ESTATE PIPES #13. SOREN HAND-CARVED FREEHAND SMOOTH

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I guess since I told some of the story of Dad's collection at the end of his life last week, we may as well start at the beginning of what I know this week. I remember quite vividly him smoking pipies when I was around six years old. This would have been the late 1960's. The reason I remember so well is, I hated pipe smoke, and everytime he would light up, I would leave the room. I would check back periodaclly to make sure the pipe was put in its spot on our livingroom end table, then I was happy. It's not to say I didn't like the pipe, it was a pretty blue one, and I did pick it up and practice every now and then but that was as far as it ever went. I still have that pipe today. Beat up and worn, but I have it.Later I noticed on that same end table t were 6 pipes in a small pipe rack, then 6 more on the other end table and t was a pipe rack hanging on the livingroom wall. Some really pretty ones to a young kids eyes.. I distinctly remember one set of the 6 being KAYWOODIES. I know this because I have a sister named Kay and I thought this was how she got her name. "No I do not have those Kaywoodies". I remember one day him catching me with one in my mouth, He flipped out. It wasnt because I was a kid with a pipe, It's because I was biting the tip. Fopaugh. So I got the lecture, he even showed me how to hold the pipe in my mouth. I think this is what started him on the obsession of rubber tips. I wasn't the only child in the house and I'll bet he caught the others "smoking" as well. So, new pipe or not, t's your rubber tip story. By the way, those things are tough to get off. Anyhow dad was a lifer in the USAF and did quite a bit of traveling, Two tours in Vietnam and seved in the Korean war. I'd guess Dad was 19 or 20 when he went to Korea. Well suprise, suprise, I have photos of him in his combat uniform, helmet and all, smoking a pipe. My best guess would be, his father or grandfather smoked them and this is w he learned about them. He was from a small farming community, born in 1935, so I mean Sticks, Boonies, 100% pickin the guitar county boy. Barefoot, in suspenders, running from grandma's switch, with a pipe hanging out of the mouth type. I'm talking about Junction City Ohio, Population 800. Beautiful countyside, still as pristine today as back then. Hidden in the foothills of the Allegany Mountians, life is still the same, one restraunt bar combination and one gas station store combo. Anyhow as dad life continued on it's journey, he continued to collect. In the late 1980's and early 90's it hit a feverish pitch. He moved not to far from the EA CAREY shop on Whipple Ave. Dad lived at the shop. It was so bad that he was offered a job and in return would get pipes instead of a regular pay. I'm not quite sure how long this lasted, but I'll bet he was canned. I can see him arguing with Bill or any of the other staff over which pipes he was going to take. You just don't argue with a man about his pipes. By 1999 the collection was so large t was no place else to put them, Three trunks full, wall racks humidors, They were everyw We sold alot of them on ebay ( check feedback) to a managable level. That lasted a few years. Dad moved back down into a small community were I lived in Southeast Ohio, then he met Tim West. It was over with, all my hard work went out the window. He and Tim talked about all the new pipe makers, Blah Blah Blah, dad was off and running and I of course was running with him, Ebay, Flea Markets, Pipe Shows, Yard sales and so on. Dad became a member of NASPC and American Numismatic Association. He would be on the computer and I would hear: "Sandy come , this is a such and such pipe made by so on. Tim West had one of these at the show, He's a young kid but he knows his stuff, I think I'm going to get it". The last pipe show we attended was in Aug of 2005. Sick with terminal cancer, he was not going to miss it. From West Lafayette Ohio to Columbus, nothing else existed but Tim and the pipe show. ( I don't think Tim had any... read more

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