Back when I was a teenager, my buddy Steve Parsons was trying for weeks to get me to try pipe smoking, knowing I had my father’s old pipe. He wanted someone to enjoy smoking with. Finally, he said, “Just try it, and if you don’t like it, I’ll never bug you again about it.” I said, “Anything to shut you up, Steve.” On June 20, 1974, he had a small still which was brewing his alcohol, and we were checking it about that time. The reason I remember the day is obvious. The reason I know the exact time I had my first bowl of pipe tobacco (1:30 p.m) is because I'm an infamous clock watcher, and when I lit up for the first time, I looked at my watch as I often do, and in this case, to record the moment so I could bitch Steve out if I hated it, which I obviously didn't. Btw, the tobacco he handed was Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey, which was half decent in those days if you puffed slowly.
Steve wanted me to try the batch, and I said, "You are out of your freakin' mind, buddy. You made it, you try it." He wouldn't. He fed a sample to a mouse, and the mouse died. That ended that experiment. But, I enjoyed that tobacco, and was forever hooked on pipe smoking. I did bitch Steve out after high school when he quit smoking, and I was a lone smoker. I never let him forget it to this day.
