[AT] Tobacco lathes and Charity Sneak Peak

[Spencer Yost]

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 10/3/2004 at 9:23 PM charlie hill wrote:

>Hi Spencer,  I enjoyed looking at the art work.   The tobacco them stuff
>is 
>my heritage.   There is nothing in those pictures that I haven't done. 
>Down 
>East (NC) we called them tobacco sticks, the same as the artist does in
>one 

You ought to post a a couple of messages outlining your experiences.  I
promise you most folks on this list don't have a clue abut tobacco farming.
 The few that do probably know things from the burley end of things and not
flue cure.   What you know and did is _rapidly_ disappearing.   I have just
been around it.   I've never done it.  Now its' just migrant labor and big
gas fired bulk barns that "cure"("Dry" is more accurate).

Here is what an elderly neighbor told me.  Only in the 1950s(or did he say
after WWII??  I can't remember) did his family start using wood stringers.
 They used the tobacco stalks before that and those were called "tobacco
sticks".  I guess in many areas the wood substitutes were called sticks
too.  Apparently around here though there was a distinction.  You cured the
tobacco on "sticks" if you used the stalk, or you used "stringers" if you
used wood.    I know the nomenclature varies quite a bit from area to area
- even family to family.  If you are hungry for the nostalgia, come to the
Dixie Classic Fair this week.  They always have a wood fired, flue cure
tobacco barn operating all week.

http://www.dixieclassicfair.com/

PS:  To all:  The fair is huge and second only to the NC State Fair(about
300,000 attending each year).  Well worth the drive if you like fairs.  If
you come Thur 10-7, eat dinner at the Vienna Civic club food booth and say
"Hi!" to me(volunteering to flip burgers as I do most years).  Be sure to
see the "YesterYear Village" to see the flue cure barn.

Spencer Yost
Owner, ATIS
Plow the Net!
http://www.atis.net