Hi, Just checking some past digests that i missed and saw the discussion on tobacco production, et al.
When Andy and I were growing up in Mt. Airy, tobacco was major crop in the area. Each year I loved to go to the big barn-like building where all the growers came to sell their tobacco crops to the cigarette makers. The tobacco had been "pulled" or "picked" from the stalk and put in barns with heat to be "flue cured." After separating the tobacco leaves as to "grade" indicating the best and the rest, they would be lashed together into what was called a "hand." At the auction, the hands of tobacco would be displayed in large semi-flat baskets according to grade. The buyers from the various tobacco companies would look them all over before the auction began. I can still hear in my mind the high-pitched rapid call of the auctioneer - increasing the price as the buyers made their offers. As the highest bidder was recognized, you would hear the price per basket-full ending in a crescendo with "sold American," indicating that American Tobacco company was the high bidder. It was an exciting experience for a young girl. During some auction days I would sit on the steps of the front porch and when the big open trucks came by with their loads of tobacco, there would always be a few hands fall off the truck into the street. Then I would run out and pick them up and take them to my grandmother, who would put them in the back closet with the woolen winter clothes. (Kept the moths away, she said) And yes, the clothes smelled strongly of tobacco when they were taken out in the fall. That was why we always hung them on a clothes line out back until the breeze would make them wearable. Oh, the good old days in North Carolina's best small town! Jewell M. Kutzer The Mayberry Momma http://www.memoriesofmayberry.com _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
