Tag Archives: Stories and Essays

Smoking under an umbrella

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Ugh, another rainy day in Vancouver. Not the normal drizzle that is pervasive throughout the winters around here, but a full downpour. It’s June 2 so summer weather should be happening. I should be wearing shorts and sandals not a sweater and slicker. But what can you do – weather is one of those things that you can complain about but not control. The complaint seems to accomplish nothing other than to make you miserable. So I picked up my umbrella – it does not often get used in the winter rains as a drizzle is manageable with a wide brimmed hat – and I headed out into the rain for my walk.

Before leaving the dry zone of my front porch and entering the downpour, I packed a pipe with some Dark Twist to smoke while I was on the walk. Smoking in the rain has always been something I have avoided for the most part. On occasion, I have turned my pipe upside down to keep it going in the drizzle and tried to enjoy the smoke but it was always a pain. This evening the umbrella was a godsend. The pipe would stay dry and keeping it going would be no trouble. I could smoke it right side up!! The umbrella formed a dome shaped smoking room around me that not only kept things dry but also created a zone that held the smoke around my head. If you can picture a person walking in a cloud of smoke you get the picture of the still air that held the smoke in place as I walked. I got to smell my own tobacco and live with the room note in a limited space.

I had avoided smoking with an umbrella in the past as it seemed like it would be just one more thing to hold onto while I was walking. I had all kind of discussions with myself about how I could not tamp or manage a lighter and a pipe and an umbrella at the same time, but this time I just did it. No excuses, no rationale. I made sure to fire the pipe and tamp and relight before I started on the walk and just figured I would deal with the issue of tamping and relighting should I need to when it occurred.

I started down the sidewalk walking under the trees, enjoying the smell of the tobacco and the surprising experience of a good smoke. The pipe did not go out nor did I need to tamp for awhile. I just enjoyed the moment of the smoke. It was almost like taking a mobile room with me. It was quiet with the pattering of rain on the umbrella. Traffic was at a minimum as it was after dinner. The light swish of cars going by a block away on the busy street near home was not an interruption. In the course of my walk I met an older woman (older is now a relative term for me in this 57th year!) who looked at the pipe and said how good it was to see someone smoking a pipe out and about! She said it brought back memories of her father and uncles who were all pipe smokers. She smiled as she walked by! Contentedly I walked on in the rain enjoying even more the solitude and pleasure of the pipe after that kind of comment.

None of the antis seemed to be about – I guess the rain must also be harmful to our health! As this was the case I walked through the neighbourhood park (illegal to smoke in the parks in Vancouver). The park is a great green space that takes up a square block in the centre of my neighbourhood. It is filled with large Chestnut, Oak, Fir, Pine, Cedar, Maple and Cherry trees. The grass is long as it has been too wet to mow and the smell of the rain is a pleasure in the park away from the street and the cars. I walked to the overhang at the school next to the park and set the umbrella down so I could tamp my pipe. I decided to just stay there in the dry space for a few moments and smoke my pipe while I watched the rain. It was as if I was the only one out walking this early evening.

I shook out my umbrella and then continued my walk. I finished my pipe under the umbrella as I walked home. It is amazing to me how the pipe gave me a different perspective and attitude toward the rain. It was far different than my usual whine about the rain and the damp and it being June!! I came home in good spirits and settled down with a good book knowing that I did not have work in the yard or garden this evening!

Poor draw on a stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was working on a stem for a friend this evening. The bowl on the pipe had a great wide open draw. The stem by itself was awful – it was like sucking on a coffee stirrer. It was a Aerosphere pipe. He had plugged the carburetor which was good. Somehow the stem itself was not drawing. I heated it and straightened it. I pushed a pipe cleaner through the straight stem and a chunk of some kind of fabric fell out. I used a light and looked down the stem and saw that the airway was a half circle. I used a needle file to open it up and to open the slot on the button as well. I then reheated with a pipe cleaner inserted to keep the airway open and then bent it so as not to kink the stem. The draw is wide open now. This caused me to post here regarding opening airways on bent stems.

Here are a few things to consider:
1. Is there anything in the stem itself clogging the airway? Could be a chunk of pipe cleaner lint, or fabric or just plain gunk.
2. Is the button open or is the slot on it constricting?
3. Is there a kink in the airway caused by the bend itself? This can happen when the stem is bent too far for the thickness of the stem at the bend.
4. What is the shape of the airway from shank to button? Round? Oblong? Oval? half circle? Check it before you drill it?

Anyway just a heads up – check before you drill it open.

Confessions of a Pipeman – First edition – Gary B. Schrier

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Confessions of a Pipeman – First edition

Gary B. Schrier

Schrier subtitles his book “an irreverent guide for today’s pipe-smoking man.” It is indeed that!! In its short 90 pages he takes on almost every aspect of the life of a pipe smoking man. He debunks a lot of traditions and takes exception to some commonly held myths that seem to float around everywhere these days. Some of his takes on things will certainly ring true to you and some will actually tick you off, but all will make you sit up and take notice. Schrier has a knack for stringing together words in ways that carry a lot of punch for their schrift.

I sat down to read the book last weekend, with a pipeful of nice Virginia, and could not put it down. It is a quick read and there are even cartoons to convey his points. For those who need to have a page full of type interrupted by an occasional picture or cartoon these are great. I always read the foreword and the preface of every book I read. I have the often mistaken belief that the author or whoever wrote the foreword might actually tip his or her hand on what to expect of the book in hand. In this case that is exactly what happens. The foreword is written by Marty Pulvers. He says “For the aspiring pipe smoker, there is no source that can educated and inform as this book. It would not be going an inch to far to call this a critical resource for that incipient pipe smoker, because the information contained herein is not going to be readily available anywhere else, and without it,  the beginner just might well lose his/her way and give up on the wonderful world of pipe smoking.” He sings high praise regarding the helpful data that Schrier included in the book.

The chapters cover a broad range of topics. The first two reflect on the state of pipe smoking today. In them Schrier argues that the age of the pipe smoker is closed. The old pipemen of ages past are all but dead. We have entered a new time that requires the pipe man to adapt to get by. Smoking in public is quickly becoming a thing of the past with few places remaining where that is allowed. He really asks pipe smokers to count the cost of being a pipe man. It is a tradition that is almost gone according to his thinking.

The next section of chapters – 3-6 – delves into the life style of the pipeman and call the new pipe smoker to look at the challenge. He includes a chapter on the importance of reading to be a well rounded conversationalist – this includes a book list of pipe and tobacco books but also calls us to read more widely. The lifestyle also includes being a conscientious smoker and one who has a natural savoir-faire. This section is delightful to read and full of interesting and insightful topics that would be worth discussing with others.

After a brief chapter on not missing out on the delight of a cigar now and then the book turns to a discussion of choosing the right pipe and tobacco. There are some helpful insights here. Schrier’s take (like mine) is that a new pipeman should begin with an English like Dunhill 965 as it will minimize tongue bite and get rid of the tootie fruitie flavours that are sure to produce a bite in the new smoker. You may not agree with him but to be honest he does not particularly care about that. Just give a good reason for your disagreement. He turns to discuss aged tobacco and the ritual of keeping a pipe in good order. There is an interesting take on collecting pipes – I am not going to give it away but it is worth a read just to get your blood pressure up a bit if you are a collector!!

The next section of the book covers a variety of topics on travelling with your pipe and where to smoke it – pipe clubs, your own pipe den, etc. and gives a brief introduction to the questions about pipe smoking and health.

The last two chapters are set apart for the debunking of myths and the concept of mentoring others in the gentle art of the pipe.

The book is a great read. Easy to work through and digestible in small chunks due to short chapters. The language is colourful and at times irreverent. But it makes it fun to read. I found myself laughing at times and at other times reflecting on my own habits and practices. Marty Pulvers says it is a great book for the beginner, but I can say as an old timer with more years with a pipe under my belt than I care to admit it is enjoyable and educational. It is well worth the price of the book to have a conversation with Schrier between the covers of his book. You will laugh, agree, disagree, strongly take exception and at times wish he had said it more strongly. Highly recommended.

The Gentle Art of Smoking – Alfred H. Dunhill

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The Gentle Art of Smoking 

Alfred H. Dunhill

This book is quite different from Pipe Book by his father. Here Alfred H. Traces the history of smoking in all of its forms throughout history. He looks at it on the various continents and how it took form among the religious and the ordinary people. He looks at cigars, cigarettes, pipes and even snuff. Each is described from its inception to its ongoing development in the first chapter. In later chapters he develops each of the various smoking methods.

From the history of smoking a chapter is developed on the growing tobacco. There is some great material on the tobacco plant and the various layers of the plant from lugs, cutters to leaf and what each section is used for. He spends time explaining the cultivation of tobacco and the growing seasons in the various regions in which it is grown. Then he takes the reader through the process of harvesting, curing, grading, fermentation and marketing. The book then turns the preparation of tobacco from the harvest to transportation and the methodology used to create the various forms tobacco packaged. He does a great job going through the machinery for processing from the first to the last. The cigarette machines, that roll, pack and cut each cigarette and then package them in cartons or soft packs are described. Throughout the book sketches are used to depict the various sections of development.  He also looks at the way pipe tobacco and cigars are made.

