Hello, I'm Jeff.
I'm a teacher, a gun collector, an outdoorsman (camping and fishing), a motorcyclist/biker, a really nice guy, and a long-time pipe smoker.
My grandfather smoked a pipe when I was a kid. My parents have always been militant anti-smokers, and in the early '70s they bought my cigarette smoking grandfather a pipe since it isn't as bad for you. After that, he smoked a pipe for about 10 years before going back to cigarettes. So, my earliest memories of him (and his car and home) involved the smell of pipe smoke (I think he smoked Sir Walter Raleigh).
When I was 17 or 18 I picked up my first pipe myself. It was some kind of Dr. Grabow with Borkum Riff tobacco. I loved it, but... Back then it wasn't taboo to smoke in public, but as an 18 year old with a pipe I got all kinds of weird and nasty looks and after a few weeks I got tired of it. Plus, back then I hid from my parents that I smoked (well, I thought I did, how can you hide the smell of it) and the pipe and assorted accessories were a lot harder to hide than a pack of cigarettes. So, I threw it away.
At 21, while in college, I picked it up again. I bought a Dr. Grabow and a tobacco store basket pipe or two (one of the basket pipes was actually a really nice pipe- smoked and looked terrific). I got into some of the bulk aromatics at a local tobacco store. I only spent a year at that school, but kept with it when I returned home. Over the next couple years I picked up a decent collection of pipes, luckily only one or two wasn't a "basket" pipe (I no longer remember the brand). Why luckily- because I was also a cigarette smoker back then, and when I tried to quit at around 23 I also threw away my pipes.
Well, quitting only lasted a few months and when I went back to cigarettes I also started buying pipes and cigars again (I started the cigars at 22). When I quit cigarettes for good (at 25) I did not give up my pipes or cigars, so I still have those pipes.
Now, I am 40 so I have been smoking my pipes for around 19 years. I have a collection of pipes that runs north of 20 pipes. One Grabow, several basket pipes, but more and more they are good pipes- 4 Petersons, several Savinellis, Karl Erik, Stanwell, a meer, and some good, but more obscure names as well (one of my favorites is a nice sandblast Fe Ro from Italy). I am into English blends (love Latakia, hate Perique though), Virginias, and aromatics. I went through a few years where I blended my own.
Sometimes when I light up my pipes, it still brings back memories of my grandfather when I was a kid (the olfactory sense is very strong when it comes to invoking memories), but now it brings back a lot of other good memories from the past 20 years as well
I'm a teacher, a gun collector, an outdoorsman (camping and fishing), a motorcyclist/biker, a really nice guy, and a long-time pipe smoker.
My grandfather smoked a pipe when I was a kid. My parents have always been militant anti-smokers, and in the early '70s they bought my cigarette smoking grandfather a pipe since it isn't as bad for you. After that, he smoked a pipe for about 10 years before going back to cigarettes. So, my earliest memories of him (and his car and home) involved the smell of pipe smoke (I think he smoked Sir Walter Raleigh).
When I was 17 or 18 I picked up my first pipe myself. It was some kind of Dr. Grabow with Borkum Riff tobacco. I loved it, but... Back then it wasn't taboo to smoke in public, but as an 18 year old with a pipe I got all kinds of weird and nasty looks and after a few weeks I got tired of it. Plus, back then I hid from my parents that I smoked (well, I thought I did, how can you hide the smell of it) and the pipe and assorted accessories were a lot harder to hide than a pack of cigarettes. So, I threw it away.
At 21, while in college, I picked it up again. I bought a Dr. Grabow and a tobacco store basket pipe or two (one of the basket pipes was actually a really nice pipe- smoked and looked terrific). I got into some of the bulk aromatics at a local tobacco store. I only spent a year at that school, but kept with it when I returned home. Over the next couple years I picked up a decent collection of pipes, luckily only one or two wasn't a "basket" pipe (I no longer remember the brand). Why luckily- because I was also a cigarette smoker back then, and when I tried to quit at around 23 I also threw away my pipes.
Well, quitting only lasted a few months and when I went back to cigarettes I also started buying pipes and cigars again (I started the cigars at 22). When I quit cigarettes for good (at 25) I did not give up my pipes or cigars, so I still have those pipes.
Now, I am 40 so I have been smoking my pipes for around 19 years. I have a collection of pipes that runs north of 20 pipes. One Grabow, several basket pipes, but more and more they are good pipes- 4 Petersons, several Savinellis, Karl Erik, Stanwell, a meer, and some good, but more obscure names as well (one of my favorites is a nice sandblast Fe Ro from Italy). I am into English blends (love Latakia, hate Perique though), Virginias, and aromatics. I went through a few years where I blended my own.
Sometimes when I light up my pipes, it still brings back memories of my grandfather when I was a kid (the olfactory sense is very strong when it comes to invoking memories), but now it brings back a lot of other good memories from the past 20 years as well
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