JimK
Junior Member
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light".
Posts: 183 
First Name: Jim
Favorite Pipe: Canadian
Favorite Tobacco: almost any Virginia/Perique blend
Location:
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Post by JimK on Nov 28, 2022 23:29:09 GMT -5
I no longer have my first pipe. But I do remember it well. It was a straight apple from the bargain bin at a pipe shop in downtown Wichita, KS. I don't know whether it was the pipe, or the tobacco (a house cherry blend) or a combination of both, but that pipe gurgled and had a ferocious tongue bite. It almost put me off pipe smoking.
Luckily, a few weeks later, I ambled into another pipe shop, and found a rather thick walled bent apple that became a favorite reading pipe. I still have this pipe.
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Post by trailboss on Nov 29, 2022 14:46:10 GMT -5
I no longer have my first pipe. But I do remember it well. It was a straight apple from the bargain bin at a pipe shop in downtown Wichita, KS. I don't know whether it was the pipe, or the tobacco (a house cherry blend) or a combination of both, but that pipe gurgled and had a ferocious tongue bite. It almost put me off pipe smoking. Luckily, a few weeks later, I ambled into another pipe shop, and found a rather thick walled bent apple that became a favorite reading pipe. I still have this pipe. I loved to skip school and hang out at either Towne East or Towne West at the Tinderbox stores in Wichita…then places were a nice respite from school. |
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rastewart
Junior Member
Posts: 360
First Name: Rich
Favorite Pipe: Freehands, bent bulldogs, and the incomparable Peterson 303
Favorite Tobacco: Mac Baren's Scottish Blend (Mixture), C&D Mountain Camp, C&D Bayou Morning
Location:
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Post by rastewart on Nov 29, 2022 19:10:38 GMT -5
Some of the replies here remind me that I am also of an age where I must specify "my first tobacco pipe." 
I've told about this before, but will exercise my prerogative to be a garrulous old codger.  'Twas in the summer of 1971, yessiree, I remember it well ... I had taken a little apartment in Carbondale, Illinois, between my junior and senior years, to pick up a couple of extra classes, keep working my part-time library job, and just enjoy campus and college-town life. I happened upon a yard sale and found three briar pipes, a rack with a jar in the middle, and random accessories in the jar, and bought them all for an absurdly small sum. They were a small no-name bent bulldog, which is still one of my favorite pipes; a bent billiard whose branding I don't recall at the moment--not a premium pipe by any means--and an Oxxford prince. I still have the first two; lost the prince over thirty years ago and eventually found a replacement just like it, because I always liked it so well.
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Post by turbocat on Nov 29, 2022 23:19:40 GMT -5
I already shared my very first pipe earlier in the thread, but I thought I would mention my first “nice” pipe that pretty much still influences my smoking today. After my first bad choice pipe I smoked some cobs with success and happiness. Then in ‘84 I went to a tobacco store I liked, Hill and Hill in the Oakland Mall and they were just putting out a new shipment of Pioneer calabash pipes. They were pricey and I didn’t have much back then, but I picked one out and fell in love. I don’t have that first calabash anymore, the bowl cracked after smoking it for about a year, but I have over forty calabash pipes today so it definitely created my taste in pipes.
After it cracked, I decided to get a nice pipe that I could smoke anywhere, as calabash pipes were/are at home pipes for me and I still smoked cobs when I was out. At the same store I bought a Savinelli 315KS in a smooth light, almost blond finish. That pipe is also long gone.
