There's Just Something

 I've lived in cities, but I'm basically a small town kid.  Smoking a pipe just might be a big city's person's hobby, but there is a down home feeling about guys (and they are 99% guys) who do pipe smoking videos.  I have spent a lot of time living in the city, but still most people who lived in the city areen't from there.  Smoking a pipe has a down home kind of appeal to it.  But even city slickers who've I've known to smoke a pipe aren't city people.  They converse as down home people.

But why is this?  Well, maybe the granny who sat on her front porch and smoked her cob pipe is to blame.  A pipe smoker may have been at one time a professional person, but more than likely was a down home type who landed a professional job in the city.  But if you watch as many pipe smoking videos as I have, you'll find every one of these videos have a folksy feel to it.  

We can point to so many sophisticates who smoked a pipe, but Mark Twain seemed to have a folksy style that was his trademark.  Even Einstein was often quite down to earth.  You might have images of frat boys and their pipes.  But take it from me that every pipe smoker I've ever known has a folksy way about them.  You might imagine intellectuals smoking their pipes and speaking in quite erudite terms about philosophy or business, but I assure you the average pipe smoker doesn't smoke a pipe to impress.

A fellow pipe smoker doesn't care how much your pipe costs or what kind of tobacco you smoke.  If you smoke a pipe you are automatically a member of the club.  I don't care if a pipe smoker smokes a $50 Dr. Grabow pipe or a thousand dollar Dunhill.  But if he's smoking a Dunhill just to impress, he's automatically kicked out of the club.  That's just the way it is.  And no one in the club cares if that Dr. Grabow is the only pipe one owns or if one has a hundred pipes each costing over a grand.  

When it comes to pipe smoking every pipe smoker is equal to the others.  If one smokes a pipe to impress, he has no friends in the club.  A pipe smoker might not be able to afford more then a ten buck cob and smokes nothing but Captain Black, he's in the club.  The only requirement is to avoid conversations about religion and politics.  Sometimes these topics can't be avoided, but everything is discussed with an open mind without judgment.  

Every pipe smoker learns to listen.  There are famous people who smoke a pipe.  But every pipe smoker is equal.  One's degrees or occupation or the lack thereof does not matter.  You smoke a pipe and you're automatically a member.  Once you violate the unspoken rules,  you're out.  Every pipe smoker knows the unwritten rules.  And if one doesn't one will learn quickly.  Tolerance is one thing, but the lack of pipe smoking etiquette will get you banned.  Essentially, I could say I bannished myself, for my own personal reasons, but I still smoke a pipe.

Every person that I've known to smoke a pipe does so for one simple reason:  Relaxation.  And every pipe smoker wants to be around others who are also relaxed.  That is rule number one.  A pipe shop is not a bar where one pours out one's problems to the tobacconist.  You are there for one reason and only one reason, and that is relaxation.    Today, I am relaxing with my Savinelli Author pipe and smoking some of my birthday Super Value Ultra.  I write both to make you think and feel relaxed at the same time.  I'm always smoking a pipe when I write here.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave