Who Got You Into Pipe Smoking And When?

[warren]

Don't forget, after conquering France the Normans then conquered England, and permanently settled in both places.
Maybe not quite as pure in blood, but The Black Frigate still carried Vikings.

There was no France at the time of the Vikings. They did take some villages in what is now Normandy, were co-opted by the locals, became Normans, mongrel Vikings at best, Roman, Celtic and Belgic blood having thinned the Norsemen blood considerably. and, eventually took over England. Sven did spend some time as the ruler of a good deal of what is now England that, is true. But, as the Anglo-Saxons never acted as a country and the Vikings could not unite them, there was no England to conquer until ... well, 1066, long after the heyday of the Vikings.

 

[Chasing Embers]

But anyone with European ancestors is related to ur-ancestor Japhet.

My DNA ancestry chart didn't list anything Nordic.

 

[warren]

Yes, we are using "tribal" terms, goegraphical ID's, and ignoring the fact that Celts, Scotties, Norsemen, etc. are, in fact, pretty much the same genetic makeup with the odd Moor, etc. interjecting their genes into the mix. Vikings were simply northern European Caucasians. When we get down to the "nitty=gritty" only minute genetic deviations ID us and separate us.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

I was mostly a chewer and cigarette smoker until a freshman at college. I noticed a couple of busty coeds who seemed enamored with a leather, elbow patch, pipe smoking prof. No way with the tweed but, if a pipe was what was needed ...Well, a trek to the Woolworth's in town, a leather covered Ropp, a packet of Walnut and I was ready for the competition!

I was asked to remove myself from the dorm and move into the apartment complex with the rest of the "crass" hockey players discovering "puck bunnies" as compensation. I was now an aficionado of the pipe but, no longer competing with professors. bunnies were a lot more entertaining compared to studious coeds.

Was the Prof in question a Geography Professor by any chance or was he a Beatnik, jazz kind of a Prof?

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

For me it holds historical value. Pipesmoking has been common practice across the last 400 years of English/European history and I feel like we're losing something of cultural significance if everyone stops and forgets it ever happened.
Can you really read Sherlock Holmes without smoking a pipe?
Can Mark Twain be understood without smoking a Cigar?
I argue "No", they cannot.
At least that's the pitch I'd throw at the Canadian government if they ever try to outlaw tobacco completely, upholding cultural tradition is portrayed as a great virtue and everyone else around me seems to get away with a lot of stuff in the name of historical preservation so I should easily be able to smoke an occasional Pipe as a legitimate part of my "cultural identity".

Fair point well made, frozen church warden, I can’t even think about Holmes without reaching for a pipe. As worrying as the thought maybe, of a time when tobacco is banned, I look to our Australian cousins and the prices they have to pay for tobacco, as the path down which governments are going to go. This is the main reason that I am trying to build up stock, before I get priced out of the market.

 

[Bill Mac]

Quite an interesting thread.
I too find it very enjoyable sitting down with a book to read it while I smoke my pipe.

As far as who started me I guess I could say all the fellows in town who smoked pipes when I was a boy. When and where I grew up in PA Anthricite country many of the men from all walks of life smoked pipes. Some cigars. Some both pipes and cigars. More people smoked cigarettes. My sister and I always liked the smell of pipe tobacco. We'd visit houses where there was a pipe smoker and the aroma was wonderful.
My friend and I started making our own corn cobs one fall. We used reeds (those tall bamboo looking things with big tassels on top that grew on the flat land near the coal banks. There was an abundance of Indian Tobacco that grew everywhere so we picked and dried that since at 12 years old or so we'd never be able to get real tobacco.

We'd smoke when out in the woods or fishing. By the time I was in high school I bough one of those (25 or 50 cents at the time) small corn cobs and the man at the garage gave me some of his tobacco. Then when I wanted to smoke I'd head to the local garage. He never would buy me a pouch, but always let me fill my pipe about once a week.

I was about 16 and got my first car and on a trip to the city I stopped for gasoline and the service station sold Missouri Meerschaums for abut $1.00. I bought one and the clerk asked if I needed some tobacco to go along with it. I probably said Prince Albert or Half and Half because they were probably the only brands I recalled and could spout out confidently. I guess this was the start of my real pipe smoking, 51 years ago.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

Quite an interesting thread.
I too find it very enjoyable sitting down with a book to read it while I smoke my pipe.

As far as who started me I guess I could say all the fellows in town who smoked pipes when I was a boy. When and where I grew up in PA Anthricite country many of the men from all walks of life smoked pipes. Some cigars. Some both pipes and cigars. More people smoked cigarettes. My sister and I always liked the smell of pipe tobacco. We'd visit houses where there was a pipe smoker and the aroma was wonderful.
My friend and I started making our own corn cobs one fall. We used reeds (those tall bamboo looking things with big tassels on top that grew on the flat land near the coal banks. There was an abundance of Indian Tobacco that grew everywhere so we picked and dried that since at 12 years old or so we'd never be able to get real tobacco.

