Still Cool after 50 Years

 

My first pipe is now a 50 year old Jobey pipe I bought in the Spring of 1974.  I believe it was in the Spring of that year.  My wife who was then my fiancé knew I wanted to smoke a pipe.  It was kind of thing about college men smoking pipes although smoking was prohibited on campus.  I figured as vp of the student body no one would say anything to me about it as there was smoking anyway.  

We got in my little red sports car, an MGB-GT and drove over to a place called The Rod and Pipe Shop.  

No kidding, they actually sold all related tobacco products, including briar tobacco pipes along with assorted fishing rods, reels, and bait and tackle.  We walked into the shop together and were met by an elderly gentleman.  I told him I was new to pipe smoking and wanted to shop for a pipe.  He said for a first pipe not to spend too much but make sure it was a good quality pipe.  

We made our way over to a display case holding many pipes in all price ranges and styles.  He brought out several styles from straight to slightly bent to full bent.  He slipped on some cellophane sleeves onto the bits and I tried out each one.  My wife, then fiancé, said she liked the bent stem the best because it didn’t hide my face.  Then we tried out various bent stem pipes and it came down to two.  My wife liked the alligator texture of this pipe the best.  

So, this is how this pipe became my very first pipe.  Of course, I had to have an ashtray, pipe tools, pipe cleaners, and a humidor.  When it was all totaled I had about a hundred dollars invested in my new hobby.  All that was missing was the tobacco.  I had no idea where to begin and even to this day some fifty years later, I’m still trying all sorts of tobaccos.  Really, I could have bought a cob pipe for about 50 cents back then, but back then cobs weren’t cool.  

Only grannies from West Virginia smoked cob pipes.  Now cobs are cool and most every pipe smoker owns at least one.  He said I should start with a flavored Aromatic and sold me a pouch of apple flavored tobacco.  Looking back on it now I laugh at myself.  I used to put an apple slice in the pouch to keep the tobacco moist.  Little did I know about tobaccos.  Little did I know about pipe smoking.  

But after I lit my pipe in the store and I was walking out with it with my wife I felt like the king of the world.  I was the coolest of the cool.  Orr so I thought.  Such thinking doesn’t enter my mind any longer.  I’ve learned a lot since my early days of pipe smoking.  Now a pipe is a spiritual tool.  I’ve treated my first Jobey with a lot of respect.  Today it is my “haunted” Gettysburg pipe with some Good Stuff Gold and my coffee this morning is Stumptown Founder’s with a hint of Vanilla and Cocoa.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave