Wondering Children

Last year, Christmas changed a bit for my family. We didn’t know our children very well yet and we had two kids to attend to. We didn’t do much aside from the usual family get-togethers and the kids were the added bonus. Christmas for my family this year has been quite a bit different than years before. This year, I have three children. Christmas gifts are mostly centered around the kids, and activities have been for all of us. A good part of it being for my wife to get some great pictures.

Link Back Thanks

Even though it’s been a long time since I’ve smoked a stogie, I remember some of them with pleasure. I just tend to enjoy my pipes more than a cigar. Pipes smell and taste better to me. Maybe I just never found the right stogie.

Either way, I extend my thanks to Stogie Guys for linking back here. Even though we smoke tobacco in different fashions, we still have a love for a relaxing smoke of quality tobacco.

I plan to stop by to at least learn a few things.

If A Pipe Could Tell Tales

From the day I received my first pipe, I have had little money to spend on new pipes. Most of my pipes have been gifts. Also, most of them are estate pipes. For those who don’t know still, an estate pipe is like a pre-owned car. Whether it was used or not, doesn’t make a difference, someone owned it before.

Some of the pipes I have, I’ve had the pleasure of buying myself. I sometimes sit and study the pipe as if I’m trying to get an answer, or a clue to what kind of life it had with the original owner. Take for example, a pipe I found at an antique store close to the Appahalacian mountains in the northern state of Georgia. This pipe, I think, has potential to come back to it’s glory. It’s an EA Carey, magic inch billiard. The stem at the mouth piece is broken and so is the tenon. After doing some research, I found that many of these little guys were sent to soldiers in WWII. Does this pipe have that kind of history? What kinds of things did it’s smoker experience throughout life? War tragedies, children being born or growing, graduations, or possibly weddings?

Unfortunately, these things are usually lost just like the person’s life who would sit and smoke this wonderful piece of art, contemplating life. There is something that a trained eye and a trained nose can find out, though. That is the type of tobacco used. Aromatics vs. an English blend and so on. You can sort of tell how the pipe was valued by how well it was cared for. I have found a couple of older Savinelli pipes where you can tell that the owner appreciated the briar they would smoke from. The stampings are almost rubbed off from cleaning and buffing. The cake isn’t overwhelming, but to a nice consistency.

Then, after thinking about all of this, I then wonder about the life of the gentleman who would smoke this pipe and what his life had been like.  If I have any notion to this, though, I will probably find the person patient, intelligent, and a warm spirit. I can imagine him being either the type with many stories, or the type who would prefer to sit and enjoy a good smoke in peace and quiet. Letting the day roll past, slowing down a small portion of our busy lives.

As My Wife Says…

The schedule fairy threw up on our calendar. We’ve been busy with therapy appointments, dentists, and caseworker visits. Now, we’re busy with all of that AND all of our Christmas schedule with family. Every weekend this month has at least one thing we’re committed to, and I don’t have any time off left to spend the holidays at home.