We Are Young

http://www.smokingpipes.com/blog/1/2012/05/We-Are-Young.cfm

An excellent account from a young smoker, about young smokers.

The term "young smoker" to most means anyone under 40, and the stigma that goes along with it, in both directions of ageism, for that matter...

...enjoy your pipes--regardless of age!

SPOT ON!!!
I'm a whiskey drinker so a pipe and glass of strait whiskey no ice gets lots of weird looks and comments at the bar.

Gotta say, it's a great time to be a pipe smoker.

I think it was our own thefoolish who wrote that article.

Ya never been one to shy away from something because of peer pressure, but when I started smoking my pipe at my current job people made jokes and security would eyeball me from time to time. Now , after about a year on the job everybody accepts it, now I'm just that kid with the pipe. The smokers ask me what I'm smoking because it smells good.

Great article...I particularly commiserate with the whole lack of B&M bit. I had a few good spots when I was in college, but having moved away (from Columbus Oh - Pipes & Pleasures, Tinder Box, etc), there's really nowhere to "hang out" with fellow pipe guys. The closest B&M is a 45 minute drive - worth it to pick up a few tins and actually fantasize about buying a new pipe in person, but it's pretty well inundated with cigar-alphas.

Still, on the whole I agree with Uber - it's a great time to be a pipe smoker

i.keenum wrote:

Ya never been one to shy away from something because of peer pressure, but when I started smoking my pipe at my current job people made jokes and security would eyeball me from time to time. Now , after about a year on the job everybody accepts it, now I'm just that kid with the pipe. The smokers ask me what I'm smoking because it smells good.

Same here! I've been at the same place for almost five years and even though pretty much everyone knows I'm a pipe geek I still get the occasional joking "you're too young for that old man stuff" from customers that see me out on my break. Most people just say "Cool" or "that smells nice"

Recently a woman asked me where she can find a pipe for her husband for Father's day because he is a long time cig smoker and she was hoping he could take up the pipe instead.

Anyhow, it IS a great time to be a pipe smoker. The perfect time, really. One of my favorite things about this hobby is the vast range of age, personality types, backgrounds etc. of people that I've met here and at B&M's in town that pipe smoking brings together in a way that almost no other activity could.

I thought this was going to be a post about one of my favorite Pat Benatar songs...

Harlock999 wrote:

I thought this was going to be a post about one of my favorite Pat Benatar songs...

You have more than one favorite Pat Benatar song???

Great article. I can totally relate. I get some strange looks when I drive and smoke my pipe.

I agree with my fellow Brothers It is a great time to be a pipe smoker!

s.ireland wrote:

Harlock999 wrote:

I thought this was going to be a post about one of my favorite Pat Benatar songs...

You have more than one favorite Pat Benatar song???

Yes!

Honestly, i wish the online pipe community was around when i was in my twenties. I used to think pipe smoking was anomalous at that age. Not that i mind being older, growing into my pipe (and my waist size) is all good.

Harlock999 wrote:

s.ireland wrote:

Harlock999 wrote:

I thought this was going to be a post about one of my favorite Pat Benatar songs...

You have more than one favorite Pat Benatar song???

Yes!

An ex once went to see Pat Benatar three times during our relationship, every time with a friend, never inviting me. I said she was my ex didn't I?

Harlock999 wrote:

s.ireland wrote:

Harlock999 wrote:

I thought this was going to be a post about one of my favorite Pat Benatar songs...

You have more than one favorite Pat Benatar song???

Yes!

I'll admit to having that song (and video) stuck in my head after seeing the thread title.

You're welcome.

It's interesting to see how much things have staid the same as they were when I started smoking in my early 20s.! True, there were more pipe smokers in evidence "on the street" so to speak, but they were predominatly in their late 40s/early 50s and we "young-uns" got kidded mercilessly by them at times. And since that was the early '70s , most non-smokers thought we long haired pipe smoking "freaks" were smoking that " funny little green Egyptian mentholated" tobacco in our pipes. Though there were more "pipe shops" back then, the choice of both pipes AND tobaccos was nowhere near as varied or available as what folks have now! This is THE time for pipe smoking for sure

UberHuberMan wrote:

You're welcome.

