What was grandpa/professor smoking 30 years ago...

[docspipe]

I've been smoking a pipe for going on 40 years now and even with 5 kids I'm no grandpa yet, but here's a story for you. My great grandfather (my mom's grandfather on her mother's side) used to live with my grandparents, and as a kid I spent lots of time with my grandparents. My great grandfather was an Italian immigrant, a brick layer by trade. He always smoked a pipe and I can remember sitting on his lap while he spoke to me in Italian (I didn't understand a word he was saying) while he puffed away on his pipe. I can remember the sight in my mind's eye as if it was yesterday. Same goes for that wonderful smell. Fast forward to around 1981. I was a medical resident at the time and was attending a pathology lecture given by the head pathologist. In my early medical career you could smoke a pipe anywhere in the hospital (except for the operating room!) and many doctors did so with wonderful aromas surrounding me. I settled in for the lecture and the pathologist started off by lighting his pipe. After a few minutes the aroma of his pipe reached where I was sitting and I was immediately taken back to that wonderful smell of my great grandfather's pipe. I had been smoking a pipe for several years at the time and this was the first and only time since that I smelled that same pipe aroma. I was determined to find out the blend. After the lecture, and when time permitted me, I walked by the pathologist's office. There he was, seated at and peering into his microscope, puffing away. Again, that same wonderful smell. I didn't want to disturb his train of thought so I didn't enter. However, after passing by his doorway a portion of an adjacent wall that wasn't at first visible to me came into view. There must have been at least 100 50gram round tins of Flying Dutchman. I certainly didn't need to ask what he was smoking! I smoked FD a few times prior to this encounter and it always fried my tongue. I was determined to try it again. With a lot of perseverance and patience I managed to tame the Dutchman; but as you well know the baccy never smells the same to the smoker while smoking it as it does to the non smoker in the room. Only on rare occasion did I get that elusive whiff (and unfortunately very fleeting) that all started on my great grandfather's knee. The smelling mechanism in our brains is very close to (and connected with) our limbic system. Part of the limbic system is where memories are stored. No wonder smells can allow us to recall past experiences with such an acute vividness, transporting us back to, as in my case, a time and place long gone...it can be a wonderful experience and I am grateful to God for that!

 

[12pups]

Great story!
And yes.. university. As an undergrad, I used to get to my lit class early, pull up a desk close to the teacher's desk, put her ashtray on the desk and open the window nearest us. Those were the days. The education director, in his class, soon as it was over, he lit up a cigarette. As we talked he'd flick the ash on the carpet and rub it in with his shoe, saying, "Keeps the moths away." Leo Frommelt. Loved that guy. Also kept Jack Daniels in his desk drawer. Man, I owe my career to him -- all the time I spent after class getting "help on my lessons."

 

[thnaks]

Great stories and anecdotes all around. Plus quite a few old blends that I had forgotten (or in the case of Flying Dutchman and Walnut, never heard of before). Our scent memories are so strong and powerful. In addition, there's something about smoke and wood that just comforts the mind and feeds the soul. Not sure if that's true for everyone, but it is for me. Maybe it's fire-sign thing.

 

[yorkshirepipe]

I only graduated university 2 years ago so none of my professors would be allowed to smoke inside any university building let alone when they're teaching - come to think of it, I don't think any of my professors smoked at all.
My maternal grandfather did, can remember him walking outside in the garden (he wouldn't smoke indoors) with his hat. He smoked gold block. My dad used to smoke when he was gardening, but he stopped when I was young - he was also a gold block smoker. There are still numerous tins in the garage he keeps bits and pieces in.
It's a shame gold block is only sold in pouches now, I still like it, in my blood I reckon ;-)

 

[jpmcwjr]

American Uni, or Brit?

 

[newbroom]

I think as a cigar smoker, you might like Old Joe Krantz, a blend in honor of Bob Tarler's Grandfather.

Notes: Notes from Bob: The blend was named in honor of my grandfather, who was also my pipesmoking mentor and role model. He primarily smoked burleys, like Union Jack and Edgeworth Sliced. I cannot think of a time when I didn't see him w/o one of his beat-up pipes and the aroma of pipesmoke around him. In any case, I was reading the reviews of Haunted Bookshop and Norm Musicant indicated that he liked more red virginia in his blends. Norm is someone whose opinion I respect. I was still looking for a simple hearty burley blend that could hold my interest all day. So, a new blend.

http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend/1700/cornell-diehl-old-joe-krantz

 

[thnaks]

American university, jpmcwjr.
Not an enjoyer of cigars, newbroom. The pipes of my youth smelled nothing like cigar smoke (of course, to be fair, I'm sure that the cigars I smelled back then were terrible cheap ones).

