Think back about six months ago. Do you remember how cold and dreary it was? Do you remember muttering something about wishing the weather would warm up a little bit? If you did, your wish came true. It has definitely warmed up a little bit.

Each year in early July, I am reminded of my younger days as I was growing up on a small tobacco farm in northern Wayne County. What reminds me of those days is the weather -- the hot, humid, miserable days of summer and the fact that this was the time of year that my father decided it was time for us to start barning tobacco. I can't say that I have fond memories of those days, but I will say that I will remember those days as long as I live.

Even though I did not think so at the time, those days are what taught me the value of hard work. They also taught me the value of education. They taught me that education was the key to a future doing something other than barning tobacco.

Those were the days when everything about tobacco was done by hand. My father did not have an automatic cropping machine. He did not have bulk barns. He did not have topping machines. He did not even have migrant workers, only my brother and me.

It was not until the last couple of years that I was on the farm that sucker control chemicals were available. Prior to then, the only sucker control my father had was my brother and me.

I remember getting up at 3:00 in the morning to take out tobacco, so we would have empty barns to refill that day. For those of you who have never been there, it can be hot at 3:00 in the morning in the top of an old tobacco barn.

I remember taking out sand lugs. Taking out tobacco was bad enough, but taking out sand lugs was especially bad. Sand lugs were the first leaves harvested from the bottom of the stalk, and they were full of sand. When the tobacco was cured out, sand would fall from the leaves whenever they were disturbed. So when taking out sand lugs, you just closed your eyes and mouth, took a deep breath, grabbed the sticks from the barn, and passed them to someone below.

I remember that we did not have electricity at our old tobacco barns. No electricity meant no electric lights. We had one old kerosene lantern that hung from the center of the barn and gave barely enough light for anyone to see. But with your eyes closed because of the sand, you really didn't need a light anyway, you just felt your way around the barn. The old lantern just added to the heat.

I remember going to the tobacco field real early in the morning. My father believed that you should start at exactly 6:00 in the morning. So my brother, two neighborhood boys, and I were each between our two rows of tobacco waiting for his signal to start. It was hot at 6:00 in the morning, too.

I remember going back to the tobacco field after lunch. We called it dinner, but now the meal in the middle of the day is called lunch. It was dry, you had to pick shady spots as you stepped to keep from blistering your bare feet, and the tobacco leaves were wilted from the heat of the sun. There are very few places any hotter than a tobacco field at this time of day in the middle of July.

I remember hanging tobacco in the barn after the leaves were brought from the field and tied onto sticks. It may have been 100 degrees in the tobacco fields, but it was 120 in the top of those old barns and not a bit of breeze.

I remember those two old mules that we used to pull the tobacco carts. Joe was a kind, gentle old mule that knew more about barning tobacco than any of us kids. And Mable was a cantankerous old mule that did things only one way - her way. Those of you who have never smelled a mule on a hot day don't know what you have missed.

I remember suckering tobacco. As soon as we finished barning, my brother and I had to go back to the same fields and start suckering and topping. It may have been hot in the field when we were barning, but it was double hot when we were suckering and topping.

The best thing I remember about tobacco was cutting the stalks. After about eight to ten weeks of harvesting, all the leaves were gone from the stalks. The season was over. What fun it was to drive Joe and Mable through the tobacco field pulling the old stalk cutter where we had worked so hard and sweated so much. I don't remember it being hot when it was time to cut stalks.

There are many people who don't mind working in the heat of summer. I guess they are used to it.

I have never gotten used to the heat. I enjoy air conditioning. After my experiences in tobacco fields, the only way I plan to get hot during the summer is doing something I want to do. And I definitely don't want to barn tobacco.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 7/23/03