One of the most amazing aspects of a local Mom & Pop Cigar Shop is the family-like atmosphere that develops with the regulars. Guys (and Gals) from all walks of life come in, sit down, and talk while enjoying a cigar. Before long, the chatter goes from simple small talk to asking how each other’s families are doing.
Last year, when I walked into Sir Stogies, and Tim excited told me about what he had planned for one of the regulars – I was pretty eager to hear the story. It went something like this…
One day, while minding the shop, Tim (the owner of Sir Stogies) had two guys come in looking for wooden cigar boxes. Like all customers with this question, he guides them to the pile of boxes and tells them to look through them.
After a while, the guys come out with a couple of wooden boxes and Tim asks what the boxes were destined to become (he gets a lot of DIY’ers coming in to make all sorts of things out of cigar boxes).
One of the guys says something to the effect of “We make cigar box guitars”. Tim smiles and points to the cigar box guitar he had leaning against the wall. The guy says no, we make electric cigar box guitars.
The three of them talk for a while and Tim explains that he has a guitar player that visits the shop on a regular basis and has helped him out with events. He wanted to do something nice for him and asks if they could make him up a guitar to present as a thank you.
A few weeks pass by and Tim gets the word that the guitar is ready and that he was making arrangements to present it to Dan O’Brien. With a date set, I made sure to be at the shop when Dan was getting his surprise Thank You Gift.
When Tim presented the gift, Dan was thrilled. One of the other regulars brought in a little amp and Dan sat down to play. It was really cool to see and it will remain as one of my fonder memories of Sir Stogies.
A few weeks ago, Dan was set to play at an event that was being hosted by the Colebrookdale Railroad. Tim was going to provide cigars for an open-car train ride while Dan played live music. Unfortunately, the event got rained out and things changed. Tim held an in-store event and Dan came out to play.
After a few songs, Dan picked up the Cigar Box Guitar and played a few songs. I recorded some shaky video of the event and hope you enjoy watching it.