The fourth chapter of the book picks up the history of pipes and to me this chapter is very reminiscent of is father’s book on pipes. He uses different but similar sketches to picture the pipes evolution but the text is very similar in my mind. There is nothing new or added in this section of the book that has not been covered by others.  From the history the author takes us to the making of the pipe. He addresses briar pipes first and of course gives a good picture of the process of making them from briar burl through finished product. In this section as in others there are also black and white plates that are really nicely done and lend illustration to the procedures that are being talked about. The section closes with a brief description of clay pipes and their manufacture and meerschaum and their development.

Chapter 6 looks at cigars and traces the rise and decline of cigar smoking throughout history. It also gives a good concise summary of the process of making, grading and packing cigars. Chapter 7 discusses the manufacture, history and use of snuff. There are some great plates in this section of antique snuff boxes, etc. Chapter 8 looks at the various methods of lighting tobacco products throughout history and gives some great historical development material on the discovery and manufacture of lighters. Again plates and sketches illustrate the variety of lighters used to bring fire to the weed.

The book closes with a section on the practice of smoking. The majority of the section deals with the choice, use and variety of pipes. It goes into the method to use in choosing shapes, stems and sizes. It also goes into a great description of the loading, smoking and after care of a pipe for the beginning smoker. Then the section turns to cigars. Here the choosing of a cigar is discussed with guidance on how to make that choice. Then directions are given for preparing and smoking the cigar you have chosen in order to get the most pleasure from the smoke. This chapter and the book closes with guidelines on the care and keeping of cigars.

Overall this is a great read; nothing new or profound but some very nice summaries of a variety of topics. The section on pipe smoking was by far one of the best sections in the book. It would make a great read for the new pipe smoker and a good review for those of us who have forgotten more than we remember about the great hobby that is ours.

The Pipe Smoker – John Paul Beaumier & Lewis Camp

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A Review – The Pipe Smoker
John Paul Beaumier & Lewis Camp

The sub title sums up the purpose of this book very well: “Being an entertaining and scientific treatise on pipes and tobaccos with wholly new revelations about the pipe smoker.” If you have you ever really thought about why you smoke a pipe or why some people smoke pipes and others just cannot be bothered, then this is a book you could have written given the time and thought… or at least one that you should read

The Pipe Smoker was written from a different slant according to the authors in the introduction. Their names on this book are pseudonyms for two northern California psychologist/authors. One is a scientific consultant to a leading American pipe manufacturer, the other is an expert on mind-body relationships and a long time pipe smoker.

Almost all other books written about pipes and tobacco focussed on that topic. This one has taken the tact of focussing on the pipe smoker. It is a study into what make a pipe smoker different from other humans. The argument is that once we have come to know some of the compelling reasons for this difference we will better understand why the infinite varieties of tobaccos and pipes have such special meaning to this special person.

With that purpose in mind the authors set out to look at us – the pipe smokers. The outline of the book illustrates this clearly. Each chapter in the five major sections is introduced by a pipe smoking quote from famous and anonymous pipe smokers that illustrate the content of the chapter. They add an interesting dimension to the book and to its overall direction – they give voices to the person of the pipe smoker. The five major sections are organized as follows:

Section 1:The personality of the pipe smoker – in which the authors look at the aspects of the collective and individual personality of the pipe smoker. They discuss masculinity, social image, extraversion vs. Introversion and what they say is the penultimate pipe smoker – the healthy introvert.

Section 2: What the body says – here the authors look at the pipe as a means of relaxation, sex and the pipe smoker, meditative mindset and pipe smoking. This is a fascinating section of the book and contains reflections that I have never read elsewhere.

Already you can see the different direction of this book takes. It was a hard book to put down without finishing the last pages.

Section 3: A sensual guide to the art of pipe smoking – Here the authors discuss the sensuality of the pipe and its effects on the smoker. They discuss the odour and taste of tobacco, the look and feel of the pipe, the caking, filling and lighting of the pipe, the exquisite pleasure of puffing and finally the care and feeding of the pipe. Here they capture for me in a way few have, the pleasure of the ritual of the pipe. Each chapter in this section captures what goes on in my senses and feelings as I savour a pipe. Well written.

Section 4: The Grand world of pipes – This section finally gets to the normal pipe book topics – it is the shortest section of the book. It covers what pipes are made of and the geometry of pipes – how they are made. Even this mundane section is written in a captivating manner.

Section 5: The book closes with a section on the religious and symbolic aspects of pipe smoking – but lest one get confused that somehow they are merely talking about sacred smoke the chapters in this section discuss the sensuous symbolism of pipe smoking the sacred and the profane in pipe smoking. It is a delightful ending to a wonderful treatise on the person who smokes a pipe.

I found that this book was a great read and thoroughly engaging. It is unique in pipe smoking literature. It treads some of the ground that lately Gary Schrier does in his Confessions of a Pipeman and does it as uniquely and interestingly as Schrier does. The book gives one much to think about – whether you agree or disagree with any one piece of their premise. Worth the read!!

