“Smokes”

In my small town in Eastern North Carolina in the summer there were two ways to earn money. One, help the tobacco farmers harvest their crops and two, help the tobacco farmers harvest their crops. The entry position for a nine year old was to keep the workplace clean of debris, make sure the stringers never ran out of tobacco sticks for tying the green tobacco, and last hanging the finished tobacco sticks in the barn. Paying your rookie dues around the barn soon taught you the next entry position was to become a cropper or primer. The trash talk at your lunch break came from the croppers who felt they were the glue that made everything happen. After my rookie year at the prime age of ten, I was ready to become a cropper. With my over blown ego at ten I would only commit to the farmer as a cropper, this would allow me to negoiate my wages. I boasted to my older sister my bargaining prowess, ” Told Mr. Cain I would only work for five dollars a day as a cropper. I was quickly reminded by my sister, ” All the help makes five dollars a day”. ( a cropper was the worker that removed the ripened tobacco leaves from the bottom of the stalks.)

To everyone that complains about the Southern summer heat, be assured you have not lived or almost died until you experience a one hundred degree July day in the middle of a twenty-five acre tobacco field. On many a day when the temperature began to rise the wet tobacco leaves created what today would be called a sauna. I understand the recommended time to stay in a sauna is fifteen minutes. The tobacco fields usually required eight to ten hours. On one such hundred degree day I made a promise to the man upstairs, ” If you will get me through this summer, I will never use a tobacco product”, and I never did.

The preparation for cured tobacco was somewhat tedious. The tobacco leaves were graded one by one. The golden leaves were considered grade A. These were the money makers the tobacco bidders would pay the highest dollar. These leaves were used for cigarettes, grades B and C were usually used for chewing tobbacco, cigars and dipping snuff. From the warehouse the tobacco was shipped to Durham, N.C. for processing. In Texas and Oklahoma oil is referred to as ” black gold”, in the South tobacco was referred to as the “Golden Leaf”. In my day ” smokes” was the slang word for cigarettes.

Now that I have merized you with all this ” interesting” information allow me to add one more ingredient to the pot. In 1924 what was then Trinity College was renamed for Washington Duke, the tobacco magnate that produced cigarettes in Durham, N.C., thus Duke University. For all the UNC-Chapel Hill fans, Google your nickname ” Tar Heels”. It too has an interesting history.

Be safe.