Cultural Influences

 I don't want to become an influencer for smoking pipes.  I was watching an old sci-fi flick about the first mission to Venus.  I think this movie was made in 1956.  A trip to Venus back then was a matter of days.  One of the space travelers on board the "ship" and I use that term loosely, smoked a pipe.  I was thinking that back then he would have packed away just a few pouches of pipe tobacco.  There were so many things wrong with that sci-fi flick, I can't begin to tell you.  But in 1956, this was a rather ground-breaking movie, but was still a grade B movie.

But we know otherwise today.  First, no one can survive on Venus.  No one would make such a movie today.  Secondly, if a guy smoked a pipe on the spaceship, we know he wouldn't be allowed.  And even if a guy wanted to smoke a pipe and was allowed he'd need about a hundred pounds of pipe tobacco just for the trip itself!  We know Venus isn't just a few day's journey.  And they took a reporter to go with them!  And he smoked cigarettes.  Can you imagine how many cartons of cigarettes would be needed today?

I could go on and on about this movie, but even by 1956 standards it was a bad movie in B&W.  I used to watch Rowan and Matin's Laugh-In when it was on.  I recently just watched the first episode on YouTube.  Dan Rowan came onto the stage for the opening dialogue with Dick Martin and he was smoking a pipe.  There were other actors in various sketches who smoked cigarettes while doing their sketches.  It was just fascinating to watch.  But back in the day I would be laughing, but I found the entire show to be quite dated.  Some old shows deserve to just fade away.  This is one of them.  

I mention all this because it wasn't a father or a close relative that influenced me to smoke a pipe.  It was the culture of my day growing up, particularly with the influence of TV.  Stars advertised for certain cigarette brands during commercial breaks on TV shows.  There wasn't one place one could not smoke, except during church services in churches.  But when the services were over people would go outside and immediately light up.  On Monday's the janitor was seen sweeping cigarette butt's off the front steps of the church.  

Back in the day a pipe was seen as being cool and sexy.  For many men a pipe was a fashion accessory.  As a man would choose his suit and tie, he took as much care in choosing his pipe for the day.  And small towns of just a few thousand people had at least one pipe shop, if not more.  If a kid had a note from their parents, they could buy cigarettes with no questions asked.   And kids roamed the pipe shop while the father was buying pipes and pipe tobacco.  

One of my sons suggested that maybe a was a sea captain in a former life who smoked rum-soaked tobacco on the ship.  I won't delve into that thinking, but sure the possibility exists.  But my influence came from the cool and sexy images of the pipe from TV.  I didn't go to movies as a kid, but no kid in America could not be influenced by what they saw on TV and movies.  Half the adults at the time smoked.  And they could smoke most anywhere.  But I wasn't influenced by cigarettes, but the pipe.  

I saw adult men who seemed to be wise smoking their pipes.  They were both cool and sexy.  Women were attracted to men who smoked pipes.  And pipe smoking was advertised in the men's magazines of the day.  They made pipe smoking cool and sexy.  So, that was my culture of the day.  I simply grew up with it.  So, when I could afford it, I began smoking a pipe and never looked back.  A pipe has been a part of me since.  This morning it is my Nording Number 3 pipe while drinking a cup of Guji Ethiopian coffee.  I want to say Happy Fourth of July to everyone.  Please be safe!  I thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave