What Started the Obsession?

[huntertrw]

What Started The Obsession?

Well, perhaps genetics for one thing. Both of my grandfathers were pipe-smokers, so that is an integral part of what makes me me. For another, almost all of my heroes have been pipe-smokers. That list includes my high-school band director, my first boss after I graduated from college, and a variety of authors including Corey Ford, Gene Hill, Gordon MacQuarrie, J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sparse Gray Hackle (aka Alfred Miller), Shelby Foote, Samuel Clemens, and Michael McIntosh, to name but a few.

 

[popeofpiping]

Like most, started with memories of my grandfather. The smell, the fascination with the pipe and smoke. It wasn't until my first bowl of Golden Slice in a nice briar that I felt the obsession take hold. That was 8 years ago.

 

[mso489]

My dad. Granger smoker from teenage, right after breakfast until bedtime, at work, walking to train. On train. He smoked only one pipe at a time until it burnt out, mostly briar, occasional cob. Then he'd buy another pipe, at the newsstand (when you could buy a serviceable briar there). A few intermittent years-off for King Edward cigars, then back to pipe and Granger. Quit cold turkey when he was 65, and that was that. When I bought a pipe in my early thirties, I knew all the moves on automatic pilot.

 

[philobeddoe]

I remember when I was little kid, seeing old men dressed in suits going about their day smoking pipes. I can still recall the sweet and comforting smell of the pipe tobacco, a smell I now associate with Captain Black. These men were very common in my neighborhood and in my city, old men smoked pipes, that’s what you were supposed to do, in a way. I associate pipe smoking with traditional masculinity, not in any “lumberjack” uber-testosterone sense, but in the grandfatherly and wise sense, though I never met my dads’ father and my mothers’ father did not smoke a pipe to my knowledge. My father smoked a pipe when I was very young and I’m sure this had some influence as well, but when I went to buy my first pipe at the local drug store during the summer of 1990, it was the old men in suits that I was thinking of becoming one day.

 

[olkofri]

Not really sure what. All I can remember is that even as a wee one I was drawn to pipes, and I always wanted one. Nobody in my family smoked one, and my parents are strongly anti-smoking. Go figure.
My interest became strong in the last year or last couple of years, but I was kinda waiting till I could move to a dwelling where I could smoke (it's not allowed in my apartment building), but last year I decided to go for it—tempus fugit, memento mori.

 

[ashdigger]

My grandfather and one of my uncles smoked pipes. Never really thought about it until it was after they passed. Sure wish I could smoke a pipe with either. Interestingly enough, I've never smoked anything, albeit three cigars, until I picked up the pipe on 9-13-11. I've been piping ever since.

 

[condorlover1]

Everyone in my family smoked a pipe with the exception of the women so it was just expected when I hit a certain age I too would also smoke a pipe. I took after a few of my Uncles since I got into smoking short clays and from there I arrived at meerschaum 'cutty' pipes. Never looked back really!

 

[jpmcwjr]

I was gifted a beautiful briar in college, and the Dean of students smoked one always. He became my pipe mentor and told me where to order good tobacco (by mail order, can you believe it?!) Then, on trips to NYC and Chicago, I acquired a bunch of basket pipes and a few Barlings. I put it aside for about fifty years, but have been enjoying the resumption for the last four years or so. (And bought a load of pipes and tobacco since then.) Not sure I am obsessed, but close.

 

[renfield]

My first memory of a pipe is from when I was 5 years old. I was at a friend’s house and we were in his dad’s study. His dad was an author and I remember the rack of pipes on his desk before the window overlooking the tree lined street. I was fascinated, never having seen a pipe before. Years later I recall “puffing” on a pipe I found on my dad’s dresser, still intrigued by these bits of wood and rubber and the aromas they exuded. Still later I recall being in my uncle’s machine shop, smelling his pipe smoke mixed with the smells of oil and steel. A heady blend. In college a favorite professor was a pipe smoker. His office was a sanctum of walls lined with books, desk buried in papers, and the air hazy with aromatic pipe smoke. Several years later I happened upon a local B&M and I stopped in. I left with a silver banded Peterson and some 1-Q. The rest is history. The enabling and informing aspects of the internet have been a huge part of things since.

 

[luigi]

I migrated to pipes from rollies I had smoked for over 10 years. A tobacco

company has changed pouches' look stating there was no change in their tobacco but I could feel the poison they had added. Looking for the most natural tobacco possible I ended up on youtube, found a channel about pipe smoking and in that moment I knew it was my thing. It felt like finding a piece of myself I had been missing for too long.

I probably won't quit any soon, my lungs are feeling better with pipes than rollies. Obsession is a strong word, I'd call it passion.

 

[derekflint]

No idea.....nobody in my family nor any friends smoked a pipe. It was something I just decided to investigate. Was thinking about it for a long time...now I'm here !!

 

[saltedplug]

I smoked pipes at the suggestion of a friend. I liked it and continued but I didn't become obsessed until I found out about pipe forums, JR's the first. There I found the breadth

of knowledge about pipes and tobaccos staggering, so I dug in, and got obsessed.

 

[skydog]

My grandpa smoked a pipe and I was a fan of different types of tobacco so when I was a freshman in college I picked up a cob and some OTC. Got into cigars for a while but never really enjoyed the culture. Once I found the wealth of information online about pipe smoking and the amazing blends I could find online and in the more specialized B&Ms around me I became a bit of a pipe fanatic. I've now inherited his pipe collection and gone crazy stocking up my cellar. He would have loved to sit down and sample some of these tobaccos I enjoy so I still smoke some of his pipes occasionally and remember what an amazing man he was.

 

[npod]

Fly fishing. Been doing it since childhood. There was this old guy well known on the river that always smoked a pipe and I literally knew I was going to do that some day. It took a while, but that memory is in fact the driving force for me. I have a drawing of an old fisherman smoking a pipe since high school, still hangs on my wall 25 years later. It’s now my avatar here.

 

[jpmcwjr]

That's a terrific drawing! Do you know the date and medium of the drawing, the artist's name, and hopefully where he plied his trade?

 

[npod]

That's a terrific drawing! Do you know the date and medium of the drawing, the artist's name, and hopefully where he plied his trade?

Unfortunately, I have no idea. It is signed, but illegible. I got it at a Goodwill in 1995 in Omaha, NE. It's been with me every since.
Current location

 

[leatherman]

Fascinating reading, all these old stories of how you guys picked up the pipe. Mine is less interesting. I quit smoking a little over a year ago, and one day, I had an intense craving for flavourful tobacco. Knowing nothing about pipes, I walked into a tobacconist shop and walked out with a Nording freehand and some Three Cherry. I had what can be referred to as a "perfect smoke" with some Frog Morton On The Town in a cob, and I've since been trying to perfect my technique while trying different blends to find those kind of moments. ::

 

[indianafrank]

It was Popeye who inspired me to smoke a pipe. Spinach though? I hate the stuff!

 

[voorhees]

I already liked cigars. But one day i picked up a mid 50’s Kaywoodie Prince at a antique shop and that was how it started.