Ageism in Pipe Smoking?

[bentbulldog]

I am a relatively young pipe smoker, in my mid 20's and I get a lot of people commenting on my pipe smoking. I get "What are you 80 yrs old?" or "You Popeye or something?"
And the other day, while I was buying some pipe sweetener and cleaners at the Barclay rex, well dressed gentleman who was smoking and buying a new pipe asked if I was buying stuff for my "bubble pipe" :roll:

I mean is there something wrong with pipe smoking at my age? Do others feel a sense of ageism in pipe smoking?

 

[kilted1]

I am a relatively young pipe smoker, in my mid 20's and I get a lot of people commenting on my pipe smoking. I get "What are you 80 yrs old?" or "You Popeye or something?"
And the other day, while I was buying some pipe sweetener and cleaners at the Barclay rex, well dressed gentleman who was smoking and buying a new pipe asked if I was buying stuff for my "bubble pipe" :roll:

I mean is there something wrong with pipe smoking at my age? Do others feel a sense of ageism in pipe smoking?

I took up the pipe at age 18 (now 48) and I got a lot of very strange looks, comments etc. Yeah I thought it strange, have they never read Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer ffs? Mostly I didn't let it bother me at all, back then you could smoke anywhere you liked, and soon enough people began enjoying having a pipe smoker around fuming up the air, funny how even that has changed. Most people enjoyed the smell of a pipe 30 odd years ago.

I don't know why people seem to need to comment on a young pipe smoker, I mean it's really none of their damned business in the first place. I mostly just said, "Yeah I smoke a pipe, so?"

Don't let the fucktards get you down ipe:

 

[Doc Manhattan]

Don't let the fucktards get you down ipe:

What he said! The reason there are so many happy old pipe-smokers is because at one time, they were happy young pipe-smokers. What do people think, that they send you a billiard and packet of Prince Albert with your AARP card?

Especially bad show for another pipe-smoker to get high-hat on you. We're supposed to be brothers. One of the clerks at Barclay-Rex is about my age, and an avid (and helpful) pipeman--I wonder if that fewllow you met would give him any guff.

By-and-large, as a young pipe-smoker, I've gotten nothing but positive comments from folks, smoker and non, young and old. But if I cared what anyone else thought, I wouldn't smoke a pipe.

 

[pipetongue1]

Even' All, Don't let them get to you, I started when I was 12, 53 years Ago. :shock: :shock: Ken :tongue:
Pacem en Puffing! :tongue:

 

[Eulenburg]

My dad made fun of me when I started smoking a pipe at age 17. He assumed I was just trying to look mature and interesting. He was right. But when I stuck to it, he agreed it was better than either booze or cigarettes, and better-smelling.

Many people associate pipe-smoking with their grandfathers in the 1950s. For a while, It was not "hip". But perceptions change. When I smoke my pipe in the street, I see youngsters look at me with curiosity: the same curiosity with which I looked at pipe smokers when I was a kid. I remember my grandmother's old gardener, an ancient Italian with a sea background, smoking a long curved Peterson when I was a tike. I determined, within myself, to try it "when I grow up".

Pipe-smoking, by its very nature, is not for people in a hurry. Generally, a quiet and sedate kind of young person would go for it. It's not something one does on a skate board! Older smokers ought to be welcoming and sympathetic. We share a wonderful hobby.

 

[Anonymous]

Wait long enough and everything swings back around again.

Like double-breasted suits. And facial hair.

:face:

 

[pipetongue1]

Yak, I haven't shaved in twenty years and don't intend to!! Ken :tongue:
Pacem en Puffing! :tongue:

 

[puros_bran]

I think it really comes down to just how much control over YOU that you are willing to allow others to have..


I struggle with it alot, I've haven't quite mastered it (as most of you know) but the easiest way to deal with absolute stupidity that can not have a physical effect upon you is to walk away from it.

(if it can have a physical effect on you it's a whole diff ballgame)

 

[Wet Dottle]

Bentbulldog, I know what you mean. I started when I was 20, but was in my late 20’s when “enlightenment” struck and I stopped caring what others thought. Free you’re a$$ and your mind will follow. :mrgreen:

 

[ftrplt]

Quaint and rustic answer to the question "Are you 80 years old."

Reply: No, but you must be 'cause you're blind as a f......n bat!"

For the question " Are you Popeye, or sumpthin?"

Reply: "Why yes I am! Would you like a 15oz. can of spinach shooved up your a$$?" :twisted:

When I started smoking a pipe in 1964, noboby really said a word. My Dad did ask me if I did it for relaxation. Today, when someone asks me why I smoke a pipe, I reply, while looking them straight in the eye with no smile on my face: "Because I am a Man, I practice the Manly arts; pipe smoking being one of them!" ipe: FTRPLT

 

[HistoryMajor]

I haven't caught much trouble for smoking a pipe. Usually if I'm in a social setting I'll smoke a cigar over a pipe, which is a little more "normal." At the tobacconist I frequent, there are two young guys working there, and plenty of young people come through buying tobacco., so I'm not out of place.