We'd smoke when out in the woods or fishing. By the time I was in high school I bough one of those (25 or 50 cents at the time) small corn cobs and the man at the garage gave me some of his tobacco. Then when I wanted to smoke I'd head to the local garage. He never would buy me a pouch, but always let me fill my pipe about once a week.

I was about 16 and got my first car and on a trip to the city I stopped for gasoline and the service station sold Missouri Meerschaums for abut $1.00. I bought one and the clerk asked if I needed some tobacco to go along with it. I probably said Prince Albert or Half and Half because they were probably the only brands I recalled and could spout out confidently. I guess this was the start of my real pipe smoking, 51 years ago.

I’ve always wondered if tobacco, being native to the America’s, could be found growing wild and could be cut and dried, in the same way lemons and orange trees grow wild in Spain and you can pick free fruit. Now I know.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I'd love to see some citations regarding the above statement. The cost of the leaf would, alone, seem to preclude the majority of the male population from taking to tobacco. Socially, in Europe, smoking in public was frowned upon. Hence, private clubs and, in a few "upscale" residences, a smoking room with cap and robe donned to keep the reek from the rest of the residence. Clay pipes were pretty much relegated to pubs. One could buy a pipe full of tobacco, smoke it and then toss the clay into the Thames. But, men did not go out on the street with a pipe.

So your point hinges on trying to establish socializing at pubs as being outside the norm? In England?

When Tobacco was first introduced to Europe it certainly was subject to extreme tax and even punishment for association, but by the 1700's when the population of Britain was about 5 Million, clay pipe production was also in the millions.

History of tobacco - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What we know for sure is that as soon as Tobacco was introduced to Europe its use exploded and became one of the most widely traded commodities in history.

At their peak in 1936 Rossi was producing 18 Million Pipes Per Year: Rossi - Pipedia - https://pipedia.org/wiki/Rossi
Rossi is said to have been the largest pipe manufacturer ever with a staff of over 800, for comparison Chacom had 450 in the same time period: Chacom - Pipedia - https://pipedia.org/wiki/Chacom
Assuming similar productivity those two companies alone would have been making 28 Million Pipes Per Year.
Within a period of 20 years they would have produced a pipe for every living person in Europe.


Along with that I came across a very interesting observation on the common health impact of Pipesmoking:

File:Cancer smoking lung cancer correlation from NIH.svg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

To see such a dramatic rise in lung cancer with Cigarettes necessitates that lung cancer was not prevalent among Pipesmokers in the decades prior, even more relevant since the study started at the height of Briar Pipe manufacturing.

 

[The Clay King]

So your point hinges on trying to establish socializing at pubs as being outside the norm? In England?

When Tobacco was first introduced to Europe it certainly was subject to extreme tax and even punishment for association, but by the 1700's when the population of Britain was about 5 Million, clay pipe production was also in the millions.

History of tobacco - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What we know for sure is that as soon as Tobacco was introduced to Europe its use exploded and became one of the most widely traded commodities in history.

At their peak in 1936 Rossi was producing 18 Million Pipes Per Year: Rossi - Pipedia - https://pipedia.org/wiki/Rossi
Rossi is said to have been the largest pipe manufacturer ever with a staff of over 800, for comparison Chacom had 450 in the same time period: Chacom - Pipedia - https://pipedia.org/wiki/Chacom
Assuming similar productivity those two companies alone would have been making 28 Million Pipes Per Year.
Within a period of 20 years they would have produced a pipe for every living person in Europe.


Along with that I came across a very interesting observation on the common health impact of Pipesmoking:

File:Cancer smoking lung cancer correlation from NIH.svg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

To see such a dramatic rise in lung cancer with Cigarettes necessitates that lung cancer was not prevalent among Pipesmokers in the decades prior, even more relevant since the study started at the height of Briar Pipe manufacturing.

Interesting observation.
Decided not to touch a cigarette for a long time, if ever again!

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

Started in '91 at 17 for no other reason than I enjoyed tobacco. To my knowledge, I'm the only pipe smoker my family has had in four generations.

