Ravenor Bullen
New in Town
- Messages
- 15
- Location
- Surabaya, Java
I was asked the other day at what age I thought a boy should first take up the pipe. I have said this before but I will say it again – I believe he should not be introduced to the pipe until he has turned 18.
I know that many of you probably began your smoking adventures at an earlier age, myself included. I had a two cigarette a day habit at 11 - when I could get them that is. That was just about all that was manageable on my pocket money until the following Friday payday. We had a friendly milk bar proprietor in our neighbourhood who would sell fags one by one to us, which was very handy. That way we could always budget.
But back to pipes. A pipe demands a certain maturity from a chap and I do know that the success rate for taking up the pipe and keeping to it for the under 18s is not high. Boys of that age are often impatient, impulsive and difficult to please. The calm, ruminative manner required to enjoy a pipe is not part of a boy’s make-up. It just isn't.
There are other reasons for my belief that a boy should not take up the pipe until he is 18. At that age, in most places at any rate, he has reached his majority: he can marry, vote, and go off to war. Physically, he is a man. His wedding tackle is in full working order, and some might say at its peak. His lungs are fully developed and his mind is developing a sense of balance and propriety. He will be able to give the time that is necessary to sit down, relax and just enjoy smoking his pipe. How well the fast, impulsive cigarette is more suited to the boy, when one comes to think of it!
So, how to proceed in introducing the pipe to the young man who has come of age? First, if he is not drawn to the pipe of his own accord and freewill, then do not go out of your way to introduce it to him. Time will only tell if he will ever be interested enough to take it up. There is no point in rushing him or forcing him to do so. Some men were never meant to be pipe smokers. There are men in one’s acquaintance who don’t smoke after all. I find they lack something, of course (who was it who said “never trust a man who doesn’t drink or smoke”?), but that is their own choice.
Many sons of pipe smokers will have taken an interest in their fathers' hobby. I know I did. My father had a collection of 60 or so pipes, housed in a walnut cabinet with beautiful beveled glass doors. I marveled at the way that my father could wax lyrical over each one, telling me something of their character and his expectations for the smoke to come from them. He regularly chose from a small number of these, and some he seldom if ever smoked. His favourites were the straight stemmed billiards. I would volunteer to help him polish them up with a Dunhill polishing cloth- waxed one side, soft velvet - the other.
Our house was always full of the delicious aromas of either mother’s baking, or father’s smoke. How lucky we were as children! We didn’t bother with television – father said we were a family of doers rather than watchers, so the atmosphere was never marred by unwelcome noise, although the gramophone or the wireless would often provide a pleasant backdrop of classical or light music. Father would sit in his favourite well-worn wing-backed chair and smoke his pipe whilst reading the Spectator.
Yes, it is this image that conjures up the attraction of the pipe to me now, and as it did for me as a boy. Of course, I did experiment with the pipe long before I was 18, once taking a pipe (not one of the good ones!) down to the garden shed with a bit of left over tobacco and a box of matches. First impressions did not win me over! Cigarettes, particularly the cool menthol variety, were much more enjoyable and accessible to a young chap.
I must have been near to 18 when my father asked if I was drawn to the pipe. I recall saying yes. He said that I should always remember that a pipe was always preferable to any other form of smoking, even the cigar. The pipe was the highest form of smoking just as wine was for alcohol. A cigar, he said, was a splendid after dinner smoke in good company, but when in the daily routine of things at home, there was nothing to compare to a pipe, especially of an evening. When the good wife and mother was attending to the dishes or putting the children to bed, this was the time when a man could enjoy his own company with a pipe.
Father opened the bottom doors of the walnut pipe cabinet and drew out a small oblong box. He handed it to me. I lifted off the lid and found inside a velvet sock, and inside that a beautiful medium-sized Comoy billiard. It was all mine, he said. He fetched a small pipe tool, a sheath of pipe cleaners and a box of matches for me. “I think you would enjoy this tobacco. It has been my daily companion for 20 years.” I sat down in the opposite chair while father demonstrated how to care for the pipe – never removing the stem while it was warm – and how to fill it. This pipe could be a joy forever if properly cared for, he said. My pipe alight, I sat back and enjoyed my first permitted smoke, and felt as that I had come of age. I was now a man.
