First Pipe

[Ruffinogold]

I had just turned 13 in the summer of 79 . Its funny , I always thought I was 14 but I just did the math , lol . Anyway , I dig this type thread . Its good to write about these experiences because there may be details that pop out that you forget . Its been a while , ya know

So , my ma asks if I want to go to Woolworths . I say yes because they have a lunch counter in the back and if I went , my ma would buy me the grilled cheese sandwich , chips and a drink special that I loved . The cool thing was I had some cash on me , which was pretty rare . I mean I probably had 15 bucks on me that day , thereabouts Im guessing . [ maybe because my birthday was recently before this day ]
Im not sure of the town but it was a ways from us as we lived in the north west corner in the mountains so a woolworths was a bit of a drive . I think it was Morristown , New Jersey [ ? ] . God , if I remember , Ill ask my Ma about where it was when I see her next week .
So , we get there and I ask if I can go fart around in town and Ill catch up with her for lunch at Woolworths . A couple blocks away I walk into a pipe shop . I mean a real freaking one . Its kinda what I tried to emulate with my shop years later . The guys in there were older and talking about killing Germans in the war and shit like that so I kept to myself being I hadnt killed anyone yet , ya know .

Im looking at the pipes and I love them . Id loved them for a while because a Grandfather and a Uncle smoked pipes alot . My dad had 1 pipe but was mainly a cigarette and cigar smoker . He smoked Optimo and the " Guinea Stinkers " [ thats what ma called them .. the dry cured Italian style cigars ] . These are my three favorite men . Anyway , the shop had a good number of pipes and I happened to be struck by this one ....




I grabbed it and a pouch of Argosy



Im always grateful to God for having my hands pick those two items . The pipe has always smoked wonderful and the blend was super cool with no bite and tasted great to me ! Now , God smokes burley but he knew Id get to that in a little bit .. I apparently had to start with a mild black cavendish and Im glad I did

Ive written about this day plenty but Im always blown away that I have this pipe ! I dont have my 2nd through 20th pipe or whatever amount .. but I have my first

Its been everywhere Ive been since the Summer of 79 and I think that it , an Old Timer Sharpfinger knife and some comic books are about the only things I still have from my youth . I still smoke it occasionally and I bit a hole in the stem many years ago but I have yet to send it off ... if I would , Id send it to Norwoods repair and he always returns the original stem .

I keep that pipe in my tobacco " cellar " on a single pipe stand ... Ill smoke it in a little bit to go pick up my son from work

It is Crazy to think you’d still have that pipe !

I’m only a year older than you but I would imagine that any pipe that I may or may not have had from back in the day whether it was a tobacco pipe or not
probably got tossed out the car window in a paranoid excursion at high speed

It did go missing for a time years ago . I cant believe it survived camping as a teen and later on landing craft in the Navy but it did somehow and still looks good . I break and lose pipes all the time ... its just a trip