smell the tobacconist

I went into a tobacconist shop today to buy some vanilla flavour herbal tobacco for a friend. I have not been in an old tobacconist shop for many, many years. There are amazing smells from peach, rose and other flavoured tobaccos. Then there are the pipe tobaccos and cigars.

Then you look around and there the cigar boxes from exotic places, a massive selection of cigars, and the pipe display. It was amazing and then there was the display of roll up papers.

Then there was the exotic Belgium chocolates and the very friendly assistant. And he weighs the tobacco with an old fashioned brass scale with brass weights.

I wondered why it affected me so and then I remembered - when I was a kid - we had survived the fifties and in the early sixties - we were recovering from rationing and scarcity. Tobacconists to us kids were full of smells from exotic places - with stories from the war and from travellers tales and from Hollywood - made these shops so exotic - so mysterious - in our imagination these were the places a secret foreign agent would come and go - and yes we heard about them making cigars - by rolling them on the thighs of scantily dressed women.

Its a pity I don't smoke - a pipe would be so cool - I could prod people with it when making a point - and with my gray beard - I would only need to put leather patches on my jacket to become a full professor.