Uncle Sin
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 7:54AM | Neill Archer Roan | Permalink tagged Commonwealth, Learning to smoke a pipe, Old Dog, Thanksgiving | in People, Pipe Tobaccos, Successful Smoking 
Thanksgiving is always a wonderful experience in my family as it is in so many other families. In many ways, it is my favorite holiday because it focuses me on gratitude, something that always improves my disposition and outlook.
This Thanksgiving has been especially good, due in no small part to my nephew, Alex, coming down from New York to join Wendy and me for the weekend. My younger brother Tom’s son, Alex is in his junior year at West Point where he is studying international relations.
Alex was last here during his plebe year. During that visit, he asked me to help him acquire cigars for a traditional dinner held at the academy during the Christmas season. Every year, the plebes are given this task and – like other assignments – they had better not screw up. So, I bought him a good travel humidor and the requisite number of Padron Anniversarios . If a Roan is going to be giving his company cigars; he’s going to make sure the experience is a good one. His table loved ‘em. That’s the way it should be.
Earlier this week, before he came down, Alex let me know that he wanted to give the pipe a try while he was here. Needless to say, I was delighted. Wendy, on the other hand, was mortified.
