Why Did I Start Smoking a Pipe?

[VDL_Piper]

I’ll be very happy to be adopted if the pipes come with the territory

Both my boys are non-smokers, so I will have to come up with a disposal plan.

You and I will have to have a long lunch one day and enjoy a bowl or two together. We need a pipes succession planing meeting!

 

[AroEnglish]

Like many other nerds: LOTR.

 

[JOHN72]

I followed my father's path. It's as simple as that. I started with cigars, and ended up with pipe tobacco a few years ago. I even recently became a fan of whiskey & whisky. It's funny, one thing leads to another. In the nineties we drank bourbon, and we didn't know it was bourbon. Maybe the cheapest and most commercial brands that were and are here in Spain.

 

[tmc]

I stumbled on to an article about Talbert Halloween pipes on boingboing.net back in 2004 and I fell down the rabbit hole.

 

[Rut6er]

Cigars were costing me too much. You burn them and the money literally goes up in smoke.

Interestingly, pipe smoking presents this same problem; however, tapping out a bowl that wasn't fully smoked, well, little lost. Cigars are wastefully expensive.

 

[Hillcrest]

I've heard one person on youtube say "...the pipe smoking lifestyle ... and It Is a lifestyle !"

I don't agree with that per se, but it was said ... by a newer hip pipe smoker.

 

[RookieGuy80]

I like smoking things. Cigarettes, cigars, brisket, ribs, the competition. I like tobacco, except I was growing disillusioned with cigarettes. But I did like cigars, snuff, even some Levi Garret on occasion. And I like wood. Sailing ships, furniture, trees. It seemed like a pipe was a no brainer.

 

[William F.]

…I liked the idea of being different as a young guy at the time

I thought of pipe smoking as being a manifestation of sorts but your comment has made me question that.

Perhaps I began smoking as an acknowledgement or acceptance of being different?
I do not know.

 

[damacene]

I always thought it was cool from the time I was a kid. My great grandfather had a pipe in his mouth 24/7, I still remember it even though he passed away when I was pretty little. When I was 19 I became friends with a group of nerds who were into pipe smoking, fancy teas, and talking philosophy. It was horribly pretentious but we were young budding intellectuals who weren't quite as smart as we were trying to look. One night we were hanging out in Newport Beach and I went to light up a cigarette, my buddie handed me a pipe with a bowl of Davidoff Danish Mixture and I was sold. Since then its always been something I return to, a mentor of mine who was a second father to me was a pipe smoker and that was something we shared. He passed away from COVID two years ago, but I have a couple of his pipes and a few jars of tobacco he gave me almost a decade ago. I never could kick the cigs(something that mentor tried to get me to do), but the pipe has been a very meaningful thing to me throughout the various stages of my life.

 

[MartyA]

Not long after I started college at the U of Nebraska, there was a fellow that smoked a pipe with Borkum Riff in the study hall of the Student Union. (It was a different time back then.) It smelled so good that I'd choose a seat across the table from him, and after awhile I bought a cheap pipe and some Borkum Riff of my own.
I enjoyed it, but I never really learned to smoke a pipe well, and after a few bowls I'd get tired of the aftertaste all day long and the next morning. This went on for 50 plus years, smoking a few bowls every year or two.
Then, a couple years ago I got the urge again, and figuring since "nobody smoked pipes anymore," the stuff off the rack would be dried out if I could even find it. So, I sent away for some Borkum Riff, and since I had to pay postage, I ordered some Autumn Evening too. Turns out I LOVED that Autumn Evening! I've been smoking a couple bowls a day in Churchwardens over dusty old books daily for close to two years now.

 

[JohnnyBeach]

I started smoking a pipe again after 34 years without a smoke. My uncle gave me some nice bruars and a couple of meerschaums when I was in my 20s. I recall that there was something about a pipe that resembled a nice dinner or maybe a candy treat. The nutty smell of the tobacco and the density of the smoke were attractive. I love a good briar with a nice cake buildup. Maybe that's not a good explanation but it's mine and I'm sticking by it.