Why Do I Smoke a Pipe?

Why do I smoke a pipe?

Let us begin from the beginning. I grew up in a very conservative Southern Baptist home, my dad was a Southern Baptist Pastor and in the late 1980s early 1990s there was an emphasis on the dangers of cartoons and popular tv shows in children television and their development. So, my mom being the Southern Baptist pastor’s wife she took everything she heard, read, and decided to have me watch old movies that she did not think would be harmful. I grew up watching old AMC and Turner Classic Movie’s and in most of the movies that were aired at that time had men in suits and business attire smoking pipes. Leslie Howard, Cary Grant, Edgar G. Robinson, and Bing Crosby just being a few that left an indelible impression on me. The classic look of a man in his suit and tie smoking a pipe looked sophisticated. When I got older, I decided that I was going to smoke a pipe. I was 18 years old working in Memphis for a travel agency that was around the corner from the great Tobacco Corner owned and operated by a gentleman by the name of Elliot Abel. Elliot was extremely helpful in finding me my first pipe a Savinelli 626 Tortuga, that I still own to this day. Every pay period for the next 9 years was spent buying a new pipe and trying new tobaccos. By the time that the Tobacco Corner closed in 2019 I had accumulated over 140 pipes. In 2008 I started a blog that was just for my own enjoyment collecting photos and biographies of famous pipe smokers. From 2008 until today in 2025 I have accumulated over 1830 biographies of famous pipe smokers from around the world from authors, doctors, actors, educators, and politicians. As a new pipe smoker in 2004 I started with aromatic tobaccos but after a few years of smoking aromatic I slowly moved to English blends and Virginia blends. I still smoke an aromatic tobacco occasionally, when I am feeling nostalgic.  I enjoy smoking a pipe because it causes me to slow down and contemplate everything that I am doing. The process of smoking a pipe causes me to slow down in my life as well, the process of packing the pipe with tobacco, the lighting, the tamping, and the slowness that is needed to keep the pipe lit. Smoking a cigarette is quick and quickly discarded, a cigar is a longer smoke but is also discarded, where my pipe is a longer smoke but stays with me. The comradery of smoking a pipe with other pipe smokers is always a pleasure for me. My pipes are eclectic, I do not smoke just on brand alone I have English, Danish, Italian, French, and American pipe brands. I also do not smoke one particular pipe shape.  I smoke what I like and feel comfortable to me. I smoke a pipe because it takes me back to a simpler time in our society when things were slower and not so rushed.