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recoilrob

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 16, 2011
179
132
About 25 years ago, during the cigar craze, a friend got a rack of pipes at a garage sale, one was an old Dunhill Cherrywood poker. Some old tobacco came with it, a mild Virginia if I recall. We tried it, I liked it and the next week went out looking for a poker and couldn't find one so I bought a Dunhill sitter and some store Virginia.

After that I started buying and selling everything, been a lot of fun, but still have this one.

14077
 

macaroon

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 2, 2015
279
96
Michigan
A good ol' MM Missouri Pride and some wine aromatic from the local pipe/cigar shop. Still have and use the pipe, though it needs a new stem. Don't care much for aromatics anymore
 
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wulfheard

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 18, 2018
107
199
New Jersey
1978...one of my dad's old Kaywoodies,....Edgeworth Ready Rub, if memory serves. Almost choked to death and came away kinda green around the gills from the experience. But because I'm kind of stupid, it didn't stop me from going back for more.
 
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Idahojoe

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 30, 2019
168
232
62
Wilder, Idaho
I first smoked a pipe while attending college many, many years ago (early 80's) but it didn't take. Then in the late 90's, I tried again for several months. Both times my choice of tobacco was Sir Walter -as that was my dad's choice when he smoked while I was a youngster ( still love the room note of that ubiquitous blend).
Then about 2 1/2 years ago or so, I resolved to try again. I simply wasn't enjoying the cigars my friends and I were sampling. Bingo, just like that, I was in and haven't stopped since. My tobacco was again Sir Walter but I also tried Prince Albert, Half and Half and a few blends from a smoke shop in a nearby town.
I'm all in now -and it's good!
 
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Shawnboy

Lurker
Dec 31, 2019
12
27
54
Central Missouri
I still have the little rusticated nose warmer somewhere and a MM, I have seen it not long ago but darned if I remember where! And a bag of Captain Black Original, I was being sent to hell who knows where while in the Army so I took something new to me to do to occupy the DOWN time.
That was 91, haven’t used a pipe since 92.
Just picked up a H.I.S.(what ever that is) and a MM and a bag of Captain Black Golden and hit the old interweb, WOW there is a whole new world to explore.
I did find a B&M that did have some GLP Maltese Falcon that I picked up, which is my first real blend.
 
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boston

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 27, 2018
539
1,238
Boston
When I turned 14 (in the 70's) my dad told me that it was time to go to work...weekends only, as he didn't want me to be a grade school dropout. So we drove to town and walked up and down main street (all the stores were mom&pop/family owned), asking who needed help on Saturday's. Jim Cannatelli, owner of Chief Catoonah Tobacco said he would pay me $25 a day to be a shop boy. Some time later, Jim gave me a basket pipe (a bent bulldog or something like that), and I believe I smoked his Highland Blackwatch, a black cavendish. All of the weekend shop lurking regulars were there for this first smoke of mine. It did not go at all smoothly.

I no longer have the pipe. Our family dog at the time stole it and chewed on it - it was not repairable.
 

docrameous

Can't Leave
May 6, 2019
368
993
Colorado
May 9, 2019 - MM Country Gentleman cob, Lane BCA and a worthless butane lighter that I wound up throwing away. It was a cool quiet evening on the back porch that I remember vividly.

In spite of doing a ton of reading and looking at videos, I struggled to keep my tobacco lit and had my first experience with world class noobie tongue bite. :ROFLMAO:

In retrospect, I wished I had not started with an aromatic... and while I struggled to the point of wanting to give up more than once in the coming weeks, I was hooked and determined to learn.

I’m still a noob, but I enjoy it immensely and this online community has been an amazing support in my journey these last eight months.

I’m now starting to pass it on to others... giving samples and helping out a new younger smoker who has recently picked it up.
 
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condorlover1

Lifer
Dec 22, 2013
7,993
26,606
New York
Late 70s I think with a clay pipe and Condor RR when you could buy it in the little green foil cubes. Everyone in the family smoked a pipe with the exception of the women although I often wondered about Aunt Winifred!
 
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Epip Oc'Cabot

Can't Leave
Oct 11, 2019
435
1,179
When I turned 14 (in the 70's) my dad told me that it was time to go to work...weekends only, as he didn't want me to be a grade school dropout. So we drove to town and walked up and down main street (all the stores were mom&pop/family owned), asking who needed help on Saturday's. Jim Cannatelli, owner of Chief Catoonah Tobacco said he would pay me $25 a day to be a shop boy. Some time later, Jim gave me a basket pipe (a bent bulldog or something like that), and I believe I smoked his Highland Blackwatch, a black cavendish. All of the weekend shop lurking regulars were there for this first smoke of mine. It did not go at all smoothly.

I no longer have the pipe. Our family dog at the time stole it and chewed on it - it was not repairable.
When I was a kid, I always imagined being able to work after school or weekends at the pipe shop my father especially liked. But it was 45 minutes away where he worked, so it never was a realistic possibility. I did really enjoy being able to go there with him occasionally when I was a teen, though.
 
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blendtobac

Lifer
Oct 16, 2009
1,237
213
My first pipe came as part of a package. It was a red pot The Pipe that came with two pouches of Borkum Riff. It smoked horribly wet and was impossible to handle once the pipe was lit. I was ready to quit, but my father noticed it and took me to his tobacconist and bought me a bent rusticated briar and a Latakia blend. If he hadn't done that, the trajectory of my life would have been significantly different.

Russ
 
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JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
60,846
553,739
Back when I was a teenager, my buddy Steve Parsons was trying for weeks to get me to try pipe smoking, knowing I had my father’s old pipe, which was a Williard Canadian (lousy smoker). He wanted someone to enjoy smoking with. Finally, he said, “Just try it, and if you don’t like it, I’ll never bug you again about it.” I said, “Anything to shut you up, Steve.” On June 20, 1974, he had a small still which was brewing his alcohol, and we were checking it about that time. The reason I remember the day is obvious. The reason I know the exact time I had my first bowl of pipe tobacco (1:30 p.m) is because I'm an infamous clock watcher, and when I lit up for the first time, I looked at my watch as I often do, and in this case, to record the moment so I could bitch Steve out if I hated it, which I obviously didn't. Btw, the tobacco he handed was Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey, which was half decent in those days if you puffed slowly.

Steve wanted me to try the batch, and I said, "You are out of your freakin' mind, buddy. You made it, you try it." He wouldn't. He fed a sample to a mouse, and the mouse died. That ended that experiment. But, I enjoyed that tobacco, and was forever hooked on pipe smoking. I did bitch Steve out after high school when he quit smoking, and I was a lone smoker. I never let him forget it to this day.
 

Zartoon

Might Stick Around
Jan 8, 2020
72
135
1996, Gus’s smoke shop in Sherman Oaks, CA.
Peterson system 314 with P-lip estate pipe.
Boatswains Mate tobacco, which was a black cavendish aeromatic blend.
the owner showed me how to pack, light and smoke. Was there for 3 hours hanging out and relaxing. Shop is no longer there sadly.
 

bmdfm

Lurker
Jan 13, 2013
40
95
Newport, New Hampshire
First ever pipe was some bright red thing I got at the local pharmacy in high school. Probably some Borkum Riff whiskey tobacco. I had no idea what I was doing. Didn't even realize I needed to tamp the tobacco, and had no idea that a tamper even existed. Needless to say, it was an epic failure. Many years later, I picked up a really small $25 basket pipe and some Paladin cherry tobacco. That experience wasn't a whole lot better, but this time around I had the internet to assist me so I stuck with it. Glad I was finally able to figure it all out and moved on to much better pipes and tobacco.
 
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