What a magnificent trip down memory lane. Thank you so much for posting it. I have the 1970 catalog, and the prices have risen slightly, but not much. Now here's the thing: I took the catalog into Leavitt and Peirce not long ago, and the sales staff glanced at it in an off-hand manner, but displayed no real interest. You see, none of them are pipe smokers--they're just sales clerks who will sell you stuff of which they have no real knowledge. And they certainly don't love pipes and tobacco the way the old crew did. You can't even smoke in the store anymore.
I started smoking DPE in 1969, and fell in love with it. I smoked it eagerly throughout a year on river patrol in the Mekong Delta. They still sell it, but it's not the same. The manager told me that the ingredients are 95% the same! but what a difference that 5% makes. And the distinctive cube cut, well--that too is a thing of the past. Cake Box is the same, the manager told me, and it still tastes like the real thing. And Judge's Mixture is absolutely superb. But what is most telling about that catalog is not the prices, but the sheer profusion and availability of pipes, tobaccos, and associated paraphernalia. That's all gone now, and it's enough to make one weep. I live in Connecticut and travel to Boston quite frequently, and drop into the store periodically to pick up my tobaccos, but I'm an old codger, grasping at the threads of history. Ehrlich's is gone, and while L&P is still there, but it just isn't the same.
