Comfort of a pipe

[BillinOregon]

In browsing a number of Civil War images, it is clear many of the boys took a measure of comfort in a pipe. The majority that I have seen appear to be clay bowls with reed stems. Wonder if they were forced from time to time to use a tobacco substitute, although much of the war was fought in tobacco country.
Considering the lousy food and the primitive camp conditions, it is no small wonder that a pipe was a treasured article.

 

[satx78247]

AGREED.

My research indicates that soldiers of TWBTS also smoked other substances in their pipes. - More than one in the Trans-mississippi West found that Jimson Weed made them VERY ILL, as did some kinni-knick blends.

yours, satx

 

[BillinOregon]

Satx, we have jimson out here too. Powerful smelling critter, when you bruise the leaves or pull it up. Nasty too.
I was going to gather some kinnickinnick, which thrives in the mountains here. Will be circumspect.

 

[satx78247]

AGREED. - It isn't called LOCO WEED for nothing.

yours, satx

 

[ncmtmike]

Member Fella's here in NC tobacco was king,we all raised it for a living at that point in time. :surrender:

 

[satx78247]

Tobacco was so common in the Rebel army that they often traded it pound for pound for coffee with the DY.
(Even in the trenches of Petersburg the "swapping" went on.)

yours, satx

 

[BillinOregon]

Mike: I quit tobacco 25 years ago, and dare not start with it again. Agree it is the pure quill, however.

 

[Alden]

I have half a very nice $3 cigar sittin' here you guys are compelling me to retorch. I have pipes for all periods I reenact where there was tobacco from Elizabethan thru Rev War. One of them even has "bumps" which were symbolic of The Plague in Europe where it was used at the time! It is still a comfort. Everything in moderation though the pipes did get bigger and bigger...

The clay pipes with reed stems are my favorite -- the clay stems generally break when you look at them.

 

[Pigman]

As a confirmed member of the Benevolent Brotherhood of the Briar I can say a pipe can be quite a comfort when sitting around a fire at night.

Foster From Flint

 

[Wes/Tex]

As a confirmed member of the Benevolent Brotherhood of the Briar I can say a pipe can be quite a comfort when sitting around a fire at night.

Foster From Flint

Amen! Although a corn cob with a hollow reed stem is hard to beat! :wink:

 

[satx78247]

Agreed. = I like my traditional Catlinite pipe, with pure VA tobacco too.

yours, satx

 

[BillinOregon]

Well, if I can't assemble my native blend o' bearberry leaves, red osier cambium and other botanicals right away, I can always resort to what I smoked in my corncob whilst enjoying my tree fort, age 12: Folgers Coffee.

:haha:

 

[satx78247]

Did you ever try smoking grapevine when you were a lad?
(I plead "guilty as charged" to that youthful foolishness.)

yours, satx

 

[BillinOregon]

Satx, no, did not smoke grapevine, but we did smoke dried stalks of the bracken fern, which is abundant in much of the Pacific Northwest.

 

[satx78247]

I hope for your sake that it is BETTER than grapevine!!!! =====> LOL.

yours, satx

 

[tenngun]

I have stock piled a lot of tobacco. I smoke English blends, and my pipes have brought me lots of joy over the years. By the by the SG of the United States did a study and found pipe smokers out live non smokers by three years. Lately some groups tried to undermind that study. Sweeden SG found that pipe smokes die about 2 years earlier. (if they smoke 7 or more bowls a day)

 

[Alden]

I bet my grandad smoked seven bowlsfull a day... But back then smokers smoked and pipe-smokers SMOKED their pipes!

 

[tenngun]

A pipe gives a wise man time to think and a fool something to stick in his mouth.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I was a pipe smoker for many years. For about seven years I smoked a Kinniki-Knik mix that did not contain any tobbacco. It was one of several blends I bought from an Indian tribe in New York and sold in my shop. I later nearly quit except for times around the campfire. Many years later after our 'surprise' late in life daughter was born, she came home from school one day and begged me to not smoke anything ever again. Just couldn't deny her and quit. But, around the campfire I still miss it. I had a large collection of pipes I gave to another collector.

 

[tenngun]

Frank I have to say I would parafrze Chuchcill if my kids or grandaughter asked me to stop smoking...A child is just a child but a good pipe is a SMOKE