My Dad was a pipe smoker. It seemed so simple. He bought a can of Brindleys Mixture. Had a handful of good pipes he bought from Fader's in Baltimore. Wooden matches. Pipe smoking was easy.
He introduced me to the habit and bought me my first pipe when I was in my early 20s. I played with the hobby for awhile, then gave it up after a short period of time. Returned to it in my fifties. On Sunday nights I would pour myself a whiskey, lite up a bowl, sit on my deck and call my Dad. "You smoking the rope," he would ask. "Yep." And the conversation would go from there.
He died just after my birthday in 2010. Without our Sunday conversations my pipes fell into disuse.
But on the cusp of my retirement, I returned to the briar again, and this time it has stuck. While I was working, I would catch a midweek smoke break. I would often work through lunch. But on a Wednesday or Friday or whenever afternoon, around 3:00 the flow of email would slow and I would want to catch whatever wisp of weather I could. So I would sit in a park or courtyard and enjoy a good bowl.
Now, it may sound strange, but pipe smoking has helped me to retire. After a frenetic forty years of working, suddenly my days and nights are my own. The abrupt shift in my daily rhythm left me in a frantic state. I was so used to running from task to task, crisis to crisis, that I find myself completely discombobulated by days without tasks and crises.
Pipe smoking has helped me to slow down, and enjoy the moment. I suppose meditation, tai chi, mindfulness, yoga or some other new age phenomenon could have served the same purpose, perhaps with even greater advantages. But smoking a pipe works best for me.
As I have resumed pipe smoking, and explored tobacco and pipes, I have suffered what we all suffer in this era of on-line commerce: a deluge of advertising. And every ad suggests that the tobacco, tool, or pipe offered was made by 300 year old craftsmen working out of their family's stone hut in some, holler, fjord or forest in an lost part of the world. I am sucker for such marketing. But I also realize its all ********.
I am here to see what others think. Folks who smoke and know what they like. And I hope to learn some things.
So, thanks for the help. Joe
He introduced me to the habit and bought me my first pipe when I was in my early 20s. I played with the hobby for awhile, then gave it up after a short period of time. Returned to it in my fifties. On Sunday nights I would pour myself a whiskey, lite up a bowl, sit on my deck and call my Dad. "You smoking the rope," he would ask. "Yep." And the conversation would go from there.
He died just after my birthday in 2010. Without our Sunday conversations my pipes fell into disuse.
But on the cusp of my retirement, I returned to the briar again, and this time it has stuck. While I was working, I would catch a midweek smoke break. I would often work through lunch. But on a Wednesday or Friday or whenever afternoon, around 3:00 the flow of email would slow and I would want to catch whatever wisp of weather I could. So I would sit in a park or courtyard and enjoy a good bowl.
Now, it may sound strange, but pipe smoking has helped me to retire. After a frenetic forty years of working, suddenly my days and nights are my own. The abrupt shift in my daily rhythm left me in a frantic state. I was so used to running from task to task, crisis to crisis, that I find myself completely discombobulated by days without tasks and crises.
Pipe smoking has helped me to slow down, and enjoy the moment. I suppose meditation, tai chi, mindfulness, yoga or some other new age phenomenon could have served the same purpose, perhaps with even greater advantages. But smoking a pipe works best for me.
As I have resumed pipe smoking, and explored tobacco and pipes, I have suffered what we all suffer in this era of on-line commerce: a deluge of advertising. And every ad suggests that the tobacco, tool, or pipe offered was made by 300 year old craftsmen working out of their family's stone hut in some, holler, fjord or forest in an lost part of the world. I am sucker for such marketing. But I also realize its all ********.
I am here to see what others think. Folks who smoke and know what they like. And I hope to learn some things.
So, thanks for the help. Joe
Last edited:
![[3-Size Set] Copper Pipe Cleaner for Drill, Clean 1/2, 3/4, 1-in Copper Pipes & Tubes for Soldering, 3 Tube Cleaning Brushes, Model InerLok050, 075, 100, w/ Stainless-Steel Wire Bristles & 1/4” Shank](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FEqUv4rNL._SL500_.jpg)
