Post by Lady Margaret on Dec 7, 2016 9:03:52 GMT -5
Pipe club was a lot of fun last night! There were a few new people there compared to last month, but they were regulars. The "professor" was there. He gave me a photo copy of a booklet published in 1965 by Edward's Wholesale Tobacco about "The Rewards of Happy Pipe Smoking." He's an older gent, former Navy man who was in during Viet Nam, though I don't believe he saw any action. I believe he was a ham radio operator and he was in Washington DC for most of the time, and got to spend one of his birthdays by having lunch at the White House while JFK was president. This gave him and hubby a little bit in common since hubby is a Marine, and most of his NCOs had seen tours of duty in Viet Nam.
There was a guy there with his dog. His dog is a rescue, and is a little skittish around a lot of people, but he came right up to me and wanted to make friends. Evidently when Bear comes to pipe club his "daddy" gets him a bag of Cheetos. Toward the end of the evening the dog kept walking over to the snack corner looking longingly at the Cheetos, but he'd already had his bag for the evening. It was so adorable. This guy was a retired professional photographer, and when hubby learned that I lost him. He moved to the back of the room and they talked for a good hour. That left me without my "security blanket" but "The Professor" would engage me in helpful pipe tips from time to time.
Last month they had two tins they passed around, so I expected something similar and didn't take any tobacco with me, but The Professor brought Dunhill's Ye Old Signe with him to pass around, and I didn't think I was up to trying that. Evidently he wanted people to try it and give feedback that he was going to pass along to someone. So, for the start of the evening I was sitting there, not smoking. A couple came in and the Pipe Club MC made the young guy move into the rocking chair, which was beside me, so they could sit together on the couch. So after about 15 minutes the young guy says, "You say you smoke a pipe, how come you aren't smoking?" I told him I didn't bring any tobacco, and he laughs and says that I didn't have to bring any. He then calls out to the Pipe Club MC "Charlie" and tells him to get me some tobacco so I can light up my pipe. Charlie asks me what I usually smoke and I decided to go with something safe and said Captain Black. He takes me out to the storefront and pulls out a jar of the store blends called "Almost Heaven" (all the store blends have names related to our State) takes out a handful, puts it in a baggie and says, "Enjoy!" So I was set for the evening. I went back in and packed my pipe and lit it up. When I hear the young man next to me mention his son was in a school near where I live I mentioned that we have a karate dojo near there. He had mentioned his son tried football this year but he didn't really like it, a bit too rough for him. We tend to get kids in karate who don't really enjoy team sports. My son wasn't into team sports, not even golf, but he loved and excelled in karate, and I explained this to him. He seemed interested. I ended up giving him the address to our facebook page so he could watch my son's black belt test videos, as well as the video of him fighting a well known Tae Kwon Do instructor's son last month, someone this guy used to study from years ago. So, hubby and i both made good contacts last night, lol.
The young man, Josh, had asked my husband if he smoked and hubby said no. So later Josh asked me what hubby thought of me smokiing a pipe. I told him I didn't really know, he hasn't said anything, but he hasn't been discouraging in any way. In fact, he comes with me to the pipe club, which he doesn't have to do. He knows that if he didn't go I wouldn't go, so it would be a simple matter of saying he wasn't going. Of course I'd still smoke occasionally at home. But we meet a lot of military guys at these meetings. Josh is a former Marine, so that gave him and hubby a little something to talk about.
The Professor was very pleased to have a lady at the club. He said, "We need more diversity." Lol. They told me last month that there were two other ladies that sometimes come, and one of them was there last night. She had a really tiny pipe, and most of the time was glued to the screen on her phone. There was one other guy who spent a good amount of time on his phone, but mostly the others sat around talking. The Professor seemed impressed that I had kept one pipe going for about 40 minutes.
The really funny thing is that when we were eating last night before going to the tobacconist, hubby tells me he didn't want to be out late, he was tired and wanted to have some time to relax at home. I told him that was fine. I figured we wouldn't be able to stay longer than 40 minutes anyway because hubby can only be in a smoky environment for so long before he has real trouble breathing, watery eyes, etc. But he got to talking to the photographer and we were there almost two hours. I said something about that on the way home, lol.
But, over all it was really great, I had a lot of fun, and I'll be prepared next month with my own tobacco, but will wait and see if there is any good samples before I light up.
Glad you had a good time!!
