Almost six years ago, my wife and I were taking a well-deserved rest at one of our favorite places - the old Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, Arizona. It's over a century old, and has been in continuous operation since it was built.

I got up early the day after we arrived (I'm an early riser, and my wife is a late sleeper) to get a cup of coffee and go out on the veranda of the hotel to enjoy the crisp morning air. I took my camera, because - well, you never know what you will encounter.

As I took the cup of coffee out to the veranda, I noticed an old gentleman who was sitting there. He had a long beard and his scruffy hair was compressed with a bandana. He was one of those people that you know that, like a horse, had been "rode hard and put up wet."

I asked to sit with him, and we struck up a conversation. I don't remember what about, in particular - just small talk. He asked if I would mind if he smoked. I told him to go ahead.

And he did it the old way. I asked if I could photograph his exercise, and got his assent. Here is the picture. Unless it's a hippie rolling a doobie, you don't see this much any more. It reminded me of when I was a kid; the old timers did it just this way - rolling their own.

I thought I'd share the photo with you - it might bring back some memories for a few of you.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I know it's a different subject but it makes me think back to when elders smoked pipes. I liked the smell of pipe tobacco. It had a distinct odor that was pleasant even if you weren’t smoking. No idea what the difference is though as I’ve never been a smoker. It’s not all that long ago that I found out the small “end table cabinet” in the family was someone’s old snuff cabinet.

Yeah, my maternal grandfather smoked a pipe. This is just the way I remember him when I was a kid. My dad took this picture of him on the front porch of his house in Bisbee, probably around 1943.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

My grandad use to roll his own, he called the paper and the tobacco his "makin's'"
As in what it takes to "make" a cigarette.

I like the photograph too.

GF

If those hands could talk they would speek volumes.

Great post, as always. Caused me to remember my summers on my aunt and uncles Dairy farm in the 40s and 50s. One summer I was there and my aunts grandfather was there for a visit. He was ancient. Don't know the number of years but his entire body looked like the old mans hands in your photo. The term "older than dirt" comes to mind.

Anyway they went to town one day and the old man was all excited when they got home. He had bought himself one of those new fangled gizzmos that will roll your cigarette for you. You put in the paper and the tobacco and then pull the handle and out pops a nice even tightly packed non filtered cigarette......if you're lucky.

He wasn't lucky.

He had papers and loose tobacco all over the kitchen table and the floor around him. Me and my two cousins were sitting at the table watching him and all of a sudden without any warning he jumped up and threw the gizzmo against the wall and turned the air blue with his cursing and just had a good old fashioned hissy fit.

My aunt came running into the kitchen to see what was the matter. She got him calmed down and cleaned up the mess. The old man gathered up some of the loose tobacco and rolled him one the old fashioned way. As he smoked it my cousin went over and picked up the Gizzmo and brought it back to the tabe. He got a paper and some tobacco and rolled the perfect cigarette. He was about 8 or 9 at the time.

I'll never forget the look that old man gave him...and eventually me and his sister. I had no idea what he was thinking at the time cause I was only about 7. But I've seen that look a few times since then and I'm pretty sure I know what he was thinking now.

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Real men love cats!

During the summer of 1960, I became acquainted with an old sheep rancher named Millage Becker from Rupert, Idaho. He kinda adopted me that summer. What a fine ol' gentleman. He smoked a pipe and was never without an old sweat-stained Stetson on his head and a couple of Border Collie sheepdogs, Tweed and Sam, by his side. I've never smoked, but I've always liked the smell of pipe tobacco since that time.

That was the summer that I first saw the inside of a sheep wagon and have loved them ever since. Mr. Becker also gave me my first Border Collie pup. Whenever I think of ol' Mr. Becker, I can't help but detect a faint smell of pipe tobacco in the air.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

Well, at the age of 82 I can tell you that I remember well "Prince Albert, Bugler, Tops, Bull Durham" etc.....you were really "High Class" if you had what we called "Ready Rolled Cigarettes."

We used to take a Prince Albert can and cut it off and make a dandy small flip top match holder.....we sweat a lot in the fields in those days and a dry match was often hard to find.

Remember my granpa and his pipe....ah....such a sweet smell of the Prince Albert.

Now my grandma dipped Garret Sweet Snuff and I never did like that stuff!

