Lifelong smokers are fast running out of tobacconists
GORDON Hunter started smoking a pipe after his dad caught him with five Woodbines.
That was when he was 16. He's 80-years-old now and he's still at it.
Now Gordon will have to search far and wide to get his favourite tobacco if Anne Iliffe closes her Chesterfield tobacconists shop.
Retired chartered surveyor Gordon already travels from Beauchief in Sheffield to Chesterfield for his Mick McQuaid tobacco once every six weeks.
"I can't buy this tobacco anywhere in Sheffield – there aren't any proper tobacconists left now," said Gordon as he puts his empty tins on the counter and picks up five new ones.
"I used to go to Silvesters on Surrey Street but that's not there any more.
"My dad caught me smoking a cigarette when I was 16 and he said 'If you're going to smoke, smoke a pipe', and he bought me a pipe and half an ounce of Players Medium Cut.
"I took to it like a dummy. I have smoked a pipe ever since, all through my working life and my time in the RAF.
"It's not like smoking cigarettes – you don't inhale the smoke.
"I don't think it's nearly as bad for you.
"When Anne closes up I don't know what I'll do unless I can get it from her mail order.
"My wife found some in a shop in Whitby, at the Black Horse down by the harbour when she was on holiday, but I don't know anywhere else that sells it now."
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
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