cookie’s Random Jottings
cookie’s Random Jottings
I’m sure you’ll have seen much in the news recently about the death of politician Tony Benn aged 88. Although I didn’t always agree with his politics, I really respected the man, found him to be utterly convincing, and I’m sure he could probably have sold snow to eskimos. (I find former-chancellor Kenneth Clarke similarly convincing). Benn’s diaries are well worth a read regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum and they give a fascinating insight to the affairs of the day, often including stuff that never made it into the news at the time. He was very obviously a conviction politician (you don’t see many of those these days), and a passionate parliamentarian. What I suppose he was above all else was a staunch supporter of democracy, and I was always impressed with his apparent willingness to listen to the other side of an argument. What is beyond doubt, as a recent news report stated, is that we’ll never see his like again.
Former Prime-Minister (and Tony Benn’s boss) Harold Wilson preferred a cigar, but that wasn’t becoming of a Labour politician, so he stuck to a pipe in public.
Even in the last tv interview he gave, Tony Benn was armed with his pipe and lighter. The pipe, I suppose, became part of the Benn image; indeed, he was voted pipe smoker of the year in 1992. I’ve a particular passion for the smell of pipe smoke as a result of my uncle puffing away while he taught me to read when I was a kid. At the same time, I’d be ‘puffing away’ on a liquorice pipe. I’m also fond of the smell of the plume of smoke from the tip of a cigarette as a result of my grandmother always having an Embassy Regal dangling from her bottom lip as she cleaned me up before returning me to my folks on a Saturday. Yup, olfactory memories are very strong folks, so if you don’t want your kids to smoke, don’t let them see you smoking. Even better, don’t let them smell you smoking.
Ah liquorice pipes, how I loved them. Imagine my delight when I recently found the very same in my local corner shop. Of course, they’re not pipe-shaped any more (although they remain so in Scandinavia), but they’re liquorice pipes nonetheless. Regression now takes place each Thursday chez Cookie when I get home, my teaching week complete, and settle down for some leisurely reading. Sure, the liquorice pipes aren’t pipe-shaped any more, and the Dandy has been replaced by the Cycling Weekly, but it feels just as relaxing as it did when I was young. I noticed in the shop the other day a confection called ‘Candy Sticks’. On closer inspection I recognised these to be the sweet cigarettes of my youth suitably repackaged. We even used to be able to get a pouch of coconut-flavoured sweet ‘tobacco’. It’s no wonder we all started smoking.
Today’s version of a timeless classic – the liquorice pipe.
Today’s version of sweet cigarettes.
Which reminds me… of the first time I experienced that really fraternal musician thing. I was possibly as young as 12 at the time, and certainly no older than 13. The incident happened at school where I had been having a trumpet lesson in a very tucked-away corner of the building during the lesson before lunch. My trumpet teacher had scuttled off to his next job and had left me to pack up alone. As I was putting my instrument back in its case, the school music master came in (we had masters, not teachers, back then and they addressed you by your surname). He appeared to be a dour Welshman unless, of course, you were taking lessons on some kind of instrument, whereupon the mask slipped and he revealed himself as quite avuncular and sometimes even used your first name. He asked me how my lessons were going and I told him I was enjoying them. He produced a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, lit himself a cigarette, then offered the pack to me asking, “Do you smoke yet?” I still don’t know what shocked me more, being offered a fag by a teacher, or the presupposition that it was a foregone conclusion that I would eventually smoke. What’s more, I’m sure he just saw me as another muso and, had I said yes, he actually would have given me a cigarette. How times change – he’d probably be locked up for it these days.
I normally announce new blog entries with an email. If you’d like to be included on this mail, or if you know someone who might, please let me know by clicking here.
Or why not follow me on Twitter @RoadRatstips
‘Til the next time…
Pipe Dreams
Tuesday, 1 April 2014