Smoke Like Your Grandpa

There are five men that I called Grandpa at one time or another. A few of them smoked cigarettes and one smoked a pipe. I find cigarettes unpalatable and generally offensive to the senses. I have never smoked a complete cigarette. But I remember my grandpa's pipe and the smell of the tobacco. Even as a child, it smelled good to me. I was too young to really know anything about anything but I don't think he smoked the flavored (aromatic) tobacco. He was a farmer and I find it more believable that he smoked a regular 'drug store' brand. So I had been conscious of pipes from a young age. I bought my first pipe when I was 21. That was the legal age to buy tobacco at the time. This was pre-internet, so I really had no idea what I was doing. I bought a Peterson system pipe in a subtley flared 'calabash' shape and I bought some fruity tobacco that smelled great in the jar at the tobacconist. The experience of smoking a pipe was frustrating and after a few attempts, I put it away for a couple of decades. When I decided to come back and try again I had the full resource of the internet and all of the helpful pipe smokers on the Pipe Smokers Forums to advise and encourage me. What I quickly learned was that smoking a pipe is a ritual. See my post on shaving like your grandpa for a brief discussion of rituals in our lives. I quickly lost my hang-ups about being 'good' at pipe smoking and saw it as an excersize in relaxation and contemplation. I left behind the fruity flavors of aromatic tobacco and instead prefered the pungent earthy tones of English blends. I also came to appreciate the simplicity and utility of an inexpensive corn cob pipe. Briar pipes are beautiful works of art (or at least they can be) and I have a few that I enjoy very much. But a corn cob transports me to a simpler time and I find that between the ritual of packing, lighting and smoking, and the feel of the corncob pipe and the flavors and aromas of the tobacco, the experience is truly unique and satisfying. I think our grandfathers knew this as well, but they might have taken it more for granted. I could be wrong, but I think that suburban work-a-day life in the 40's and 50's was perhaps less of a burden than it often is in the 21st century. So when I smoke a pipe I try to savor the feeling of simplicity. There may come a day when tobacco in any form is no longer tolerated. I hope that day will delay for a few more decades until I am removed from this mortal coil and can enjoy a pipe with my grandpa in the next.

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