I’m the third generation, that I know of. Here’s my Great Grandad, sometime between the wars.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

My grandpa was a pipe smoker, and he was certainly one of the "influencers" who turned me on to the briar. I was probably only eight or nine years old when I decided I would definitely become a pipe smoker. I loved and admired my grandpa, and I always associated him with the aroma of Sir Walter Raleigh and Amphora, which I could never get enough of. An especially fond memory: My grandpa and a handful of his friends would get together for coffee and socializing two or three days a week: He and one of his good friends always had their fragrant pipes with them. He didn't directly instruct me (not in the beginning, at least), but I learned a lot about technique from him and his pipe-smoking friends through careful observation. By my early teens, I was pretty sure that all that observation had prepared me to smoke a pipe as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

When my dad went through a pipe-smoking phase, encouraged by my grandpa (his dad), I just couldn't wait any longer to try smoking a pipe myself, even though I was only 15. I tried smoking a bowl of SWR in one of my dad's pipes in the garage while no one was home. Predictably, I had a hard time keeping the pipe lit, despite my years of careful observation. It took some practice applying my grandpa's technique, but I gradually got the hang of it. I learned to like it well enough to stick with it. I realized I shouldn't be borrowing my dad's pipe and making off with my grandpa's tobacco all the time. Until I turned 18 and went to college, I smoked Amphora and SWR in a Medico and a Dr. G in secret, sometimes with a high school friend of mine.

Soon after my 18th birthday, I went to the pipe shop to buy my first legit pipe, I picked out a classic smooth billiard with a saddle stem, with the help of the shop guy who had regularly sold tobacco and pipe supplies to my grandpa. He didn't seem to recognize me, even though I had spent hours in that place with my grandpa and my dad, hovering longingly over the pipes and tobacco jars. I remember the little lesson he gave me as I broke in my new pipe. It turned out that my observational skills had partly failed, so the shop guy offered a little guidance about packing and clean-up. When I showed off my new pipe to my grandpa, he winked and mentioned he had a hunch I was keen on pipes. He said he'd have given me a pipe to smoke a few years earlier, but he thought my grandma would take a dim view of the idea. Anyway, he passed on a couple of old-school Bing Crosby-style pipes, which I cleaned up and treasured. Around the same time, my official entry into the hobby got my dad back into pipes. Great memories!

I can remember being 9 or 10 and being sent to the village shop to go and buy an ounce of tobacco for my Grandad; Mr Hobson, who owned the shop, never once asked who it was for and quite happily sold it to me. Sometimes he used to say “Here, you might need this.” And he’d give me a liquorice pipe. I’d go back to my Gran’s house and pretend to puff on it, while she was busy doing something - it could be a false memory (it almost certainly is) but I always remember her, covered in flour, rolling out pastry for some reason. ?

 

[Bill Mac]

I’ve always wondered if tobacco, being native to the America’s, could be found growing wild and could be cut and dried, in the same way lemons and orange trees grow wild in Spain and you can pick free fruit. Now I know.

Indian Tobacco is native to most of the eastern half of the USA. I never saw it it Florida though. I'm not sure if it grows in Cananda.

 

[Bill Mac]

Was the Prof in question a Geography Professor by any chance or was he a Beatnik, jazz kind of a Prof?

I had a history prof. who puffed away on his pipe in the classroom during his lectures. He could bee seen almost every place on campus enjoying his pipe.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

Indian Tobacco is native to most of the eastern half of the USA. I never saw it it Florida though. I'm not sure if it grows in Cananda.

I was watching a YouTube video the other day, called something like “tobacco in Ireland” and there were actually several tens of farmers growing the stuff in Ireland which might just be the wettest country in the world ?
I wonder if I could grow some in England?

 

[JOHN72]

I was watching a YouTube video the other day, called something like “tobacco in Ireland” and there were actually several tens of farmers growing the stuff in Ireland which might just be the wettest country in the world ?
I wonder if I could grow some in England?

In love with the ancient traditions of the tobacco in Europe and EEUU????...............???

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

Don't forget, after conquering France the Normans then conquered England, and permanently settled in both places.
Maybe not quite as pure in blood, but The Black Frigate still carried Vikings.

Don’t forget the Rus - the Vikings in Russia or the Vikings in Sicily and Corsica...them lads got around a bit.

 

[PipeDad33]

I was in a Redit sub looking for cigarillos for winter time. After browsing for what seemed like hours trying to find that short break and winter time smoke someone suggested pipes. That was enough to intrigue me since I had already tried piping a couple of years before that. Not knowing or really looking into the proper way I was turned off after a few bowls. This time around I did the proper research before going all in, and it has paid off big time. Now my cigars sit lonely in my electric humidor.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

God.

 

[docrameous]

My memories of my uncle smoking a pipe go back to when I was about five years of age. He smoked lots of cigarettes and even rolled his own, but it was the pipe that caught my interest. The ritual and room note was amazing. Like the the OP, the socializing and story behind his pipe was rich, and very pleasurable.

 

[Misanthrope]

I saw a photo of a Big Ben Barbados 647 online and went "Now that is a pipe that suits my style", then I bought it, and promptly fell in love with pipe smoking from the first bowl.