 

[mso489]

When I was in undergraduate school, 1964 to 1968, if I had to guess, I'd say Prince Albert in one of the more expensive Kaywoodies. Professors weren't paid a whole lot, hence the tub tobacco, but they wanted to cut a figure, hence the better Kaywoodie, which at the time was more upscale than it is seen now. I'm sure a few of the (mostly) gents in named chairs or med schools had fancy European pipes, but they were researchers and administrators as much as professors and didn't have to address more than a class or two a semester.
The guy who taught me basic economics was really wired, tightly wound, and drank coffee from paper cups and smoked cigarettes continuously and talked a mile a minute.

 

[hierophant]

My grandfather wasn't a smoker, but when dad was smoking a pipe, he smoked bucketfuls of Middleton's Apple and Half & Half.

 

[skraps]

I think as a cigar smoker, you might like Old Joe Krantz, a blend in honor of Bob Tarler's Grandfather.

Old Joe Krantz was blended by Bob Runowski--in honor of his Grandfather--not Bob Tarler.

 

[shutterbugg]

The only pipesmoker I knew growing up was my dad's buddy and he smoked his own blend of Edgeworth, Borkum Riff and Amphora (which he mispronounced amorpha). It smelled great, but I tried it once and it tasted as much like crap as any of those mixtures singly.

I only had one prof in college who was a piper, he always had the same pipe in his mouth day in and day out, no idea what he smoked in it but considering he never rested it I'm sure his tastebuds couldn't have been very advanced.

Myself I was a cigar smoker since highschool, only started smoking a pipe in college because the girls in class objected to the cigar. They promised that a pipe would be ok (beccause their fathers or granfathers smoked one) So I bought some lat-bomb house blend from the local tobacconist, just to make those stuck-up brats gag :D

 

[warren]

And we wonder why there are those that do not wish to be around smokers. ::

 

[didimauw]

My grandpa smoked a pipe for 50 years. He quit about 20 years ago. (He's 91 now) After I started smoking a pipe, I had talked to him about what he smoked. He said he only ever smoked Kentucky Club Aromatic, out of Dr. Grabows. His only other pipe was a meerschaum that he had in the service. After learning what he smoked, I went and bought a pound of it. Turns out, I can't stand the stuff.
A few days ago I got the chance to talk to him again, now being that I quit smoking cigarettes. My mom and grandma would always tell me the story of how Grandma and Grandpa and all 5 kids would hop in the station wagon for long 5 hour road trips. He would light the pipe, right before take off, with all the windows rolled up...
My Grandma told me that every morning Grandpa would go into the dining room, fill his pipe, light it up. "

poof poof poof" she says, and fill the room with smoke, and THEN go outside... lmao!
He also tells the same story about how a waitress had to stop him, to ask him what he was smoking, so she could buy it for her husband! Made my grandpa proud.
Then my grandpa goes on to say, " ...And you know, I never inhaled, that I knew of"
And grandma replies, "No, But the rest of us did..."
Times sure were different these days. I get scolded if I'm in the general vicinity of my daughter outside even...
I mentioned to him that I still have a bunch of Kentucky club left, and that I would give it to him (even though i know he only smokes a cigar occasionally now). He stopped what he was doing, and I could see in his eyes, that he was considering it. He said " Oh, Really?"
I'm thinking about stopping at a Walgreens and picking up a Dr. Grabow for Christmas for him....

 

[blueeyedogre]

The backseat of my Grandpa's dodge was littered with empty pouches of Sail Green. Even after he cleaned it out there was always a pouch or two remaining.

 

[thnaks]

That would be nice, didimauw. I'll bet it would put a smile on his face.

Sail Green, another one I've never heard of before.

 

[billinsfl]

In the early '80's I worked for an office furniture company in Cleveland OH. Until about 1984 or so workers could still smoke at their desks. Cigarettes mostly, but a few pipes. Borkum Riff and Captain Black appeared to be the order of the day. I know this because even though I didn't smoke a pipe back then, a co-worker did, and he always asked folks what they were smoking. It was cool!

 

[skraps]

My pipe smoking mentor was my Uncle. I loved the smell of his den, with all of his pipes and tobacco. He didn't smoke anything special, but the smell was heavenly. His most common smoke was BCA, relabeled as something else in our local B&M. Sometimes he would switch off to 1Q, but BCA was the most common thing in his tobacco jar. Looking back, I laugh now... it always had an apple slice in it, to "keep it moist".