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Post by johnlawitzke on Nov 29, 2022 23:25:03 GMT -5
I already shared my very first pipe earlier in the thread, but I thought I would mention my first “nice” pipe that pretty much still influences my smoking today. After my first bad choice pipe I smoked some cobs with success and happiness. Then in ‘84 I went to a tobacco store I liked, Hill and Hill in the Oakland Mall and they were just putting out a new shipment of Pioneer calabash pipes. They were pricey and I didn’t have much back then, but I picked one out and fell in love. I don’t have that first calabash anymore, the bowl cracked after smoking it for about a year, but I have over forty calabash pipes today so it definitely created my taste in pipes. After it cracked, I decided to get a nice pipe that I could smoke anywhere, as calabash pipes were/are at home pipes for me and I still smoked cobs when I was out. At the same store I bought a Savinelli 315KS in a smooth light, almost blond finish. That pipe is also long gone. Ah, those were the days… when every mall had a real tobacconist and you could walk through the mall smoking your pipe on your way to the shop. I didn’t get to Oakland Mall much so I don’t remember Hill and Hill being there. I remember several Churchill's and Tinderboxes and a local place called Austen's in the Saginaw Mall. |
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Post by turbocat on Nov 29, 2022 23:41:23 GMT -5
I already shared my very first pipe earlier in the thread, but I thought I would mention my first “nice” pipe that pretty much still influences my smoking today. After my first bad choice pipe I smoked some cobs with success and happiness. Then in ‘84 I went to a tobacco store I liked, Hill and Hill in the Oakland Mall and they were just putting out a new shipment of Pioneer calabash pipes. They were pricey and I didn’t have much back then, but I picked one out and fell in love. I don’t have that first calabash anymore, the bowl cracked after smoking it for about a year, but I have over forty calabash pipes today so it definitely created my taste in pipes. After it cracked, I decided to get a nice pipe that I could smoke anywhere, as calabash pipes were/are at home pipes for me and I still smoked cobs when I was out. At the same store I bought a Savinelli 315KS in a smooth light, almost blond finish. That pipe is also long gone. Ah, those were the days… when every mall had a real tobacconist and you could walk through the mall smoking your pipe on your way to the shop. I didn’t get to Oakland Mall much so I don’t remember Hill and Hill being there. I remember several Churchill's and Tinderboxes and a local place called Austen's in the Saginaw Mall. Churchill’s in Birmingham was a regular stop for me from the ‘80’s until it turned into a bar not all that long ago. About four years ago I was in the Oakland Mall and I went to the area where Hill and Hill was, that whole section of the mall was closed off but I squeezed past the barrier. It was dark, of course no stores and there was a thick layer of dust everywhere. It was rather depressing. Afterwords I wished I hadn’t seen that and only had my happy memories of being there. |
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Post by Silver on Nov 30, 2022 0:53:22 GMT -5
Churchill's (Birmingham and Lakeside Mall), Hill & Hill (a few locations), Tinder Box, Malaga, Briarworks, Humidor One (licensed Dunhill dealer, HUGE humidor, pipe tobacco room) were all regular haunts of mine back in those days. Now, it's Smokingpipes and you guys!  |
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Post by kbareit on Nov 30, 2022 11:07:36 GMT -5
My first pipe was a Grabow Duke bent billiard. I still have it today and to think it that it will be 27 years on the 14th that I bought it along with a pouch of Captain Black cherry and two boxes of cigars because my boy was born that day. The CB cherry pretty much ruined the pipe but I smoke it on Christmas with CB cherry in honor of my Grandpap. because that is what he smoked at Christmas.  |
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JimK
Junior Member
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light".
Posts: 183
First Name: Jim
Favorite Pipe: Canadian
Favorite Tobacco: almost any Virginia/Perique blend
Location:
|
Post by JimK on Dec 5, 2022 10:23:45 GMT -5
I no longer have my first pipe. But I do remember it well. It was a straight apple from the bargain bin at a pipe shop in downtown Wichita, KS. I don't know whether it was the pipe, or the tobacco (a house cherry blend) or a combination of both, but that pipe gurgled and had a ferocious tongue bite. It almost put me off pipe smoking. Luckily, a few weeks later, I ambled into another pipe shop, and found a rather thick walled bent apple that became a favorite reading pipe. I still have this pipe. I loved to skip school and hang out at either Towne East or Towne West at the Tinderbox stores in Wichita…then places were a nice respite from school. Ah yes, Towne East...I remember it well. I shoved a lot of money over the Tinderbox's counter. Tinderbox is still around as an online retailer. Some of my favorite blends of theirs were Aalbørg, Vintage, and later Philosopher. |
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Post by Plainsman on Dec 5, 2022 11:05:09 GMT -5
Don’t remember my first pipe, but am sure it would have been a cob of some description.
I DO remember my first smoking experiences. Corn-silk, of course. What country boy hasn’t done that? There was also a swampy area that we kids played in, made war in, and got away from adults within. A reedy plant grew there. Its hollow stems near the top were dry enough to light so of course we messed with it. It was AWFUL. Shriveled the tongue and burned the throat like a blowtorch. I threw it away immediately. I remember the fat kid (there’s always one) puffing away, his sweaty face contorted with pain. He said “You gotta be a man to smoke reeds!”
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'Twas in the summer of 1971, yessiree, I remember it well ... I had taken a little apartment in Carbondale, Illinois, between my junior and senior years, to pick up a couple of extra classes, keep working my part-time library job, and just enjoy campus and college-town life. I happened upon a yard sale and found three briar pipes, a rack with a jar in the middle, and random accessories in the jar, and bought them all for an absurdly small sum. They were a small no-name bent bulldog, which is still one of my favorite pipes; a bent billiard whose branding I don't recall at the moment--not a premium pipe by any means--and an Oxxford prince. I still have the first two; lost the prince over thirty years ago and eventually found a replacement just like it, because I always liked it so well.
