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Riding a bicycle and wearing a camouflage hat that covers his slightly unkempt hair, Carden Henn shares a hobby with Frosty the Snowman and Albert Einstein – pipe smoking.
Henn, 60, who is homeless, uses a corncob pipe like Frosty while riding his bike through downtown Fort Wayne looking for a job. He smokes Steve’s Blend tobacco.
“I read a book on pipe smoking and I’ve been smoking a pipe since I was 25,” Henn says. “If I light it just right and get going on my bike, it stays hot and the smoking is cool. It’s when I stand still that I have to relight it and get it going again.”
Frank Bougher, assistant manager of Fort Wayne’s Riegel’s Pipe and Tobacco Shops, has been in the tobacco business for 28 years. He says a pipe consists of a bowl or chamber, where tobacco is placed; a shank, the long, tubular stem smoke flows through; and ends in a bit, which is the mouthpiece.
Some of Bougher’s customers have used the same pipe for 30 years. Pipes, he says, can be as simple and inexpensive as a corncob pipe or cost megabucks such as those that are handmade.
“The pleasure you get from smoking a pipe offsets the expense. Once you get past the pipe’s costs, it is the cheapest way to smoke. Our Private Label Tobacco is $2.65 to $3.70 an ounce. That will last awhile,” says Bougher, using an old white antique scale to measure one of the 40 tobacco blends he sells.
Some customers like to have him combine several tobacco flavors to create their own blend.
“You don’t inhale,” says Bougher, adding that many pipe smokers use lighters designed for pipes so they don’t burn their fingers as they light their bowl.
“The tobacco lasts longer and doesn’t lose its flavor. You have to slow down to enjoy pipe smoking. I tell people it’s a good way to quit smoking because you don’t crave it as much.”
But with so many smoking ordinances across the country, pipe smoking is not as popular as it was during its heyday in the 1940s, says Chuck Stanion, editor-in-chief of the North Carolina-based Pipe and Tobacco magazine.
He estimates there are now 1.5 million pipe smokers in the U.S., and they are very different from cigarette smokers.
“Pipe smoking is a ritual. Which pipe to use? What tobacco to use? It’s a 45-minute process versus a 5-minute cigarette,” Stanion says during a phone interview. “With a pipe, you sit down and have conversations.”
Andy Spencer, 45, of Fort Wayne, started smoking a pipe at 18 because he enjoyed the aroma from the Captain Black White Label tobacco.
Today, as president of the local Tri-State Pipe and Tobacco Club, Spencer notices a difference between pipe smokers and other tobacco users.
He says his 40-member club consists of pipe enthusiasts interested in furthering the hobby of pipe smoking through monthly meetings and pipe shows. The meetings are held in New Haven.
“Pipe smoking appealed to me early on. It is a hobby instead of a habit. I don’t know anyone who has become physically hooked,” Spencer says.
Although there may be differences in smoking a pipe, there are still risks involved.
A recent American Cancer Society study of 15,000 male pipe smokers found that pipe smokers have a similar risk of lung cancer and other diseases as cigar smokers.
Pipe smokers had five times the risk of lung cancer, nearly four times the risk of throat cancer and more than double the risk of esophageal cancer compared with non-tobacco users.
Larry Rathburn realizes the risks of pipe smoking, but it doesn’t stop him from smoking daily.
Rathburn, founder of the Tri-State Pipe and Tobacco Club, has dedicated part of his southwest Allen County home to his extensive, museum-like smoking collection.
Rathburn’s collection features vintage Falcon pipes that were once made in Fort Wayne.
The 55-year-old says his father handed down old Falcon pipes to him.
He in turn has passed them down to his 31-year-old son, Brad, who also smokes a pipe.
He knows pipe smokers probably have a higher risk of getting mouth and lip cancer, but “it’s like sugar, alcohol, anything else. You don’t want to overindulge. Like any good thing, some people take it too far.
“You don’t hold a pipe in your mouth all day. You don’t inhale. You take time out to enjoy it. Pipe smoking is like enjoying a fine wine. It’s very relaxing. It promotes thought.”
Pipe smoking might also be gaining interest among younger smokers.
“I see a lot more young people smoking pipes today,” says Rathburn, who smoked a pipe for 30 years. “When I am down at Riegel’s, I see young pipe smokers.”
Young smokers like Sam Collins.
Holding a pipe in his right hand, the 20-year-old exhales a puff of whitish-gray smoke after serving a Riegel’s customer.
Collins at one time was an occasional cigar smoker. He’s been smoking a pipe for more than a year.
“When I tried it, I found it to be quite tasty,” says Collins, who says that some of his friends are also pipe smokers.
“I like it because it is straight tobacco. There are no additives in this like you find in cigarettes. I say no to cigarettes.”
kjackson@jg.net
