How long have you smoked a pipe?

1981 was my first pipe - Dr grabow and Captain black from the drug store. Burnt the shite out of anything that touched that heater. Switched to cigars after that experience and found pipes again in 2011.

Yes, the heater Dr Grabow was user error but i tossed that thing in the local river in 1981 along with the pouch of CB. She is swimming with the fishes.....

Started in May 1991 so 31 years.

At 58 years old I started in September 2021.

I'm pretty sure I bought my first tobacco pipe at that large drug store in the Lloyd District in Portland. I remember it was a Dr. Grabow, probably a billiard shape. I can't for the life of me remember what tobacco I bought (probably something with cavendish in it). I'm also not sure of the year; 1999, 2000 maybe? It was summer in any event, which makes me think it was '99. It came with the usual 6mm paper filter. The clerk selling it to me really thought the filter was important. He wanted to sell me more; but even then I declined, for in my vast ignorance I didn't see the point of a pipe filter (though my position has recently broadened on this regard, too).

I have no idea what ever happened to this pipe. I was a roll-your-own cigarette smoker in those days; Drum was my favorite. I remember smoking Drum in that pipe a few times; which started off great but got *really* hot. In all likelihood someone probably "borrowed" it to smoke weed, and I never tried to figure out where it even went, let alone get it back.

A few years later I got an unstamped briar churchwarden at Rich's in Downtown Portland. Probably in the fall of 2006. I don't know exactly where it went, but I'm almost certain it's somewhere at my mother's house. The stem broke after a few years, and I never sought to replace it since I'd quit smoking entirely by that point. Up to then it was a decent pipe, but I think I spent about $35 in mid-2000s money on it, and replacing the stem would likely cost at least that much by now.

Up until this most recent revival, pipe smoking for me was mostly an image-thing; though I'd never have admitted that, to myself least of all. I always thought it "looked cool", and I always identified with the type of person the media (used to) present as a pipe smoker. I think that's why I never *really* got into it until now. There were always simpler and quicker ways to self-administer nicotine; nowadays that's about a tertiary consideration.

As such, I can say with certainty that, this time, now in earnest, my first real pipe is a Stanwell 6459 Hand Made Featherweight, Reg'd No. 969-48. It's cute and little, in pretty good shape with a few minor dings and scratches. The S on the stem has no crown; I'm led therefore to believe it's quite a bit older than I am. I've kept it safely squirreled away after receiving it as a gift at the last pipe club I attended at least thirteen years ago. It was the first pipe I smoked after that hiatus.

Not an uncommon journey, I'd bet.  Well, as pipe smoking goes.  Nothing about us is exactly thick on the ground.