Will Pipe Smoking Ever be Mainstream Again?

[5star]

I don’t see attitudes towards pipesmoking changing unless there is a drastic change in the culture.
This could come about due to economic & political events. Another world war or Great Depression might have people seeking lessons & attitudes from times past. They may also adopt some of the styles & activities of the past - perhaps including men wearing fedoras & pipesmoking.
This isn’t so far fetched an idea. The US Army has recently adopted some uniforms that are quite similar to those worn in WW2.

 

[jpmcwjr]

No it will not and it has never been. Not that I'm that old, but I only remember 2 pipe smokers in my almost 38 years. << Snipped bits out >>

It wasn't when I was a young man, either, and that predates you by quite a lot.

But it was mainstream, say durning WWI and for a century before that.

Never again will it be mainstream, but there will be ebbs and flows over time.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I think pipe smoking had more of a ‘contemplative’ image. More so than the ‘trustworthy’ image. But that’s just a guess

Yes, but that was after pipe smoking wasn't main stream, and before it was frowned upon.

 

[puffy]

I think we are the last generation of pipe smokers.

 

[5star]

Yes, but that was after pipe smoking wasn't main stream, and before it was frowned upon.

Years ago I remember an episode of The Waltons when John Boy was in college & had come home to visit. After dinner he started to pull out his pipe & the family looked at him in astonishment or amusement (depending on the particular character). John Boy explained that ‘all the college men’ smoked a pipe.
I don’t know how accurately that depicted Great Depression pre WW2 attitudes. And how did people view Bing Crosby pipe smoking during WW2 ?

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

I think pipe smoking had more of a ‘contemplative’ image. More so than the ‘trustworthy’ image. But that’s just a guess

Possibly, yes.

 

[5star]

P.S. - I read somewhere that after WW2, when so many of the troops were introduced to readily available machine made cigarettes, pipesmoking popularity declined. And after the war everyone was in a hurry to get on with life. In a faster paced world maybe fewer wanted the slow it down pace of pipesmoking ?

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

Was just talking to a fella at the bus stop who was smoking something he called “Cherry Blossom” which he said was his own creation, in a well loved Falcon. He’s the first pipe smoker I’ve seen out and about in years; maybe the others are inside their houses, hiding from this cold snap?

 

[5star]

Was just talking to a fella at the bus stop who was smoking something he called “Cherry Blossom” which he said was his own creation, in a well loved Falcon. He’s the first pipe smoker I’ve seen out and about in years; maybe the others are inside their houses, hiding from this cold snap?

Ive only seen one pipe smoker ‘out & about’ in the last 10 years. Ive seen lots of vape smokers.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

P.S. - I read somewhere that after WW2, when so many of the troops were introduced to readily available machine made cigarettes, pipesmoking popularity declined. And after the war everyone was in a hurry to get on with life. In a faster paced world maybe fewer wanted the slow it down pace of pipesmoking ?

After the war, my grandad said he smoked anything he could get his hands on, until the 1960’s, when the night terrors subsided a bit and he could settle into a pipe without needing so much nicotine to calm his nerves.

I was never certain it was the nicotine he needed to calm him, more like the smoking was a distraction from whatever he was thinking about, maybe?

 

[username]

But hey you never know.

 

[mortonbriar]

Never full circle, but the boutique hobby version of pipe smoking probably has one more generation in it I imagine...

 

[jpmcwjr]

Ive only seen one pipe smoker ‘out & about’ in the last 10 years. Ive seen lots of vape smokers.

Where would that be?

Please put your location in your Profile. How:
Under your avatar, (top right, left most of three symbols) you choose "Account Details", which brings up "My Account". "My Location" is halfway down. Whatever you're comfortable with- town, city, county, state. province, etc.

 

[burleybreath]

The mainstream sucks. It's a sewer, with chunks of bad taste floating in it. Wouldn't want pipe smoking to ever become "mainstream," not that there's any danger of that happening. Don't really know about the ebb and flow of pipe smoking, but I'd bet cigar smoking will always be around--thus pipe smokers, by inference. Question for the bored: If you were the only pipe smoker in the world, would you still do it?

 

[jpmcwjr]

Indubitably.

 

[warren]

If any of my blends were still available, certainly. Not sure why they would be though. I wouldn't be willing to exert the required effort to grow my own tobacco so, I'd probably simply go with cigarettes and a "chaw" as desired.

 

[cigrmaster]

Pipe smoking will never be main stream. We will be lucky if people can order their tobacco over the internet in a number of years.

 

[Andriko]

Pipe smoking will never be main stream. We will be lucky if people can order their tobacco over the internet in a number of years.

Either that, or you will only be able to order it over the internet because if The Children even catch a glimpse of the plain, ugly packet with the corrupted corpse on it, they will instantly take up smoking. I am known to be a bit optimistic, however.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Question for the board: If you were the only pipe smoker in the world, would you still do it?

I was the only one I knew for two decades so probably.

 

[SBC]

If the testimony of antique shop owners is any indication, pipes are way, way, way up in popularity, relative to a few years ago.

When I first asked an antique shop, about 14 years ago, whether they had any tobacco pipes around, I was shown a rack of 14 pipes which included Ascortis, Sasieni's, Comoy's, etc. All in really great shape. The lady said they'd been sitting around forever, and she couldn't get rid of them. She asked me to take the whole lot (including rack) away for $60. I had only $20 on me, and she said, Fine, she was glad to finally find somebody who'd take them.

In the next few years following that, I scored again and again at antique shops.

I still drop into almost every antique shop I pass, hoping to score a pipe. Or, when driving through a new area, I'll call all the antique shops in the vicinity, to ask if they have any pipes around.

But I don't score any more.
Do you know what I hear probably 9.5x out of 10, these days?

"Oh my gosh, not somebody else looking for pipes! Nobody ever cared about pipes for decades -- I could never get rid of them -- and now I'm getting drop-ins and phone calls every day asking about pipes! What is going on? Can somebody please tell me if I missed a memo or something? Why is everybody looking for pipes now?"

So, yeah, that's a thing.

P.S. whoever you are in NE WI visiting all the same antique shops I'm visiting... can we like agree to map out territories or something? ;-)