From Steve Granoff of The Christopher Morley Pipe Club:
Well, thanks to Bruce Blum and George Amron I finally got to the Chicago Pipe Show. I’ve attended many pipe shows during the last 25+ years and thought the Chicago show would just be a larger version of the same. I looked forward to seeing more pipes in one place than I had ever seen and, of course, to see some friends and make new ones. I thought the show would be about pipes, pipes and more pipes.
To my surprise, I found that for me, the show was not primarily about pipes. Oh sure, there were plenty of pipes – pipes by the thousands. But the most amazing aspect of the show was the people! There were pipe makers and pipe collectors and pipe smokers from all around the globe. All the famous and not so famous were there. But unlike a stage show, instead of just watching the stars from the audience, I got to meet and talk and smoke with them. And, I don’t mean just small talk. We discussed briar, tobacco, pipe making, pipe engineering and all sorts of less important subjects.
From now on when I see a name on a pipe, or a name on a blog or a comment on the internet, there will be a face and a personality to go along with it. The Chicago Pipe Show was a truly transforming experience.