Are actually one hell of a smoke.
I've been trending more towards smoking my pipes, especially with the Ragin' Mrs. in the vehicle with me. She much prefers the aroma of a pipe than my cigars, so I try to make her happy when I can. While I love my briars and my meerschaums, I've recently picked up two corncob pipes and I've been using them as a knock-around pipe for my backpacks or on long trips. Any trip where there's a risk of damage or loss to my good pipes, I take a corncob pipe. Hell, they're under $10, so if I lose one or destroy one, I can just order another without crying about it.
And they're not bad at all. The trick is to get one with a thick bowl, such as this, this or this. Get a good, mild tobacco blend stuffed in there, light 'er up and you're ready to go. Now the Mrs. enjoys the car ride as much as I do.
Now I need a good pipe rack for all the pipes I've been collecting. One for my aromatics, one for my English blends....
2 comments:
When I was just a callow yoot back in the mid '50s my dad smoked a pipe. He had several, his favorite being a Kirsten, made by a small Co. founded by an Aerospace Engineer. He also had a corncob pipe he had made himself during the depression. It was what he could afford. The cob was from some flint corn he grew for chicken feed and the stem was an ash twig he bored out with a hot wire. He loved that pipe, and asked me to care for it when he shuffled off this mortal coil. It is one of my most prized possesions, one that I use about once a month. Dad also grew his own tobacco as he didn't have money to buy it. He managed to get through the eighth grade in 1933, then quit to enlist in the Army so he could send money to his parents. He was a very tough man, I loved him deeply and miss him to this day. He was very gentle and loving to Mom and the seven of us kids. Dunno exactly what this has to do with pipes, but there it is. Every time I load and light his pipe, I feel close to him. About thirty years ago I found a real amber pipe stem in an antique shop and fitted it to Dad's pipe. Now it's a real heirloom
That's an awesome memory, and a great way of keeping it alive.
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