Passing on the "Art"...

[Tobias Lutz]

This is from late fall of 2014,hopefull soon I'll have pics of my son helping me with some flake making

I have suspicions that by the time my son is old enough to go off to school and smoke a pipe, tobacco will be all but missing from the American landscape. This saddens me, but as I learned growing up in the mountains of western Virginia; skills, arts, and pastimes are best preserved when passed down from parent to child I decide to start letting my curious son help me with my various tobacco experiments. I realize this might make some cringe, but I see it as a way of trying to keep certain cultural things alive. I'll never forget my grandmother teaching me such things as how to can and put up food for the winter, and I still use the handcrank coffee grinder that she passed on to me from time to time (which my 3 yo loves to crank, btw)

Here's some shots of Parson helping set up the steamer and load the basket this morning...

[Branzig]

I realize this might make some cringe, but I see it as a way of trying to keep certain cultural things alive.

This is something I struggle with. My oldest daughter is 6 and taking interest into my hobbies, one of which is of course pipes. The other day she was asking to smell a couple tins I opened up and she liked the scents of them...She also enjoys watching my packing rituals and restoring estates.

On one hand it is a bonding experience, and something I feel she will always remember me by, but on the other hand I don't necessarily want my daughter interested in smoking...I was a slave to cigarettes for a long time and I would hate to see her go down that path, and to be honest I don't want her smoking a pipe either.

It's a hard one.

[spyder]

I see nothing wrong with passing knowledge along to the next generation ... it's been done for millennia. Show the kids a wide variety of things so they can make informed decisions for themselves when they come of legal age.

Most kids these days have all of mankind's' knowledge at their fingertips anyway.

[rx2man]

Showing your kids how to smoke a pipe and how to shoot heroin are two different things. We are now in a Nanny state having swung all the way in the opposite direction. 2 yrs ago at 3 my daughter wanted to help me load up a pipe. She did it the one time and never asked again. She still liked to hang out with me in the back when I am smoking a pipe and it's quality daddy time.