When I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s, my father smoked a pipe. He had 2 or 3 pipes laying around the house, all of them the short straight style. His main supply of pipe tobacco stayed fresh in a metal can on top of his dresser, and he would use specially-made tobacco pouches to carry tobacco with him wherever he went. At the end of the day, you would usually find him sitting in his comfy chair in the living room, reading a book and smoking his pipe. It was very pleasant.
In 1980, when I was 24, I decided to get a pipe of my own, so I bought a nice Danish pipe with a cherry-wood stem, and the same pipe tobacco my father used. A few days later, he came over to visit while I was smoking my pipe, and he asked me to put away my pipe and quit smoking, because it causes throat cancer and mouth cancer. Naturally, I pointed out that he smoked a pipe himself. He vowed to quit smoking right then and there, on the condition that I quit also. Out of respect for him, I agreed to do that, though I wasn't quite sure if he was correct about the cancer. He was good to his word, and neither of us ever smoked again. But I couldn't bring myself to throw away my pipe with the cherry-wood stem. I still have the pipe, and I sometimes sit and think how nice it would be...
My father has been gone for a few years now, God bless his soul, and I'm sure he would be amused that I would ask the forum this question now -- was my father correct all those years ago? Is pipe smoking bad for you?
_