hobby that would stay with me for the rest of my life. And so here we are, all these years later, I have over 100 briars, about 15 or 20 cobs, half a dozen Meerschaums, and I'm loving it even more than I did the day I started. SWMBO tells me that she can tell from the expression on my face how much more I enjoy I now than when she first met me.

 

[dirtydex]

When I was young, around 7 or 8, I was out collecting candy at Halloween and a man came to the door in a smoking jacket with a pipe in his mouth. The aroma was intoxicating and I remember it to this day. I knew I would be a pipe smoker from that point on. I bought my first pipe at 23 and I've been smoking for about nine years.

 

[cobguy]

My Uncle Frank was the pipe influence in my life.

He was a calm and gentle man that stood about 6 1/2 feet high, wore overalls and always had a pipe.

Carter Hall and Prince Albert were always in the Humi-Jar that sat at the center of his circular pipe stand.

At the age of 14 I tried the pipe for the very first time and instantly knew that it was WAY better

than those nasty cigs my Mom and Dad smoked. I knew it had always smelled better and he seemed a lot more

relaxed while smoking it. Fast forward 6 years and I had a couple of my own briars and a pouch each of CH and PA.

Fast forward another 25 years and ... here we are!
@ravkesef: I smoked some ERR this morning in an OD Cob and it took me back to those days ... very similar to PA.

 

[hippiebrian]

Well, I grew up in the 70's and started on pipes young, in middle school (what us old folks call jr. high).
It took a few years to get some tobacco in one however. I was smoking cigars (along with cigs, and I still smoke ryo American Spirit). The wife (now ex) put her foot down, and my cigar smoking was limited to work and away from the house or yard. She took pity and bought me a pipe and an aromatic sampler one year for my birthday, as she liked the smell of aromatic tobacco. Well, it wasn't a cigar, but I smoked the aros around the house and everyone was happy. I tried some Escudo, and she was fine with that too. I loved the Escudo more than my cigars so everyone was happy. Then I let some ignorant tobacconist convince me that Latakia blends were the only thing to put into your pipe if you were a real piper. I wasn't real fond of it, but it beat aros hands down, so I started on a journey trying to convince my pallette that I enjoyed them (which never worked). The Lat smell again drove me and my smoking away from the house and everyone wasn't so happy anymore.
Well, she finally left me and I did go back to cigars for a long time. Then I got my plastic chopers and something happened with my enjoyment or cigars. They just didn't appeal any more for some reason. Then I came across an old MM I had and I picked up some tobaccos (aros) from the tobacco shop, having forgotten about the Escudo. They were okay, but something was missing. I thought I'd try some burleys, so I asked here for advice. When I was looking through the P&C website I saw a tin of Escudo, and remembered the positive experience I had with it. I had some briars by that point, so I ordered some Escudo as well as what I learned were VaPer blends. I was happy, and since I've discovered MM's, even happier.