As we celebrate the 4th of July week, we are enduring some of the hottest, most uncomfortable weather we have faced this year. It is almost unbearable for those of us who live and work in air-conditioned comfort. We venture outside for just a few minutes at the time and plan our outside chores for early morning or late afternoon. Just think what it is like for farmers and others who have jobs that require them to be outside every day, all day long.

Each year at this time of the year, I cannot help but remember when I was a young fellow growing up on a small tobacco farm in northern Wayne County. In all honesty, I cannot say that I have fond memories about celebrating the 4th of July when I was young, but I will remember those days as long as I live.

The first week of July is when we started barning tobacco. The hottest, most humid, most miserable days of summer when all my city friends were at the pool or at the beach, and I had to be in the tobacco fields.

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 on the 4th of July

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.

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 in the middle of a July day.

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 must have been more than 120 in the top of those old barns and not a bit of breeze.

I remember those two old mules that pulled the tobacco carts. Joe, a kind, gentle old mule that knew more about barning tobacco than any of us kids. And Mable, 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've 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.

I remember going to bed at night after a long, hot day in the fields. Every door and every window in the house were open in order to catch any slight breeze that would stir, but the nights seemed to be as hot as the days.

I could handle the heat when I was young. That was when the only air conditioners I knew about were at the big department stores in the city.

I can't handle the heat any more. 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 7/27/04