The Pipe Smoker’s Tobacco Book – Robert Winans

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Blog by Steve Laug

Book Review

The Pipe Smoker’s Tobacco Book

Robert F. Winans

Winans’ book on tobacco is just that a book on tobacco. He says in his introduction that the focus of his book is to concentrate on the subject of tobacco as it relates to pipe smoking consumers. Winans says it this way in his introduction, “It is a paradox that of all the people concerned with tobacco, the consumer is probably the most poorly informed about the content of a tobacco blend and its quality. There are some practical reasons for this. Foremost is his preoccupation with the end result. As long as a pipe tobacco blend delivers a smoke which produces the desired taste sensation and pleasure, the details surround the growing process, chemical analysis, type of tobacco, flavouring process are secondary.”  Yet many of us are interested in the details of what it takes to produce a quality smoke.

If you are one of those who want to know those details, like I am, then this book is a gold mine of info that walks you through the process of tobacco production from the seed, the growing area and conditions to the processing and the marketing. Winans includes many charts and tables to help facilitate understanding tobacco. The tables and charts are worth the price of the book. These include maps and charts of regions where various types of tobacco are grown and how the climate, geography and soil conditions impact the chemical make up of the tobacco. There are tables of percentages of tobacco varieties produced and where within the US they are produced. There are rating scales and diagrams to help understand which part of the plant is used for what particular tobacco product. All are well drawn and composed to aid in understanding.

The book is divided into three main parts after the brief introduction that justifies the book. Each part picks up a piece of the picture of the tobacco product. Part one is about the kinds of tobacco. This section was a bit surprising to me as he argues that there are only three kinds of tobacco: flue-cured, Burley and Oriental. From these he works through the variations under each of those broad categories. For 57 pages he works through the makeup and composition of each of the kinds of tobacco. He looks in depth at the conditions they are grown under, the impact of that on the taste and the curing methods. This section of the book is very interesting and has many helpful charts, drawings, graphs and maps to help explain the processes and the chemical composition of each of the tobaccos. In it he also shows the impact of climate change on the sugar and nicotine content of tobacco. He compares a normal growing season, a wet season and a dry season in terms of the output of sugar and nicotine percentages in tobacco. Each of the varietals of tobacco are looked at in terms of their classifications – class 1: flue-cured, class 3(a): light air-cured burley, class 3 (b): dark air-cured, class 2: Dark fire-cured, class 3 (a) Light air-cured Maryland, class 7: Perique. He then turns to a discussion of Turkish tobacco and Cavendish. Part one closes with discussion on the importance of sugar in tobacco.

Part two of the book is approximately 8 pages in length and has reflections on tobacco and what makes a quality tobacco. This section focuses on what a pipe smoker wants from a tobacco. This includes such things as tobacco bite and the coolness of a smoke. He discusses the relationship of temperature and time at the point the smoke enters the mouth. In this section he talks of the relationship of puffing cadence to temperature. This section, though brief, is fascinating. The charts and graphs on temperature and cadence are helpful in explaining why things work the way they do in a smoke. The final part of this section seeks to lend some objectivity to the concept of what makes up a quality smoke. Part two is a great read full of helpful information delivered in short pithy explanations.

Part three of the book is short as well and is packed with tobacco statistics and bibliographic materials. He has statistics on the amount of tobacco grown and where it is grown globally. There are also statistics on the kinds of tobacco grown and what percentage they make up of the total global tobacco crop. These tables are dated in that they reflect the world in 1975 but they still give a helpful glimpse of things to those of us who are interested in such things. These graphs and charts are clear in their presentation of the state of tobacco production, the values of tobacco in percentages to type, and the geographic regions that produce the most tobacco by kind. The final chart in the book is a graph predicting tobacco use in terms of rise and decline.

The book is a great read. It is well written and well documented. It is a short book (80 pages of information) but it is packed with great information. The facts are very clearly presented and substantiated. There is little left to personal opinion or argument by the method which the author chooses to present the material. This is a concise handbook on tobacco that enables the pipe smoking reader to intelligently look at the “leaf” he/she is stuffing into their pipes to smoke. I highly recommend it. I purchased the book at http://www.pipes2smoke.com

Look What I Found

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The lid came off the old tin with a whoosh of air. The bouquet of rich, earthy tobacco filled the small space under the stairs where my desk sits. I sat and inhaled that smell for the longest time… But I am getting ahead of myself.

That tin was a “treasure” I had found in an antique store by the railroad tracks in my home town on a yearly visit with family. I still remember visiting the shop and wandering through the three floors of detritus that has come to be called antique. Strange how the things that I grew up with and regularly threw away are now collectible and “valuable”. I have developed my own method of scoping out these old shops, sorting through the plethora of stuff, to find the pipes and tobacco items that catch my eye. As I enter these shops, I suppose I could ask the clerk if they had anything that might interest me, but that has always seemed too easy and it feels like it robs me of the thrill of the hunt. So when I come into a shop I scope out the sales floor and then begin the winding wander through the shop. I usually do a fairly quick walk through on the first pass just noting things that might possibly be worth spending a bit of time picking through. On the second pass I spend a bit more time at the likely spots.