 

[janski]

I'm 36yo and still get the occasional odd look when smoking in public. You just learn not to give a sh*t. I enjoy smoking my pipes, that's all that matters.

 

[Centurian 803]

Speaking as a member of the "old fart" set, It does my heart good to see young people smoking the pipe. It gives me hope that the beautiful things in life will continue!

 

[Justpipes]

Yak, I haven't shaved in twenty years and don't intend to!! Ken :tongue:
Pacem en Puffing! :tongue:

20+ and same here!

 

[Dillon]

I'm sure I get some strange looks (I've noticed many) but to tell the truth, I really, really don't give a shit. Not about smoking itself or, the vast majority of the time, smelling like tobacco. I can smoke in so few places now that it would be almost humiliating for me for to care about how a pipe looks on a 20-year-old. I learned pretty early on not to care--because I'm smoking a pipe I'm not that concerned with fitting in or playing into appearance standards anyway. Then again, I've been mistaken for an older (25-35 y.o.) person many times, which pipes, tucked-in shirts and my former mustache earned me.

 

[Anonymous]

I got a little of it, but I looked old when I was in my twenties, carried a full beard and all. I still look old, often confused for 40ish. I say take it as a complement man. Don't let people's view of you make you who you are; YOU make yourself what you are.

I don't care how old you are: if you smoke a pipe, you are always welcome to sit and smoke a bowl with me. Pipe smokers are a class of their own. Even the liberals can't preach while they are puffing.

 

[Dillon]

I got a little of it, but I looked old when I was in my twenties, carried a full beard and all. I still look old, often confused for 40ish. I say take it as a complement man. Don't let people's view of you make you who you are; YOU make yourself what you are.

I don't care how old you are: if you smoke a pipe, you are always welcome to sit and smoke a bowl with me. Pipe smokers are a class of their own. Even the liberals can't preach while they are puffing.

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

But a cigar actually encourages the opposite of a liberal, if my experience in B&Ms has taught me anything. But you're right, and cigar smokers are a different breed entirely IMHO.

I actually have taken it as a compliment when people say I look older, but it's hard to convince people you're not doing it just to look older, even when you smoke pretty much everyday and often by yourself. Pipe-smoking is part of my personal attempt to try and distance myself from my generation or from being "a 20-year-old". I don't know what it means to be 20 and it's extremely irritating when people tell me I should act more like my age. I'll act like a person, thank you very much.

Also, I don't really like the attention I get as a young pipe smoker, even though I don't get much. It all feels at least a little like I'm being patronized, and most of the time I think that's the truth. Those are my two social balancing acts with the pipe: Convincing people I'm not doing it to look older while taking their saying I look older as a compliment, and to make the hobby look pleasant, civil, and agreeable and not as a more classical means of cigarette smoking while doing it often and still smoking a cig or three a day. It's depressing how many people think of it along the same lines of cigarettes, especially people my age, and have the same kind of vindictive anxiety about it as they do cigs as non-smokers.

 

[Herzl]

The stereotypes fit. Generalizations are difficult, but pipe smoking and cigars take intent and planning that is uncharacteristic of frenetic 'youth on the go.' A cigarette can be 'hot-boxed' in less than five minutes. For most cigar or pipe smokers, a lot of time, money, and planning are involved. Just loading a pipe, or cutting the tip off a cigar is 'extra work,' time wasted 'to get a hit.' Cigarette smokers are driven more by circumstance than choice: Pall Mall because Lucky Strikes became hard to find, and Camel because Pall Malls were hard to find fresh. 'What's available?' True here as well, but the twilight zone of the struggle to control our TAD and PAD is often for the cigarette smoker, the ever-present realization of naked pack-a-day addiction stalked by the human will to overcome, 'someday.' To be free. Quit. The addiction is the star, not the qualities of possibilities. When you're young, time is short, hurry. Be quick. When you're old, you're more willing to take the short time you have to try to savor the moment knowing that it may be your last.

 

[Anonymous]

I am both a cigar and a pipe smoker. Quite frankly had the price of puros not gone through the roof, I'd smoke more cigars. However, we are different than cigarette smokers.

We enjoy the aromas, the flavors; yes, we enjoy the occasiontal nic. hit (I get jittery and either faint or throw up, probably because I've never really been a cigarette smoker) while cigarette smokers are all about a quick fix.

Granted snuff is some of our quick fix, but doesn't it still involve aromas and flavors?

Hang on, I think I just went right off topic. My apologys.

I guess I've smoked a pipe for so long that it just looks natural on me (remember I'm not ancient myself). People often ask me, wheres your pipe?

What no cigar?

(Like I'm gonna smoke a pipe while working out)

 

[jlong]

I started pipe smoking in my early twenties. I recall some people giving me flack. Not many. I just wrote them off as faggots and stayed the hell away from them.