Pipes and Status
Status is generally about position in society and wealth. Pipe smoking has reflected that to some degree, although I will often read about a grandfather who smoked a pipe, or sometimes a father, who would buy a pipe from the local drugstore at a cost of about $12.50 with a pack of Half and Half or maybe a tin of Prince Albert for about 50 cents and smoke that pipe until it either broke or wore out and he'd just buy another one.
I told my wife yesterday that I think I paid $35 for my first pipe in 1973 or 1974 and I bought a tobacco humidor and a very nice ashtray all for around $100. And that same hundred dollars is about $600 in today's money. The pipe alone would have been a little over $200 in today's economy. But there is no way that pipe is even close to $200 in today's pipe world. It's just that one can't compare money and inflation to things purchased. I saw a TV ad from 1954 advertising a brand new TV for $500. That same TV in today's dollars would be about $5,000.
So, one could argue that a Dr. Grabow pioe for $12.50 wasn't much of a deal when comparing the cost in today's money. Even the cost of cars today have spiraled out of control over the years. But getting back to pipes, there were professionals who smoked pipes, but many of these men, and they were almost exclusively men, wore a pipe as a fashion accessory and each maker of expensive pipes had a particular trademark so small one had to get up close to see it, but the fact is that the pipe identified such men as either professionals or experts in their fields.
Often professors couldn't afford such pipes, but pipes in the line of the Dr. Grabow, for example, were shunned by the professors. Their pipes were the Peterson's and the Savinelli's. Sometimes they would smoke Aromatics, but they tended to smoke more English tobaccos. I read a review of a wife who bought her retired professor husband a Peterson Sherlock Holmes Professor pipe. He mentioned this fact in a tobacco review he wrote.
Some have said that at least I have the appearance of a retired professor, although in purchasing my next pipe, I like the Sherlock Holmes, and favor the Calabash style of pipe. For me, a pipe has not been about status, as for all practical purposes, I have not been a man who ever cared much about status and wealth. Such people often compare themselves to others, which I never did. I considered myself to be removed from such banality and have lived a path chosen for me. But a pipe has always been a part of that.
If something happened to my wife, I don't have either the status or wealth to find another. But I live for a very specific reason and life will go on. My pipe collection reflects a pretty typical Middle Class collection. I just ordered a new pipe, which is a Sherlock Holmes pipe by Peterson. I ordered some more tobacco too. But for me a pipe has not been a fashion statement, or a tool to reflect my status. I have a few really nice looking pipes I smoke if I think I will be smoking in public, which is so rare these days. But I smoke a pipe for one reason: I enjoy it. Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.
Dave
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