What Did You Start With?

[snewton]

Just thought it would be interesting to know how you time served vets out there started. By which I mean first pipe and the story behind it, and the first tobacco that you tried etc. The funnier the story the better!

 

[thuber88]

Some aluminum and briar bowled(Falcons?) from the drugstore, and snagged one of my dads Grabows, we would sit in the college halls and gurgle away with CBG and some cherry tobacco, all OTC, no clue what we were doing but had fun at the time.

 

[atboth]

When I was in my early teens I would go to the local bookstore regularly after school to spend several hours reading in the stacks. The tobacconist next door had a pipe in the window with which I eventually become obsessed. A few weeks before my fourteenth birthday (1973), I finally bought it.
Two months later I realized that having a pipe, with nothing to put in it, was kind of stupid. So I purchased a tin of Niemeyer Scottish Mixture (heather honey and whiskey stench), and eventually graduated to Erinmore Flake and episodes of throwing-up. Which taught me about pipe-cleaners. Two years later I was getting kicked out of places for smoking Balkan Sobranie.
I've never looked back.

 

[judcole]

Dude, who can remember? We're talking 45 years ago! :rofl: It was a pipe and tobacco from the drug store, and may have been John Rolfe.

 

[yadan]

I remember it well, since I still have and smoke the pipe! Just about 50 years ago, a met a good friend of mine outside his house; he was smoking a pipe, which was certainly rare for a teenager - especially an Israeli one. He had just gotten a new job as a counterman at a cheap restaurant and thought it would look very cool to the girls. Well, I at least thought it looked cool, and was determined to get one myself. I had a bit of money saved up, so I took a bus to Haifa port to a store I had found out about. (I think the store still exists!) I certainly didn't have enough money for anything close to a 'high end' pipe, but I didn't want to buy a piece of junk, either.

So I settled for a nice Shalom Deluxe at the recommendation of the owner. (This pipe has long been out of production, since the factory had closed many years ago.) I have since replaced the stem twice, and the pipe smokes as nicely as it did after it was first broken in. It is also the only briar I have and smoke, since I am an avid smoker/collector of metals.
My friend's first tobaccos were Half and Half, and Mixture #79 - neither of which I especially cared for, so I bought a pack of Sail Aromatic Green and was happy with that for a while. I then switched to Amphora Aromatic Red, which is still my 'old reliable' tobacco. Nowadays, however, I prefer the Dunhill blends and an occasional smoke with pure Turkish. ::

 

[nsfisher]

18-19 yrs ago I bought a pouch of Green Sail and a $9.00 corner store pipe. Packed it full and fired it up. I was sitting in the boat in the middle of the lake Bass Fishing. Before I was done fishing, the pipe was at the bottom of the lake and my mouth was on fire and I had a circular burn mark on the palm of my hand. It was a China made pipe with the metal bowl liner.

 

[yadan]

"19 yrs ago I bought a pouch of Green Sail and a $9.00 corner store pipe. Packed it full and fired it up. I was sitting in the boat in the middle of the lake Bass Fishing. Before I was done fishing, the pipe was at the bottom of the lake and my mouth was on fire and I had a circular burn mark on the palm of my hand. It was a China made pipe with the metal bowl liner."
:lol:

 

[Perique]

My first attempt at pipe smoking was my third year of college, so just a little over 20 years ago. I had a drug store pipe and some Captain Black and I puffed that sucker until it was too hot to hold. The next morning my mouth felt like it had been scorched. But man did I (think) I look(ed) cool. Needless to say, that initial flirtation with the pipe didn't last long.

 

[tbradsim1]

Squatting down with a Montagnard passing the pipe around like Indians, then in Naval hospital bribing a nurse to buy me a pipe and tobbaco at the gedunk, PX for you grunts, she came back with an Kaywoodie and Borkam Riff, sneaking in the janitors closet at night to smoke, head nurse finally telling me that clean up people were complaining about the stink, thought I had fooled them LOL, I still have that Kaywoodie after 50 yrs. the old cajun

 

[cmkiefer]

I was in the Air Force and picked up my first pipe at the BX (That's AF lingo for PX) This would have been in the latter half of the '80's. It was a Grabow Prince which I still have and smoke on occasion. I smoked nothing but CB Royal 'cause I didn't know any better. I remember buying the 8 oz tub was a stretch for me being on enlisted pay but I forked out the 10 bucks or so anyway.

 

[cortezattic]

1965 or 66, Middleton Cherry Blend in a Medico squat bulldog from the corner drugstore.

• Also, does anyone remember this?

 

[philobeddoe]

The summer I was 16, I decided to buy a pipe. I had always thought they made men look distinguished and "wise". I went to the local Hooks (now CVS), went down the tobacco aisle, they still had an aisle in the store that anyone could just walk up and select a pipe and a pouch of tobacco, ahhh. The only choice was which Dr. Grabow to choose, as the Cobs had/have no appeal to me. I remember spending quite a bit of time choosing just the right shape. CVS now stocks 2-3 different Grabows, back then (1990), Hooks stocked at least 40 different briar pipes, straights and various bents in smooth and blasted at various price points. The cheapest ones were around $5.00 and I think the top of the line was around $40.00. I carefully studied them and chose a smooth full bent billiard for around $15.00. I then chose a pouch of Borkum Riff Whiskey, I remember that I thought the sailing ship on the pouch looked cool! I remember struggling for many smokes to keep the damn thing lit, it always wanted to go out, until one day I went to change the filter and found I was out. I remember being nervous about smoking the pipe without a filter, but I really wanted a smoke, so I put it back together without the paper filter and voila! The pipe was transformed, the smoke was way tastier, my tongue was much happier without the extra heat caused by having to puff so hard with the filter in; that was the day I became a (pipe smoker). Before I took out the filter, I was stumbling in the dark, removing it let me see the light!

