Well, I figure of all places to start with my pipe smoking journey, it would be best to start at the beginning. A friend had mentioned something to me about his friend who smoked a pipe, and it sparked my interest. So upon my friends recommendation on where to source a pipe locally, I went to the local Book World. Book World, which has since closed down, was a book store with a pipe tobacco section in the corner of it. Book World carried mostly Dr. Grabow pipes and a few corn cob pipes, I opted for the cheapest wood pipe they offered (15$ at the most) and they gave me a few ounces of some unknown tobacco in a Zip-Loc baggie. Satisfied with my purchase, I went home and grabbed a Bic lighter I had around the house and packed up the pipe, lit it and used my thumb as a tamper. Being new to the hobby, I huffed the pipe like a cigarette, and received tongue bite the next ten or fifteen bowls I had smoked throughout the next few weeks. I had decided that I had had enough of this pipe business. I put the pipe down for the rest of the summer, however I revisited it in late August, and finally had my first good smoke. I imagine this first good smoke was in part due to the tobacco drying out and watching some videos on how to better improve my technique. Packing the bowl lighter, sipping on the pipe instead of huffing on it, and retrohaling all helped immensely. The pipe smokers first good smoke will be one they always remember, or at least I know I will surely remember mine. As I sat on my porch watching the birds wash up in the bird bath, and my cat chasing the occasional rabbit or butterfly that crossed into my yard, and the sun setting across the pine trees of Northern Michigan, and the smoke rising from my pipe, I felt content for one of the first times in my life.

Pipe smoking, to me, will always be about the entire experience, and what you have around you. I don’t think pipe smoking itself brings contentment, but it allows you to slow down and think about your surroundings and your current place in life, and enjoy it for what it is.

I apologize for this entry being a little on the short side, I intend on making longer, more detailed posts about the hobby and my life up North in general.