September 2007

Club Info & Events

Details of the August Meeting
Those of you who attended don't need me to say that last month's meeting was terrific! With vacations and all, it's just not always easy for folks to show up in the dead of summer but somehow most of our regulars did. It was particularly nice to see our club's elder statesman "Steve "Mass Consumer" Gutz after missing July's meeting with some medical problems as well as "club funnyman" Sid Shear who graciously brought quite a few of his pipes and related ephemera to donate to club members. For those of you who were unaware, Sid actually quit smoking a few months back. His famous words to me have always been: "I'd never pay more than a buck for a pipe" but this just couldn't be true as his box of old briars contained no less than three Dunhills!

Also in attendance was our "key note speaker" for the night Russ Oulette who drove almost three hours down to join us from the Habana Premium Smoke Shoppe in Albany, NY where he is the head tobacco blender. Russ' "Home & Hearth" series of tobaccos have won critical acclaim from fellow pipe smokers coast to coast. Russ gave an informal but infomative thirty minute long speech about tobacco and tobacco blending which everyone seemed to really enjoy. Being the generous gentleman that he is, Russ also donated more tins than I can remember for us to sample and raffle off as well. Russ is a great guy and a dear friend to the club. Hopefully we can talk him into visiting us annually!

2007 SHPC Club Pipe
The 2007 club pipe will be deliverd by it's maker at the September meeting. Joe Skoda will make the treck from New York to Mass. to personally hand out the 2007 club pipe that he has crafted for us. If you ordered a pipe be sure to attend the meeting to collect it. Your payment of $150 will also be due at the September meeting.

Piper in Paradise
We recently received this emal from our old friend and compatriot Dick Morse. Dick is living in Florida these days and doing very well but why not let him tell you himself.....

"A long overdue hello to all from Dick Morse down in the Floridian version of Heaven. I've been out of things for quite some time now, what with culture shock, selling my house up north and building a new one down here(and all the associated traumas which many of you are familiar but I only thought I knew which way was up!), trying to procure employment in a field where they make it very difficult to practice without meeting very stringent licence requirements (and the pressure of getting a job to pay for all the demands of both states until we finally made the move etc.) But it was all worth it, I love my job (and I never thought I would ever say that), I work at the VA hospital in Tampa, and love working with the veterans as sad as it sometimes is to see what the soldiers who come back are up against (this particular VA is the busiest in the nation). My quality of life went up dramatically, I love where I live, it's a beautiful golf course community (I don't play golf of course- maybe I will learn if I feel I can afford another bottomless money pit besides pipes etc.). I have a teriffic home that's peaceful and I look up at a sky that seems much larger than I can adequately describe (I know that doesn't make sense but I don't know how else to put it).
I can bend your ears some more at another time but before I go I want to say how much I miss you all. My leaving was in many regards very easy. My job was tedious and the jerks seemed endless and I needed a change very badly. What I found very difficult for me was leaving a group of guys that were not only my best friends but became the best things about my life and who I genuinely looked forward to seeing more than anything. Every one of you brought your own uniqueness that made my relationship with each of you very special to me not just in what it was but what it could be. We may not have always talked because of time or table proximity but I always felt that at some point we would and that we would all always be there. I guess not. Which made me very sad about the way things worked out with changes in meeting nights and locations which made it impossible to see you. I hope you are all well and would welcome any contact if you wish it. I won't mention every one by name for fear of leaving someone out inadvertently and would love to hear from everyone (email address and / or phone #s).
It was great to see Bob, Charlie and Andy in Chicago and I hope to see more of you at shows when you can-you won't believe how much fun they are."
                                                         Miss all,   Dick

We miss you too Dick but glad to hear your are doing well. If you want to contact Dick you can email him at:
rich221b (at) tampabay (dot) rr (dot) com