System Day

  TO LOVE WHAT YOU HAVE / TO HAVE WHAT YOU LOVE September 3rd, 1898: the date of the third and final patent, perfecting Charles Peterson's Patent System Pipe.  This year marks the System pipe's 127th anniversary, and to celebrate we considered what it means as pipemen and women "to have what you love"--what's in your rotation--or "to love what you have"--what's in your collection.  Whether you consider yourself a "companioner" or a "collector" or a bit of both, smoking a pipe, that is to say smoking a PETERSON pipe, requires a certain amount of thought and reflection.  Wherever you are around the world today, on behalf of the Pete Geek community, I invite you to load your favorite System pipe with a choice tobacco and find time and space to consider what pipe smoking means to your life. This year's theme was suggested by a conversation between Chas. Mundungus, Michael Sparks, and Conrad Gottlieb last summer, all CPGs: "TO HAVE WHAT YOU LOVE / TO LOVE WHAT YOU HAVE" Choose One: To have what you love; that is, what do you collect? To love what you have; that is, what do you companion? Either/Or choices are often difficult, and no one who entered the lists this morning was disqualified for a both/and answer, or even a non-answer. Our objective was simply to observe the maxim of the Irish Illuminati: "To preserve, smoak, and promote Peterson pipes."  * Jay Keatley CPG. Have what you like:  This 1990 Commemorative Patent System (Oom Paul XXL) is a prime example of the NOS Pete’s that I seek.  Perfect, unsmoked condition with original patina.  Also, the Bennington Clay Marbles and 1893 Columbian Exposition Match Safe are period correct.  This year’s smoking companion will be my Peterson Pub PSB filled with L.J. Peretti’s Blend 500.   * Clint Stacey CPG. Love what you have... this is a maxim that I wish I had taken note of many years ago. As a much younger man I had a terrible weakness for not appreciating what I had and always looking at the next thing, the better thing, or so I often thought. A few years ago a wonderful man from Eritrea told me an African parable about a dog with a lump of meat in it's mouth that on crossing a bridge sees its reflection in the water but actually believes it sees another dog with a larger piece of meat and in an attempt to grab the larger piece of meat opens his mouth and loses what he has in the water. Although a little wiser and more content now, I can apply this parable to my approach to pipe collecting and companioning seeing and wanting patents and IFS and various modern offerings but often neglecting what I have. This premier 303 is a case in point. My first Peterson bought about thirty years ago. It is system perfection complete with chimney. It has been all over the place with me and though I sometimes neglect and forget it…