A few years back we went to my uncle's funeral in Canada and got the vehicles lined up in a couple rows. We were in my big conversion van and sat up high enough my brother could look down into the car next to us and all of a sudden shouted out the old guy next to us was rolling a joint. I looked over and sure enough he was rolling what I was sure was tobacco as Canada had raised taxes recently and rolling your own saved there.
Another time I met up with my cousin and he had what looked like a poorly rolled joint but smelled of tobacco. I asked him what was up and he said he was trying to roll cigarettes like our grand-fathers used to be able to do so.

Just think how long he might have lived if he hadn't smoked all of his life.

I started out rolling my own with Bull Durham and then moved on to regular cigarettes,pipe and cigars...I finally quit when I was 38, but still smoke a cigar once in awhile...tobacco is a hard habit to quit!!!!....I have a high school friend that is back to rolling his own to try and quit, but I think he is rolling more than tobacco....I still like the smell of pipe tobacco and it reminds of my grandpa,dad and a lot of loggers I grew up around

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carpe diem
one day at a time

Brings back memories of my Grandfather. He used to roll Prince Albert with ungummed papers, after he had smoked it partway down the heat dried up the spit he used to keep the paper stuck to itself and the tobacco (burnt and unburnt) would fall down the front of his bib overalls. I can close my eyes and see that like it was yesterday. We lost him in 1964.

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Minimize the variables

Its nice of you to remind us of our childhood, the only grandfather I was privileged to know rolled all his own and I was always mesmerized by watching the process. Oh yes, I shared your enthusiasm for your recently acquired Kit Gun too.

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198

I used to watch my dad use one of them "gadgets" to roll cigarettes and he did quite well with it.

He also smoked pipes, had several of them in a round rack, that had a humidor in the middle for the tobacco. I smoked a pipe for a while and liked the Cherry Blend tobacco. One of my best pipes was a cheap corn cob pipe. That pipe was perfect for smoking. I broke the stem off one night, knocking the ashes out of the bowl, by hitting it against a tree. Never found another one that smoked as well as that one did.

"Anyway they went to town one day and the old man was all excited when they got home. He had bought himself one of those new fangled gizzmos that will roll your cigarette for you. You put in the paper and the tobacco and then pull the handle and out pops a nice even tightly packed non filtered cigarette......if you're lucky." Walkin' Jack


I remember those. The one I had was like a frame with a couple of rollers in it & you would pull a lever to roll it up. Don't remember if it was made by Bugler or what. You could roll other "things" with it too, but I wouldn't ever do something like that!

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

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Real men love cats!

I think one of my roommates had one of those roller things back in the early 70s :-)

Judging by those hands I imagine that ol boy could tell quite a story, I imagine he saw a lot of dirt roads. Good post. By the way, are you sure your grandfather and Iggy aren't related, the family resemblance is there.

John, your grandfather is a dead ringer for my own grandfather.
Change his hat for one of the old striped railroad hats and the resemblance would be complete.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

My grandfather use to roll his own, Zig Zag papers and I think Bull Durham tobacco, the tobacco came in white cloth bags. We would take the empty bags a fill them with fools gold or slugs for the metal shop on the other end of town. That was our treasure. We had and old wood box we kept the treasure in. The Radio flyer wagon was the stage coach. Cowboys and bad guys.

I always marveled at how grandpa could roll a cigarette and not drop a flake of tobacco. I can still smell the tobacco and peppermint candy and bay rum after shave. I miss him and his stories. He would be 130 years old this July. thanks for the memories

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Carpriver.

Nice Image John!

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LEX ET ORDO

The term "makin's" was not unique to your GF. My family, and every cowboy and shepherd I every met used the term.

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Incoming fire has right of way

Grandpa and me having a pipe together in 1943 or 44.

My uncle Paul may God rest his soul he was an awesome uncle more like another dad to me. He never had much money but I remember him rolling
his own cigarettes with that little flip handle machine. I will never forget him we would build those fly by wire airplanes. We would build or rebuild all week only to crash them and rebuild them the next week. We had fun that didn't cost money like today's hobbies. But I'll never forget the man rolling his own cigarettes.

My Dad had one of these machines and could never get it to work. I used to roll for him all the time - I thought it was loads of fun and would sit and roll smokes til he told me to stop.