On this particular visit to the railway shop I had passed through all three floors and saw a few chewed up pipes and old tins. On the second pass through I saw this old tin that I had missed on the first pass – a big tin actually – the old 1 pound metal tobacco tins of days past. It had the metal opener attached that allowed the pipe smoker to lever the lid off and then reseal it so the tobacco would not dry out. I picked it up fully expecting it to be a typical old empty. But it was not empty. I shook it carefully to listen to what was inside. I know you all will be saying I should check to see if it had been opened but I did not do that! I shook it. Over the years of hunting I have found tins full of herbs, spices, grass seeds, nails, screws, and any number of things that give it weight and can fool you, so I shook it! This time there was no loud rattle or telltale noise that would identify one of those inside. There was only the familiar sound of tobacco inside the can. Once I figured that out I began to get more excited.

I examined the can for rust. There was none. I shook it again to listen to see if it was dry sounding. It was not. Then I checked the seal on it and found that not only was it still sealed but that the tax stamp was unbroken. It was sealed and not even torn. The date on the tax stamp said 1954. The paint and picture on the tin was in great shape with no scratches or dents. It was like being transported back to the 50’s to a time when the can was new. I was pretty excited because the odds were that I was holding a tin of tobacco from at least 1954 and it was sealed and available to me. I carried it to the front of the store and asked the clerk what they were charging for the tin.

“$10 is all for that old tin,” she said as she looked up sleepily from the romance novel she had been reading.

“Consider it sold!” I said. And with that I took out my wallet and paid the $10 and the obligatory share that the governor of the state claims as his due on every item purchased in his state. I carried it out to the car and placed it in the back with the other things that I had picked up on my hunt. It would sit there until I returned to Canada and carried it to my basement study.

Now fast forward to the opening lines of this tale. I popped the tin open and prepared to smoke a bowl of the aged tobacco. It was a nice crimp cut and it packed really well. The aroma was pleasant in the can and the bowl. It was a bit dry from the years of sitting but still hydrated enough for me. I lit the pipe and sat back and enjoyed the first of many bowls that I would enjoy from that big pounder. The nutty taste and the sweetness was not that different from the new versions of this old blend but the depth and fullness far outstripped them. I just sat with the tin open and smoked my pipe full and let the memory of the find carry me a bit. That was a banner day and a great find. It is finds like this that keep me on the hunt and always stopping to see what “treasure” the little out of the way antique shop might reveal to the searching eye.

Oh, you want to know what the old tobacco was. Some of you may have already figured it out but I probably ought to let the rest of you in on it. It was a tin of 1954 Prince Albert and it is still with me!

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A Volkswagen Bus, a pipe and a Tootsie Pop

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This is a piece I wrote on the anniversary of my uncle’s death.

The sun was bright and the temperature was already climbing on that Iowa summer morning in the early 1961. I was in Denison, Iowa visiting my grandma, Momo I called her, along with my aunts and uncles (my mom’s brothers and sisters). My cousins were older than me so I was pretty much invisible to them. The one person that stands out in my memories is my uncle Gene. He was always ready to spend time with his nephews and was fun to be with.

He had taken over my Granddad’s dry cleaning business after he died. It was one of those old school businesses that did pickup and delivery of items needing cleaning and having been cleaned for all their customers. He drove an old, green VW Bus for all of his deliveries. The console between the front seats held his pipes, an old bean bag ash tray and several pouches of Prince Albert and Carter Hall tobacco. His lighter and a box of matches also sat on it. What made this particular summer morning exciting was that I was going with Uncle Gene on his deliveries. We would spend the day together and share all the adventures that my 7 year old imagination could conjure.

Uncle Gene was my Mom’s oldest brother and my favourite uncle. He was a tall, lanky veteran of WW2 and a survivor of POW camps. He always had a pipe in his mouth, a habit he said he picked up in the camps. He loved his old pipes. I remember a pipe rack in the car filled with several old well smoked Grabows that he used throughout his day. He was a clencher and he always seemed to have a pipe in his mouth in my memories. I don’t remember ever seeing him without a pipe. As I recall, he even talked around the pipe as he told his jokes and stories. I can still smell the tobaccos and pipes when I close my eyes and let my memory wander.

