Fumus (genitive fumi) ablative fumo

Eh? Fumus ... Latin for smoke. Today's upload are things having to do with fumus.

I don't happen to be one who smokes, but there was a very short time as a young woman that I smoked a dainty little pipe. I stopped almost as soon as I started, as it didn't taste as good as it smelled.

I came across some objects lately that reminded me of a time long ago when my ex-husband smoked beautiful pipes. My sister, Joan, and her husband, Dale, are avid fans of a good cigar. I enjoy the aroma of pipe tobacco. Sometimes I like the aroma of a cigar. But I love all the accouterments and the rituals of smoking.

I still remember the sound of my parents clicking open their metal lighters with their thumbs, and the little flint producing a spark to light their Lucky Strike cigarettes. My son, Owen, has one of Dad's old lighters, a memento of the grandfather who died before Owen was born.

That first lighting of a cigarette smells familiar, comforting. After that first whiff, I have no use for smoking. Smoking is bad for your health, and second hand smoke is unhealthy for me.

But ...

Smoking is intertwined throughout our history. As an example, look at the old movies where everyone smoked, bad boys rolled a pack of cigarettes in their t-shirt sleeve, romantic leading men lit a cigarette for their love interest, soldiers lit a last cig for their dying buddy.

But ...

I'm not here to give a lesson in history. These were just thoughts that flit through my head when I saw and photographed the following images.

August 20, 2011



Thrift Store Pipes ... love the carved bear (?)




Cigar Boxes
iPhoto




Tobacco Shoppe Carved Indian
iPhoto




More Cigar Boxes
iPhoto



Project 365, but which day is it?

It is Day 80, as a matter of fact.

I love going to thrift shops. There are all sorts of interesting items that people collected and then decided they could do without, or inherited and didn't want or just got tired of and there those items were, waiting patiently for some other person to come along and just not be able to live without them! As one who is currently de-cluttering, I don't need any of those items, but I like to look and think about the stories of who used them.

Like the photograph below of the bicycles. Five of these little girl bikes were hanging outside at the front of the thrift shop. They looked so giggly, and pink and glittery, and girlie. Do those girlie bike riders now have iPads and text incessantly with their friends? Are they driving? Do they have boyfriends?

And the photograph of the blue desk chair that used to be red and was painted blue. What is its history? How is it going to be used next?

So, here are my thrift shop photographs for today.

I've also added a photo of a beautiful sunrise from a couple of days ago. It was early and the sun was just coming up, bathing the top of the tree in brilliant gold. It was incredible! I guess you had to be there.

04-20-2011