A cry for the Forgotten
I had a quiet solo coffee in the village yesterday.
There was a nip in the air but the sun was out, I had my coffee, my pipe and Penny had her chicken. All was right with the world. I let my mind wander.
It wandered back to a time, possibly in the ’70s or ’80s when budgets increased the price of cigarettes but not pipe tobacco as it was accepted that pipe smoking was “safer”. Whatever happened to those days? How has consideration for the pipe smoker vanished almost entirely in the obsessive pogrom against cigarette smokers?
Every time the Anti Smokers ranted about smoking they went on and on about cigarettes. We would see images of Evil Smokers smoking cigarettes. We would see images of overflowing ashtrays full of butts. They would harp on with their obsessive ideas that half the world’s pollution was down to cigarette ends which apparently have a half life greater than Plutonium. There is never a single mention of pipe smokers.
Speaking from personal experience another crowd who seem to have forgotten entirely about the pipe smoker are our own health mob. Any visit to one of their establishments invariably leads to a questionnaire that always asks about smoking. But the question they ask is about cigarettes and the number smoked per week. The concept of a smoker who doesn’t touch cigarettes is totally alien and leads to stupid questions about “cigarette equivalents” – chalk and cheese. A non-cigarette smoker is as alien to them as someone with walks on the ceiling.
Modern budgets are the same. Cigarette smokers are every single time lumbered with more punitive taxation “with pro rata increases in other tobacco products”. In other words, pipe smoking is now deemed to be as offensive as cigarettes.
I have nothing against cigarette smokers. What they do is their business and not mine. Cigarettes are not for me as I find the pipe to be far more pleasant. The pipe, apart from being supposedly “safer” [and a lot cheaper and cleaner] is an instrument for quiet contemplation and relaxation. It’s amazing the number of photographs and paintings of past writers,, artists, politicians and philosophers are portrayed with a pipe. Nowadays of course the image of someone smoking anything has to be met with derision and contempt as if the smoker was a pedophile or mass murderer.
Whatever happened to the Good Old Days?
Whatever happened to the pipe smoker?
Identify as a American with whom it is a cultural thing and as such it is unacceptably racist diktat.
That could work. It might be easier though to claim discrimination on grounds of religion?
When a child, I loved the smell of the smoke from a pipe. There were so many pipe smokers and so many different smells.
Also the smell of the unsmoked tobacco in its tin was magic. Likewise a visit into a Tobacconist.
Pipe smokers were/are contemplative. Never rash. The ritual of the pipe allowed time for thought before giving answers.
Same story here.
My father was a pipe smoker, and always seemed to have a pipe hanging out of his mug. I took it up when I was 20 and have had a pipe going at some time of the day every since, (I’m going to hit 71 this week). So far other than the occasional head cold in winter, no issues.
Happy Birthday James! I used to catch colds and flu on a fairly regular basis. Since I left work though they seem to be a thing of the past. Work can damage your health apparently. They should issue warnings on the pack…
Thank you.
I have said this before but people frequently stop and remark that the smell of pipe smoke reminds them of their father or their grandfather.
We used to have a tobacconist in the village with a lovely display of pipe tobacco. Those were the days when the baccy came in tins and I can still visualise the shelves with the lids displayed. I still love the aroma when I open a pack.
I used to get the same sort of comments, but they started to dry up when I discovered Latakia blends.
When the Lord of the Rings films were made, I half expected the pipe smoking scenes to have been removed.
Anglican clergy were once prominent among pipesmokers, I think there is even a pipe called a ‘churchwarden,’ an ecclesiastical role peculiar to the Anglican tradition
Next time we meet, remind me to bring my Churchwarden and my Shire. I don’t usually bring them out of the house as they are rather long, and a bit fragile as a result. I have broken a couple of Churchwardens in the past [pipes, not actual people].
Pipe tobacco, which I hand-roll and smoke as cigarettes, still enjoys a considerable price advantage in the U.K. – Condor ready rubbed about £18/50 gram: Amber Leaf cigarette tobacco about £28. But what about the poor cigar smoker? Cigars are insanely expensive here.
My father used to occasioanlly roll pipe tobacco. The problem is that it’s a bit moist?
As for the price? Fuck! It’s twice that here, somewhere around €16 for 25 grams. Time for a ferry trip?
Oops! I meant to write £18 for 50 grams. Ferry trip still a good idea. Or buy on line from the U.K. £90 for 5 packs of 50g.