Momo woke me early that morning and fed me her famous oatmeal and milk. I had eaten in a hurry. I still remember hustling to get dressed and find my baseball cap for the day. As I was brushing my teeth at Momo’s insistence (I mean, why did I need to do that! I was in a hurry to get to “work”) I heard a horn honk in the driveway. I left the tap running, threw my toothbrush in the cup on the shelf above the sink and ran out the door. The screen door slammed behind me on the back porch and I heard Momo holler, “You forgot to turn off the water…You behave now! Do what your uncle tells you and don’t make a fuss!” I ignored her and ran to the van.

My Uncle reached across the console and opened the door for me. As I climbed up into the van he said, “Whew, looks like escaped her clutches this time son. We better get out of here fast before she comes after you!” I looked over at him as he winked at me and the smile crinkles around his eyes and his mouth almost vibrated as he clenched his pipe and chuckled.

“Do you think she will come after me Uncle Gene?” I said.

“You never know with Momo… depends on what you did when you ran out that door. You didn’t go and get yourself in trouble now did you?” He laughed as he replied. “Reach down on the floor by your feet and pick up that bag will you.”

I did as he said and climbed back up on the seat.

“Go ahead and open it up. I picked something up for you for our day. I will smoke my pipe but you need something in your mouth as well.” As I opened the bag he used his old Zippo to relight his pipe. He was a master at doing it with one hand as he drove. So while a wreath of smoke filled the front of the VW I reached into the bag and lifted out a box of Tootsie Roll Pops. I don’t know if they were bigger then than now or if they tasted better but that day I began my love affair with Tootsie Pops. I remember that my eyes were as big as saucers as I lifted out a grape Tootsie Pop, unwrapped it and stuck it in my mouth. I held the stick in my hand just like Uncle Gene held his pipe! He looked over at me, winked and nodded and we were on the way.

I don’t recall what we talked about that day, but I do remember that Uncle Gene was great to hang out with. He always had a ready story and a joke going as we went from house to house and back and forth to the shop. I must have sucked on half a dozen Tootsie Pops between the morning and lunch and then between lunch and the time he took me back to Momo’s house. I have no idea how many times he refilled his pipe or if he changed pipes between smokes. I kind of don’t think he did but then memory is a funny thing. All I know is that to this day, whenever I get into a VW van I always smell my Uncle Gene’s pipe. I see his face and hear his chuckle every time I fire up a bowl of Prince Albert. When the pipe is lit and the smoke fills the room I am transported back to that day in 1961 and the VW, the pipe and the Tootsie Pops.

Uncle Gene died many years ago now but my memory of that day lingers with me like the taste of my last smoke on my moustache. I will never forget him and his kindness to me as a young boy. I raise my Tootsie Pop, er… my pipe in his memory.

A Medico Lancer, Prince Albert and the birth of my first child

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Today, it is a quiet day at the office. Everyone has gone home or out to do work outside the office. It is raining and grey outside. In the warehouse, my daughter is working on designing new jewelry for our foundation. We send the designs to Nepal and the women who our organization has rescued from human trafficking make beautiful pieces for us to sell for them in Canada. I had an urge to write this story for her this afternoon and the muse was active. I want to share it with you. Thanks for reading this.

This week was my eldest daughter’s 30th birthday. Now that means a couple things to me – she is getting older and also I am getting old. When I am in that space I get a bit introspective and reflective. I found myself taking a trip back to the day she was born – February 1, 1982. I remember it well for a bunch of reasons beyond the obvious that she is my eldest!

My wife and I drove to the hospital like all expectant parents a few times with false alarms before the actual event was upon us. But when the time arrived we drove to the hospital – It was the last evening of January 1982 and we were ready for this birth. It was a bit of a circus at the hospital. My wife went through 20 hard hours of labour before they decided to do a C-section. I was the first dad they let into the operating room for a C-section birth. I was robed and ready and the surgery happened about 2am Feb. 1. We were amazed at the beautiful little girl that was our new born daughter. To this day we are still amazed by her – just so you know. I stayed with my wife for awhile and around 6am I headed out to go home.

It was a beautiful February day in Escondido, California. There was a light breeze but it was warm. I remember getting in the car and wishing I had a cigar to smoke or a pipe. It was time to celebrate my new daughter! That is not startling in itself, but what makes it an interesting moment is that I had not smoked my pipes in about 7 years. Somehow I had laid them aside during university days and not thought much about them. In fact I had no idea where they were at that moment – at my parents, at a thrift shop, in the trash… I did not know but I knew I wanted a pipe now!

