A HUMMING SOUND

Neither Neil nor Nick was present, and consequently missed out on a splendid social event. The first was feeling poorly, the second was at his wife's painting exhibition lendind moral support during her sparkle time. She paint's very well, and deserves the attention. He's a pipesmoker, and probably snuck out to quietly fume while comuning with nature or an infestation. Just a guess.

Nick likes Vapers (Virginia and Perique blends), and I was keen to see what he thought of a tobacco I put on the table for testing. Which had twenty percent Perique. Which is nice, but too much for my liking, although I once did come up with a concoction containing ten percent for a friend. Four to eight percent is quite enough, and really makes its presence felt.

Still, a dozen gentlemen showed up for the meeting, despite the constant rain outside, gloomy absence of sunlight, and noisy old farts in the backroom arguing about politics, pornographic matters, and dentists in Thailand.

The latter crowd was far enough away that we could safely ignore them and their patriotic magaite spew. There were beverages and edibles. And I think they all enjoyed themselves. Plus decently timed old man bladders which prevented pile-ups at the bathroom.
Which is something to fear.

There was preening, ruffling, and a discreet amount of strutting. Mentions of classic shapes and brands. Nothing outrageous, but murmurs of appreciation. Some mention of panning for gold up in the Sierras, geology, the commisary on base, crossing the equator, and distant lands some of them had in common. Unlike the putrid rightwingers in the backroom; no loud voices, no foul language. Altogether a very enjoyable meeting of the local pipe club.

I had brought my longest Canadian and quietly ponced around with it while doing needful things, nothing flashy or egotrippy, just looking like one of the background characters in a Tennessee Williams play during the fifties.

In fact, I often feel like I'm in a stage show featuring big egos, eccentricity, insanity, and white trash behaviour, but that's mostly because of the fellows in the backroom, with whom I largely do not speak anymore.


So it was refreshing to have civilized people in house.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================