Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Smokin'

I should really be posting more about Shanghai (or at the very least about the European Championships), but instead I feel the need to mention that in the space of five minutes today, I saw two men smoking pipes.

It seems a curious addition to the wardrobe, but there's no accessory quite like a pipe. The first gentleman I saw was honking on his in a determined fashion, puffing great clouds of soot and smoke into the faces of half of Union Street's shoppers. That he was wearing an arresting red tartan jacket, green cords and blue shoes simply added to his style.

The second piper (pipee?) seemed to be using his huge black smoking apparatus as a smoke-powered engine for climbing the steep brae at Market Street - sooking in a big lungful of burning bush before each step.

Both of these men looked to be at least in their seventies, which got me pondering - do young folk smoke pipes?

I don't think I've ever seen a pipe smoked by someone who doesn't also carry a bus pass while wearing a bunnet.

Maybe I should invest in one - it would go perfectly with my wardrobe of cheap Tesco suits and fake clothes from China.

4 comments:

Misssy M said...

It's a good point- you never see anyone under 60 smoking a pipe. Either it will die out completely or something happens to men at a certain age and they decide to take it up.

Better than that though, have you ever seen A WOMAN smoking a pipe?

It almost makes me want to do it to see what looks I'll get.

Anonymous said...

I've certainly never seen a young person smoking a pipe that contained tobacco..............

Mike Smith said...

My grandad smoked a pipe well into his 80s.

He always looked forward to a good shag on a Friday...

Colin Campbell said...

My memories of pipes come from my grandfather and my dad. My grandfather puffed well into his 70s. My dad had a pipe in his mouth from first thing in the morning until last thing at night. He only took it out to eat. He just stopped when he was in his fifties when it became socially unacceptable to smoke in peoples houses.

It was such a lot of work. All that preparation and having to keep on lighting it.