World War 2 smoke?

[H.Johnson]

I'm not sure if this belongs in The Connoisseur thread... I wonder if anyone has experience of smoking WW2 tobacco?

A few weeks ago I bought a 1942 dated RAF OR tunic. Apart from reeking of mothballs and being very dusty it is in very good condition and has obviously been in storage for many years.

One thing that fascinates me with old clothes is what you find in the pockets and, in this case, the left chest pocket held a small quantity of old pipe tobacco. Clearly, a previous owner was a pipe smoker and had kept his pouch or pipe in that pocket and the 'spillage' seems to have built up. I thnk there is at least a probability that it dated back to WW2.

I haven't smoked a pipe since 1974, but I have a re-enactor friend who does, and passed the dried flakes over to him. Jeff humidified the residue for a while (something involving fruit) and found it amounted to almost half a pipe full (a WW2 pipe has a small bowl). Now, as it happens, one of my more exciting hobbies is collecting vintage match books and I was more than willing to contribute a few genuine WW2 matches to the cause.

We gathered around Jeff as he 'lit up'... It smelled awful, but Jeff pronounced it to be 'not bad' but received few volunteers to join him. I wonder if anyone else has experience of WW2 or similar vintage smoking materials?

 

[Eyemo]

I have an original unopend pack of Lucky Strikes..

 

[duggap]

When I was in the Army in the 60s, they gave us WWII or Korean era K rations. Each one had a four pack of smokes in it. Now if you want to know something that will make hair grow on the bottom of your feet just try one of those babies. It took fifteen minutes just to stop coughing.

 

[scotrace]

They'd be horrible, I think? Since all the manufacturers tout (or touted) freshness, 70 year old smokes would have to be pretty nasty.

 

[Cigarband]

Back in the day I owned a Tobacco Shop in Kent Ohio.
Tobacco must be well cared for to age with grace. Otherwise it just gets old. Unhumidified tobacco will be stale and nasty after just three weeks, and horrible after 70 years. Don't ever open those Luckies.

 

[jamespowers]

About twenty years ago, I found a box with some old Dream Castle No. 9, I think it was, in a drawer of my dresser that was my father's previously. It was still sealed in plastic and was contained in a foil/paper pouch inside. Not bad at all. I still have some of it in a cigar box. I don't smoke pipes as much as I do cigars so it gets much less use.
I see Dream Castle is still around by searching the web. Maybe I could try some new stuff and see if it is still the same. [huh]

 

[DanielJones]

I remember my Pop telling me about when he was in the Army during Korea, stationed over in Germany as occupation forces, they used to get their smokes from the rations they were issued & some had WW I dating on them.
He tried one of the smokes from a pack. He said it was so dry it burned down in one drag and he turned three shades of green & nearly blacked out. This from an avid smoker at the time. You almost get a cartoon image in your head from his description of the experience.


Cheers!

Dan

 

[Paris7]

WWII supplies - the home front

Back in the early 1960's I went to a wonderful, slightly eccentric vegetarian school. One of my fellow meat eating sufferers had an even more eccentric, not to say pessimistic grandmother who had seen WWII coming and during the late 1930's had stocked-up on vast quantities of tinned food. 'Pompy' would come back from holiday with a suitcase full of tins of pre-war powdered egg and sausages, which we would take off into the woods and fry-up. I remember the taste of the powdered egg to this day, a sort of insipid lemon grey goup that had more to do with wet newspaper and wall-paper paste than food - I doubt that it had seen a chicken in its life. However, the sausages were even stranger, though being "illegal fare" we couldn't get enough of them. We seemed to survive these feasts somehow. A tin of pipe tobacco would have really made the day, but I don't think Pompy's grandmother smoked a pipe - a pity really.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

I have two vintage packs of Perique tobacco New Orleans Picayunes, and a pack of vintage Fatima's, but I don't smoke.

They look too nice to just burn up.

 

[Miss sofia]

Back in the day I owned a Tobacco Shop in Kent Ohio.
Tobacco must be well cared for to age with grace. Otherwise it just gets old. Unhumidified tobacco will be stale and nasty after just three weeks, and horrible after 70 years. Don't ever open those Luckies.

Thanks for the advice, i have an unopened pack of ancient Luckies that have winked at at me once or twice when i have been seriously a bit the worse for wear:eusa_doh: , but i think even in my mentally weakened state, just the thought of how bad they would have tasted and the siren call of a sandwich probably put me back on track!

 

[jamespowers]

I have two vintage packs of Perique tobacco New Orleans Picayunes, and a pack of vintage Fatima's, but I don't smoke.

They look too nice to just burn up.

Don't even think of smoking the Perique. Even modern stuff will make you dizzy. That stuff should be a controlled substance.