I'm not dead yet

[Travis]

Greets, A.S.P.
Been a while since I posted, but wanted to touch base.
I've been on ASP since, jeez, the late 1990's. Was a regular poster
then, then tappered off. Responded to Ed often in the recent years.
In 'The Good Old Days,' there were many spirited discussions on our
favorite pasttime. I remember Sailor Jack and Frenchy as copious
contributers.
That said, I'm moving to a 'senior community' which does not allow
smoking! (assholes) I've sold off most of my pipes and, sadly, about
20 pounds of cellared blends. That hurt.
Anyway, though I've given up my piping, I'll still check in here to
check on the ghosts of ASP past.
Peace be with you, Travis

[Jim]

Travis,

It's good to hear from you, and know you are still kicking. Not so nice
to hear of the "senior community" that does not allow smoking.

A daughter came down with asthma circa 1990 and tobacco smoke would
trigger or intensify an attack, so my smoking in the house or her
vicinity ended. Some years later she did move out (husband, daughter,
and husband's family are in La Junta, Colorado) but my wife refused to
countenance my making the house smell of tobacco smoke again. I let that
stand.

But I do smoke out on the porch, or in vile weather in my car, and other
locations. A flat-out ban on my pipe smoking would involve a flat-out
divorce or war.

I currently have about 200 pipes, about a third (mostly Tinsky pipes) in
regular use. I keep thinking I should clean and sanitize a bunch of
those not used in years and give them away, but somehow I seem never to
get around to making the effort.

I do lurk here, just in case someone asks about something pipeish that I
can address to good purpose.

Cheers!

jim b.

--
UNIX is not user-unfriendly, it merely
expects users to be computer friendly.

[Tim Daneliuk]

Good to hear from you. There are a number of us elder ASPers still kicking
around.

[Eric Stendal]

My late pipe mentor loved 'asp' - some of the lively discussions and information that at the time was one of the few authoritative places to get it. Asp was like an electronic version of Tom Dunn's Pipe Smokers Ephemeris.

I love to comb through old threads for golden nuggets of information and chats about the 'olden days'.

[Gareth Walsh]

Hello all. I too remember ASP in its heyday in the late '90s, and how I'd happily dip in and out of it when I was supposed to be getting on with work. I suspect the boss knew, but tolerated it.

Back then ASP was a real eye-opened for me. Till then I hadn't realised the variety of smokes out there. I suppose I was a bit old-school in that sense; I picked up the habit from my father, who was a Three-Nuns-and-two-pipe sort of guy, whose idea of a pipe tamper was one of the things attached to the end of his hand.

I'm still happily smoking - in fact more than ever these days, thanks to lockdowns. One has to have some pleasure in life. I'm in the UK, and I enjoy G&H flakes, particularly their Balkan Flake, but am discovering new stuff all the time.

Enjoy the habit: savour the pleasure.

All the best,
Gareth

[Daniel]

Oh man, I'm sorry to hear about the sacrifices you had to make. I have
been largely a lurker the last 20+ years of ASP. Own a number of old ASP
zippos from the late90s early 2000s era. Nice to see people still
kicking around in here.

--
Daniel
Visit me at: gopher://gcpp.world

[Bill Blevins]

Hello Travis. Good to see your still around.
I pop in occasionally. I wish there were a lot more of us here, but the fact is a good many of ASP
aren't with us anymore.
I'm retired and have been for awhile now. I no longer collect pipes and smoke cobs almost exclusively.
I smoke only one tobacco, my beloved Butternut Burley. After many years, I finally know the recipe, so I have it blended for me locally and never order online anymore.
Life is real simple now.

Bill

[Daniel]

I know it's over a year since the post but... Once a lurker always a
lurker I suppose.

How did you learn of the recipe?

Daniel

[hardcrackers]

I agree Daniel, I peek in occasionally also and delete illegal drug spammers for what good it does. At the least I don't have read the spam again.
Ron,
not smoking anything yet. Drinking my first coffee, black of course.

[hardcrackers]

Hey Bill, it seems like most days I smoke my cobs more often than my meers and briar too! MM just keep making upscale cob pipes and my old cobs I got in group auctions and threw in a box instead of tossing were for awhile the first pipes I found after my wife packed away while the house was remodeled after the bone marrow transplant and I was in isolation for 6 months. I was up for piping again and was so glad I hadn't tossed those estate cobs because the smoke so nice. About a half hour smoke then grab another pipe and another burley. They're just awsome!
I have tried the butternut years ago but I do smoke more burley blends now and so....could you share that recipe for Butternut Burley so we could make our own?🙏😊😇
Ron, drinking coffee and heading to the den for a cob and either match Sugar Barrel, Briggs, Model or EMP. It'll be a surprise!

[Dr Davey]

Hey Travis,

[Casey Tuggle]

I hope you still get some comfort from our occasional ramblings about the leaf, Travis! I wish you all the happiness in your new community, despite the authoritarian bastards who are keeping you from a pastime that can only make you a happier member of the community!

I am about to partake of a little Peterson mix through a Nording in celebration of finishing a long article. The humidity is 60% outside, too high for quiet repose on the porch at this temperature, so quiet reading in my study with a pipe will do my soul well.

Casey

On Sunday, June 6, 2021 at 9:17:58 PM UTC-4, Travis wrote:

[Ernie of Trebizond]

Peace to you, Travis, on your new chapter. I hope you will sneak in a smoke somehow!

I'm grateful to all of you who shared wisdom generously on A.S.P. since the 90s. I originally had a UNIX account with email from college and thought it to be amazing that we were sharing stories and information about pipes from all over the world. I started smoking pipes when I turned 30, now over 25 years ago, then stopped smoking cigars, then both cigars and pipes, but picked up our pipe hobby again recently, happily collecting and smoking. I am delighted to find some of you here still. I didn't think of Google Groups. They are taking over the world! :) Peace to all of you.

[Louis F Carbone]

I remember you, Travis, from the old days. Sorry to hear about the
piping but glad to hear from you! All the best!