Mike Leverette
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Strange PipeSteve's "Hole in the Bowl" post reminded me of the following little tale I posted on SF 10-years ago (I now have fifty years of smoking a pipe):
""In forty years of smoking a pipe, I have met many pipe smokers, each having his own ideas and preferences. The strangest one was a man with whom I worked in 1966-68. Actually like all of us pipe smokers, he was an exceedingly nice person; so when I say strange, I mean his method of smoking a pipe. This gentleman, for the several years that I was in close contact with him, would start his workday by scraping his pipe bowl down to raw wood with his penknife. He then packed his pipe with Bugle Tobacco several times a day. The pipe would only leave his mouth in order to receive a new load of tobacco. Each day would be the same, start by scraping the bowl to raw wood, packing with Bugle Tobacco, etc. He never allowed a cake to build for “it destroyed the taste of the tobacco,” and needless to say it was not very long before he had scraped a hole in the bottom of the bowl. When this happened he would stop what he was doing and journey to the drug store (a city block away) for a new pipe, generally a Dr. Grabow, Medico (with the filter thrown away), Yellow bowl or Kaywoodie (on these he immediately cut off the metal filter). This trip to the drug store would take place on the average of every two weeks depending on the previous bowl thickness. He never owned more than one pipe at a time for “you can only smoke one pipe at a time and therefore a waste of money to have more.”
I tried on several occasions to suggest a better way to smoke a pipe only to have him explain that he was a long time pipe smoker and I was just a young whippersnapper.
I would suggest - let a thin cake build-up for it would protect the bowl and allow the true tobacco taste to appear. His answer - “No, no, no, a cake destroys the taste of the tobacco.”
At least scrape the bowl with a pipe tool and not a sharp knife. “A dull pipe tool would not remove the scorched wood, thereby harming the taste of the tobacco.”
If you are concerned about the taste of tobacco buy a good pipe blend. “All tobacco tastes much the same so why spend more money on fancy tobaccos.”
Buy a second pipe in order to allow the one pipe to rest. “That is a waste of money for you can only smoke one pipe at a time.”
Buy a better pipe and it will give you better smoking pleasure. “I’m not spending $20 to $30 for a pipe only to have a hole appear in the bottom.”
Exasperated, I said, “Well corncob pipes were even cheaper than Dr. Grabows, Medicos and Kaywoodies.” His answer, “If I want the taste of corn I prefer it from a dinner plate or a bottle.”
Another idiosyncrasy of his was to bite through a stem which resulted in the following ritual: Should he scrape a hole in the pipe before he bit through the stem, he would remove the stem and save it for when he bit trough a stem before the inevitable hole appeared. It didn’t matter to him if the stem and shank did not match, “It adds character.” A nice old man but a strange pipe smoker.""
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ted
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GREAT TALE MIKE.......Glad he didn't find the Repair Dept. address at Grabow...ted
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steverino
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Good story Mike. Even though he was a bit eccentric, hearing stories like that always make me wish I had been an adult when pipe smoking was in its heyday.
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