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
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| Thrift Store Pipes ... love the carved bear (?) |
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| Cigar Boxes iPhoto |
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| Tobacco Shoppe Carved Indian iPhoto |
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| More Cigar Boxes iPhoto |
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