And so began my pipe smoking adventures. I was at an age to appreciate what I was given, and yet still impressionable enough to try and emulate my father’s good example, what I later would know was called good pipemanship.
I know that many of you probably began your smoking adventures at an earlier age, myself included. I had a two cigarette a day habit at 11 - when I could get them that is. That was just about all that was manageable on my pocket money until the following Friday payday. We had a friendly milk bar proprietor in our neighbourhood who would sell fags one by one to us, which was very handy. That way we could always budget.
But back to pipes. A pipe demands a certain maturity from a chap and I do know that the success rate for taking up the pipe and keeping to it for the under 18s is not high. Boys of that age are often impatient, impulsive and difficult to please. The calm, ruminative manner required to enjoy a pipe is not part of a boy’s make-up. It just isn't.
There are other reasons for my belief that a boy should not take up the pipe until he is 18. At that age, in most places at any rate, he has reached his majority: he can marry, vote, and go off to war. Physically, he is a man. His wedding tackle is in full working order, and some might say at its peak. His lungs are fully developed and his mind is developing a sense of balance and propriety. He will be able to give the time that is necessary to sit down, relax and just enjoy smoking his pipe. How well the fast, impulsive cigarette is more suited to the boy, when one comes to think of it!
So, how to proceed in introducing the pipe to the young man who has come of age? First, if he is not drawn to the pipe of his own accord and freewill, then do not go out of your way to introduce it to him. Time will only tell if he will ever be interested enough to take it up. There is no point in rushing him or forcing him to do so. Some men were never meant to be pipe smokers. There are men in one’s acquaintance who don’t smoke after all. I find they lack something, of course (who was it who said “never trust a man who doesn’t drink or smoke”?), but that is their own choice.
Many sons of pipe smokers will have taken an interest in their fathers' hobby. I know I did. My father had a collection of 60 or so pipes, housed in a walnut cabinet with beautiful beveled glass doors. I marveled at the way that my father could wax lyrical over each one, telling me something of their character and his expectations for the smoke to come from them. He regularly chose from a small number of these, and some he seldom if ever smoked. His favourites were the straight stemmed billiards. I would volunteer to help him polish them up with a Dunhill polishing cloth- waxed one side, soft velvet - the other.
Our house was always full of the delicious aromas of either mother’s baking, or father’s smoke. How lucky we were as children! We didn’t bother with television – father said we were a family of doers rather than watchers, so the atmosphere was never marred by unwelcome noise, although the gramophone or the wireless would often provide a pleasant backdrop of classical or light music. Father would sit in his favourite well-worn wing-backed chair and smoke his pipe whilst reading the Spectator.
Yes, it is this image that conjures up the attraction of the pipe to me now, and as it did for me as a boy. Of course, I did experiment with the pipe long before I was 18, once taking a pipe (not one of the good ones!) down to the garden shed with a bit of left over tobacco and a box of matches. First impressions did not win me over! Cigarettes, particularly the cool menthol variety, were much more enjoyable and accessible to a young chap.
I must have been near to 18 when my father asked if I was drawn to the pipe. I recall saying yes. He said that I should always remember that a pipe was always preferable to any other form of smoking, even the cigar. The pipe was the highest form of smoking just as wine was for alcohol. A cigar, he said, was a splendid after dinner smoke in good company, but when in the daily routine of things at home, there was nothing to compare to a pipe, especially of an evening. When the good wife and mother was attending to the dishes or putting the children to bed, this was the time when a man could enjoy his own company with a pipe.
Father opened the bottom doors of the walnut pipe cabinet and drew out a small oblong box. He handed it to me. I lifted off the lid and found inside a velvet sock, and inside that a beautiful medium-sized Comoy billiard. It was all mine, he said. He fetched a small pipe tool, a sheath of pipe cleaners and a box of matches for me. “I think you would enjoy this tobacco. It has been my daily companion for 20 years.” I sat down in the opposite chair while father demonstrated how to care for the pipe – never removing the stem while it was warm – and how to fill it. This pipe could be a joy forever if properly cared for, he said. My pipe alight, I sat back and enjoyed my first permitted smoke, and felt as that I had come of age. I was now a man.
And so began my pipe smoking adventures. I was at an age to appreciate what I was given, and yet still impressionable enough to try and emulate my father’s good example, what I later would know was called good pipemanship.
[Also starting college later this year.]