 

[piperl12]

Late 80's and all the guys in my platoon smoke cigerettes. Every march we had a smoke 'em if you got em break. I didn't care for cigerettes but my father was a pipe smoker, so the next time I was home on leave he gave me one of his Brigham pipes. Smoked it for about three years as an only pipe in my rotation. Eventually decided I better quit or get serious about it. I think the first tobacco was a package of SAIL and I thought it was horrible. The next one was Erinmore and I thought it was God awful too and almost quit. Then a Warrant Officer who saw me smoking one day near the guard shack offered me a pinch of his CBR it was the first tobacco I tried that didn't bite. Had a great conversation and made a new friend. Still have the pipe, still smoke the Captain once in a while and that Warrant Officer became a life long friend.

 

[thesmokindragon]

I was a cigar smoker for almost 20 years, decided to see what all

the pipe smokers had been talking about... Got myself a Stanwell

Deluxe 63M, some of Davidoff's FMs, been love at first smoke

every since then ;-)

 

[timely]

Drugstore brand in a Medico and a cob pipe around 34 years ago

 

[rigmedic1]

My scoutmaster smoked a pipe, and I liked the look of it and the great aroma that went with it. So I found 2 pipes in a dime store: an unmarked wood and a cob (M&M bulldog cob), both purchased for 5 bucks total. I got some Middletons Cherry blend for it. Scorched the heck outta my mouth, but I still loved the room note. I smoked drug store Dr. Grabows and Captain Black until I discovered tobacco shops.

 

[foggymountain]

Sorry if this is not funny.I was 12 years old when I started going to Manhattan on my own. I had a part time job already, so there was limited funding. First thing I did was get a pack of Cigarillos. Since I was 6 feet tall, it didn't arouse much attention. Except one day sitting in Bryant Park I heard someone saying "look at the kid with the cigar". A few years later, at 14, I found a junky pipe and some dried up 20 year old tobacco in a closet at home and tried it. Could be better, I thought, so I got some Edgeworth, then some Amphora. Neither was great, but they were enough of an improvement to pursue pipesmoking. Then I turned my attention to getting a good pipe. My first was a smooth Stanwell, cost $18 new. The breakthrough, the first really good smokes came when I tried Balkan Sobranie. At age 15 I discovered the Wilke pipe shop on Madison Ave, run by two grandmotherly old ladies. The Wilkes were totally unfinished Macedonian briar. Not even waxed. They broke in quickly and gave a great smoke. I still have a bent apple I got there, which was my first great pipe. It cost $20. Today, a pipe like that would be over $500. At 16 I was sent to a prep school where I got into trouble the first day because a teacher spotted the tip of my Stanwell in my breast pocket (we had to wear suits). Soon afterwards I got together the $22 required and bought my first Dunhill. The NYC Dunhill shop was across from St. Patrick's Cathedral, on Fifth Ave, in Rockefeller Center. It was the nicest store I had ever seen. The pipe counter was on the first floor, the first thing you spotted when you entered the store. There was a knowledgeable tobacconist at the counter who mixed me my own My Mixture. It wasn't as good as Sobranie though, so I did not reorder it and don't remember the number. That store is long gone. Dunhill's in NY now is a clothing store with a little cabinet of pipes in the basement. Prices are about $700 and up. At age 17, representing myself as a pipe expert, I talked my way into a job at Petersons pipe shop across from Grand Central Station, now called Barclay Rex. This was all in the 1950s.

 

[timely]

you have had an interesting life foggy

 

[uberam3rica]

I went to this head shop to get a pack of cigs and some cigars(they have a sizable walk in humidor), I saw the pipe and decided "What the hell, why not?". It was cheapy $20 thing, not sure what brand it was, it didn't have any markings. It Might F.e.s.s. It wasn't a horrible smoker, but it wasn't great either. I bought Paladin Black Cherry and Middletons apple with it.

 

[ebag]

Well, I'm brand new to pipe smoke, literally picked it up less than half a year ago so I'm still on the same pipe and everything.
Cigarettes were never really a thing for me and that's one of the only ways to see topside of a Navy ship with my job so I figured I'd try and pick something up to get me a little sunshine every now and then. I've never really liked cigar, but love the smell so I decide a pipe would be good. So I went to a local tobacco store in the San Diego area, picked up a cheapo little corncob pipe, a local cherry blend they make, and decided to go at it. First time was a bitch, couldn't pack it right or anything and burnt the hell out of my mouth, but now that I've got the trick down, at least from what I can tell, I'm enjoying it. Nice and relaxing. I'm not an every day smoker, but I do get it out every few days to unwind from a stressful day at work or what not. Now I just need to upgrade to a better pipe within my price range(40-100$) so if anyone got a suggestion I would love to hear it.