Firmly entrenched in my head now. We were talking about pipes and pipe smoking right? It should help if I imagine all that west side story styled dance to include pipes in the mouths of the dancers.

monbla256 wrote:

Though there were more "pipe shops" back then, the choice of both pipes AND tobaccos was nowhere near as varied or available as what folks have now! This is THE time for pipe smoking for sure

That's kind of cool to imagine. There seems to be a strong belief that the pipe smoking hey-day was back then. Perhaps we're in the hey-day now?

MisterE wrote:

monbla256 wrote:

Though there were more "pipe shops" back then, the choice of both pipes AND tobaccos was nowhere near as varied or available as what folks have now! This is THE time for pipe smoking for sure

That's kind of cool to imagine. There seems to be a strong belief that the pipe smoking hey-day was back then. Perhaps we're in the hey-day now?

On the plus side we have the internet which allows pipe smokers from all over the world to communicate and discuss the hobby. And we can buy a huge variety of tobacco, read reviews, and small scale pipe makers can make a living.

On the down side smoking is much less visible, at least here in England, than it used to be. I think a lot of pipe clubs stopped when they could no longer meet inside a pub and were forced out to the biergarten, which is no fun during winter

It may be that the internet has stopped the decline and fall of the pipe community. In the absence of ready access to an older pipe smoking brotherhood 'in real life' the virtual community has certainly kept me going through the early setbacks of poor tobacco choices and constant re-lights that would probably have prompted me to quit rather than stick with it.

Yeah, that was "The Foolish" that wrote that, he's a nice cat. Haven't seen him around much, either. I'm not shocked he got a guest-blogger spot over at smokingpipes.com. Once I get a few years under my belt with a pipe I might consider talking to someone about pipe writing, myself. I do write things once in a while--about pipes sometimes, too.

...nice job breaking this whole theme down into Pat Benatar lust, you guys. I mean, I love her as much as the next guy (okay, maybe not like that...) however...

The one thing that bothers the hell out of me being a younger pipe smoker (and a somewhat broke one at that) is a certain risk buying estate pipes. Yesterday, I picked up a nicely-grained Italian basket pipe at a junk store for $8. Probably was a $30 basket before it was used. I get home and start swabbing it out--and the acrid smell of tarry Mary Jane starts to make my nose wrinkle. Mothereffers--they could have spared this poor briar and bought a glass pipe for $10 at a head shop. This isn't the first time I've encountered this, and I doubt it'll be the last. It really irritates the living hell out of me, and I know it's some idiot kid thinking he's being clever. When they realize they aren't the right tool for the job, they can't give them away fast enough.

Damn kids.

I mean... oh, joyful youth! Just keep your weapons loaded with the proper ammo.

tiltjlp wrote:

The article was pretty good, but the problem with the Internet is that new pipe smokers don’t have experience enough to weed out bad advice from the good. And yes, I’ve seen a lot of incorrect information over the years.

...and that's what I believe connects young smokers that are now old and the new smokers of today: they're gonna have to do some figuring out on their own, filter out the bullshit, and actually use their heads.

The Internet has largely made inhabitants solely dependent on user-provided information, and made the rest anal perfectionists that seem to make it a personal mission to correct ALL WRONGS no matter what. I suppose since some of us sit around using our computers in our underewear, we must be superheroes in some way.

re. pipes, with the internet, today is better by several orders of magnitude.

Then (1970s) was better for tobaccos to smoke in them.

That was a good read. I'm 36 and still get people asking me "hey, whatcha got in there? wink wink." There are countless sarcastic responses I would love to give back, but I just can't. I just typically say, "tobacco". I find that when I'm kind in response, most people just think it's kind of cool that I'm smoking my pipe.

I've had several people thank me because it reminded them of their grand daddy and things of that nature.

Pipes are just transcendant...