The Attributes of a Cob

[Hovannes]

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm a redneck.

That means I'll smoke a cob at home but not in public. Sort of like the Southern Baptists.

A funny story, several years ago I was enjoying a new Peterson System (303) while walking my dog around the local shopping center.
I was also wearing a Stetson.
A young boy tugged at his mother's sleeve and pointed at me with disapproval. His mother told the kiddo "That's alright, he's just a historical reenactor."

[Del]

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm a redneck.

That means I'll smoke a cob at home but not in public. Sort of like the Southern Baptists.

A funny story, several years ago I was enjoying a new Peterson System (303) while walking my dog around the local shopping center.
I was also wearing a Stetson.
A young boy tugged at his mother's sleeve and pointed at me with disapproval. His mother told the kiddo "That's alright, he's just a historical reenactor."

Congratulations, sir! You are The Anachronism!

[Hugo Drax]

Tom Sawyer smoked a cob.
All the kids in my 'hood had cobs 'cause Tom Sawyer had one.
In fact, my first pipe when I was a wee tyke was a cob my dad gave me with the admonition not to run with the cob in my mouth.

The facts that your pops gave you a c0B as a toy and that your pals used them as props in their hillbilly imaginings does not bolster the argument in favor of c0Bs.

Only that cobs are multifunctional. I found it interesting that when my daughter's High School drama class staged Little Women the father, who had left to fight in the Civil War had left his pipe at home. In the production, they used a battered old briar for a prop.
Considering Briars would be a luxury item in the US in the 1860s, it makes sense, but OTOH what pipe would he have taken with him into harm's way?
I'm thinking a common cheap clay, or a cob.

Clay with a Reed stem, meerschaum, or a pipe carved from a native root. If you read old civil war diaries or even the published memoirs of staff officers, many of the pipes smoked among the enlisted and even officers were hand carved from tree roots as a way to while away the hours in camp. They're incredibly valuable if you happen to stumble upon one in today's market and are often faked.

[joegoat]

The facts that your pops gave you a c0B as a toy and that your pals used them as props in their hillbilly imaginings does not bolster the argument in favor of c0Bs.

Only that cobs are multifunctional. I found it interesting that when my daughter's High School drama class staged Little Women the father, who had left to fight in the Civil War had left his pipe at home. In the production, they used a battered old briar for a prop.
Considering Briars would be a luxury item in the US in the 1860s, it makes sense, but OTOH what pipe would he have taken with him into harm's way?
I'm thinking a common cheap clay, or a cob.

Clay with a Reed stem, meerschaum, or a pipe carved from a native root. If you read old civil war diaries or even the published memoirs of staff officers, many of the pipes smoked among the enlisted and even officers were hand carved from tree roots as a way to while away the hours in camp. They're incredibly valuable if you happen to stumble upon one in today's market and are often faked.

Yup. Lots of hand carved pipes. The sutlers sold lots of clay pipes to the enlisted as well. Meerschaum and fancy European pipes were enjoyed by only those who could afford them.

I do American Civil War living history. I portray a union private. I smoke a pipe with a clay bowl and a vulcanite stem. Gutta percha, similar to vulcanized rubber, was the plastic of the mid 19th century.
When I'm not smoking it, I keep it in a button hole of my sack coat.