So where does one get a hold of a pipe at 6am. I remember dropping the car in gear and heading to a 7-Eleven Convenience Store not far from the hospital. In those days they carried pipes and tobaccos. It did not take long to get there. I remember pulling into the store parking lot and getting out of my car. As I did I heard a shout – “Up against the car, hands on the hood.” I looked around and it dawned on me I was the one being addressed. I raised my shoulders and hands in a question mark and the voice said, “Yeah you do it now.” So with that I did what I was told and was immediately frisked by a young police officer. He took my license and left me standing against the car hood. I tried to ask him what I had done but he refused to answer and told me to be quiet. So, contrary to my normal behaviour, I did as I was told. In what seemed like an eternity he spun me around and handed me back my wallet and a ticket. I was flabbergasted. I asked him what in the world I had done. By this time the store clerk and a few early morning coffee drinkers were gathered looking at me. All he said was, “It is on the ticket, read it yourself.” With that he turned and got in his car and left.

I could not believe what had just happened to me. I looked at the ticket and saw that according to him I had run a red light. Whatever I had done it did seem like overkill. I mean come on it was 6am and the roads were empty. And what about the “up against car” stuff? Ah well, I shrugged it off and went into the store. They had a fair assortment of Medico pipes and some over the counter tobaccos. I was not a fan of the carved Medico’s so I was looking at smooth ones and found a nice looking billiard that I liked. It was a nice dark brown and had a great feel to it. It was placed on the counter and I turned to the tobacco. I seem to have remembered that my uncle had smoked Prince Albert so I bought a package of that tobacco and a bic lighter. I was set to celebrate. I also grabbed a good cup of coffee and headed to my car.

I opened the pouch of PA and took a good whiff of it. Man did it smell good to me. I took a pinch and began to load the new pipe that I had purchased. It was loaded in no time at all and I touched the flame to the bowl and I was on my way to bliss. I sat and sipped my coffee and the smoke for what seemed like a long time. I was in the zone. It was heavenly. The first pipe I had had in a long time and a perfect way to celebrate this morning’s event. I pulled out into traffic and headed for home. It was about a 20 minute drive so I stopped at least one time I remember and repacked the bowl. I spent the better part of the drive on that second bowl. When I got home I pulled up under the palm trees. As I got out of the car my dogs came to me and we sat on the porch and enjoyed the new morning. What a day. I don’t know how many bowls I smoked that morning but I do remember it was quite a few. I fell asleep with the pipe in my mouth and a last bowl going. I slept that way until a good friend woke me to see how the birth went.

Each Feb. 1 I still get that old Medico out and fire it up in memory of that day. Today, I know that it is made of Brylon and not briar. It is what many would call a cheap pipe. And it is certainly not one I would ever buy today but it has a beauty to me that goes beyond its appearance. Plus it has a magnificent story attached to it that comes back to me every time I smoke it. I return to that corner parking lot in Escondido in my memory and enjoy that first smoke on a glorious morning – I was a new dad! Many years have gone by now, my daughter is 30 this year. But the memory never fades for me. A few years ago I had to make a new stem for the pipe because I had chomped it up to a point that it was not repairable. I think it actually looks better than ever. It is now a nice looking church warden with a brass band; sports a good hard cake and smokes extremely well.

Happy Birthday to you my dear daughter. I raise a bowl to you.

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Seeing through the grime – a story told by an old pipe

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I had this story I had written sitting on the hard drive. I reworked it quite a bit the last two evenings and thought I would post it. In it I try to capture the old stories that I find in the estate pipes I seek to bring back to life. Thanks for reading it.

Awhile ago I was working on cleaning up an old estate pipe. I had purchased this old timer on eBay and when I came home from work one afternoon I found it had arrived in the mail. When I opened the box I could not believe my eyes. The pictures the seller posted on eBay did not begin to capture the sorry state of this poor pipe. It was a disaster – the bowl was caked to the point of not holding any more tobacco. I could barely fit a pencil in what remained of the tobacco chamber. The cake that filled the bowl was not the typical hard carbon but was crumbling and very soft. The stem would not fit all the way into the shank as both it and the inside of the shank were covered with tar and a white lime crust. The airflow on this poor old timer certainly must have been miniscule, but there was no way I was going to put this thing in my mouth to even blow on it. I found that once I removed the stem that it had the weirdest stinger apparatus I have ever seen that would have constricted the airflow even more. It was short, thick metal and absolutely crammed full of tars and unidentifiable tan chunks. I know, the word “chunks” does not help understand what I am talking about but I don’t know how else to describe the brown stuff that was thick and packed all over this stinger. The metal of the stinger was rough and appeared to be pitted or at least it had craters and crevices all over the sides and top of it. It was in truly sad shape. It certainly must have been a beautiful pipe when all this started. It was that hope of hidden beauty beneath the grime that drew me to this pipe and caused me to want to take a risk on cleaning and restoring it. On top of that was also the challenge of restoring what looked to be a hopeless cause.

I carefully wiped the outside of the bowl with a damp rag to get some of the surface grime off. I wanted to see what the grain looked like underneath the grit. I carefully separated the stem from the shank and removed the stinger for a soak. I then used several reamers that I have to ream both the bowl and shank of the pipe. All of this was preliminary to the actual cleaning work. I wanted to be able to more knowledgeably assess the condition of the pipe under the years of grime. What a lot of carbon dust lay on the paper that I put on my work table. The grain did not look too bad. There was some interesting curly birdseye on one side and flame grain on the back and front of the bowl. A twisting grain flowed across both the bottom of the pipe and the shank. I turned the pipe over in my hands to inspect it for cracks. I have found that there are often cracks in pipes that have been smoked this hard. Surprisingly, there were none in this bowl at all. But this pipe had been smoked right through the bottom of the bowl – yes burned out. That would not surprise you if you had seen the condition of the pipe. But what made it surprising to me was that the bottom of the bowl had been plugged and repaired with a well worked briar plug. It had darkened but I could still see that it fit very snugly and carefully and showed some thoughtful work at the hands of a good repairman. All this caused me to reassess what I had originally concluded about the pipe and the piper who used to smoke it.

A pipe, that at first glance, appeared to have been “abused” this much, must have been ignored and not cared for by its owner. But I am not convinced of that verdict – in fact I was beginning to conclude just the opposite – it must have been a well loved and favourite pipe. The fact that it had obviously been smoked to the same point before in its life and then repaired with a well done plug and then smoked to the same point of cake again says a lot about what kind of pipe it must be and what kind of smoke it must have delivered to it owner. On the one hand, the original owner did not take care of his pipe in terms of daily maintenance and cleaning. I don’t think it had ever seen a pipe cleaner in all of its years. But on the other hand, he cared enough to take the time to have a well done plug put in the bottom of the bowl to fix the burn out and then smoked it again to this point a second or maybe a third or fourth time. That is the contradiction that exists when I look at a pipe like this. There is more to the story than initially meets the eye.

Only when it is stripped down and cleaned do I get a bit more of the story underneath all the surface grime. I think that the old fellow who must have owned this pipe would have been interesting to spend time with having a talk. I am certainly making an educated guess but I believe that this was a pipe that belonged to an old timer. By the looks of it, I would say it would have been disposed of with his other non-sellable or unwanted estate items. The fact is that if that was not true it would still be in his mouth. I would guess that he was a one pipe guy who refused to give up on an old friend and kept repairing and smoking his old buddy. Each problem that came up was a puzzle to be addressed and repaired before the pipe was returned to its smoking regimen. There is a silver band on the pipe that probably is original and matches the shape of other pipes like this one that I found on the web, but it is also engraved with what appeared to be initials – a monogram that possibly identified it as his. The band had turned around on the shank several times and had been obviously re-glued several times to keep it with the pipe. It was a not only a mark of ownership but of pride. It made me wonder if he had it engraved himself of if one of his children might have had it done as part of a very personal gift for “dad”. In the bottom of the bowl there remained a bit of old and very dry tobacco. The bowl had been smoked to that point and left. There is no way of knowing what the tobacco was as it was pretty well destroyed. But it was there and was crumbling with the cake in the bowl. It gave me pause to wonder what happened to the guy that made him stop at that point of the bowl and lay his pipe down.

As I moved to do the first stage of cleaning the stem I was amazed to see is that the stem was actually pristine under the grime. There were no tooth marks or bites on it. There was no sign of the kind of abuse that I have come to expect in this kind of pipe. Sure, the button was clogged and airway was almost solid with tars but there are no bite marks at all on the stem. There are no scratches and no problems that a good buffing and cleaning would not take away. That too tells me something of the old pipesmoker. He was not a clencher. He did not chomp on his bit. It was the original bit and it was in good shape under the grime. He was a man who held his pipe in his hand while he enjoyed the process of sipping the smoke. He was obviously one who was not to be hurried in his process and did not want to be bothered by anything that stopped the enjoyment of his pipe. I appreciate the care that he took to not bite the stem after having repaired many stems that have been marked by the fangs of the owner.

The cleanup was finished and the bowl was refinished and re-stained with a cherry stain to match the original colour of the pipe when it was made. The silver was polished and the stem was polished to a pristine black. The bowl was coated with a charcoal based coating to give it a bit of protection as I work to rebuild a hard cake in the bowl. I loaded a bowl of my favourite Virginia/Perique blend for the inaugural smoke. I chose a quiet spot to relax while I put the fire to the tobacco and sipped the smoke. The flame jumped to the tobacco and the smoke began to curl around the lip of the bowl and out the edges of my mouth as I puffed. Ahhh, now I had joined the ongoing story of this pipe to my own history. It smoked very well and delivered a cool flavourful smoke to the bottom of the bowl… I think next bowl I will remove that odd old stinger and see what I get from it. What a great pipe. I think I had begun to understand the charms of this old pipe. I tip my “new” pipe in quiet thanks to the old piper who had pointed the way to this well loved pipe.