[AT] History Exam, now kid memories

Sun Jun 17 13:30:48 PDT 2007

Charlie,

I say do indeed be proud of your' heritage.  Tobacco farming has always been
legal in this country ... and still is.  I am sure your' ancestors were
honest, hardworking honorable people and that coupled with a widely accepted
legal occupation is, it would seem to me, more than reason enough to give
one cause to be proud of his heritage.  If we're not careful it's easy to
judge previous generations in light of all the information we now have but
most of which they did not ... I've committed a lot of sins but I hope not
that one.

Dudley
Snohomish, Washington

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 10:04 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] History Exam, now kid memories

I agree with you Ron.  I have mixed feelings about the tobacco business.
When I was a child it was an honorable profession. Tobacco was the economic
engine that built this area of the country but it was a hard way to make a
living.  Then we came to find out it was killing people but by that point
everyone was so far into it that there was very little way out.  Our farms
are not all that well suited to other types of crops and back in the day
there were no other jobs to amount to anything.  Thankfully that has
changed.

I'm nostalgic about my youth on a tobacco farm.  I'm proud of my heritage,
having come from generations of tobacco farmers on both sides.

The guy that farms the place now sold all of his tobacco equipment this
spring.  This year is the first year that our farm is not being farmed by a
tobacco farmer and one of only a handful of years that no tobacco was
planted on it for well over 100 years.
It's sad in a way but I'm happy to be out of the tobacco business ....
finally.

Charlie
----- Original Message -----
From: <RonMyers at wildblue.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] History Exam, now kid memories

> You guys make me glad I gave up smoking many. many years ago. to think I
> was not only saving my life but making life better for you guys.
> Ron
>
>
>>   always tell folks what adventure we lacked on climbing a stick barn we
>> made up for in volume at bulk barns. Nothing like having a rack of ground
>> primings get hung up in the tracks at the back of the barn and having to
>> tote it out instead of slide it. Thanks goodness we had chain hoists to
>> use
>> when filling--some farmers were too cheap to use them.
>>
>> Pretty much I don't care what erea you worked in the stuff, the bottom
>> line
>> is it was WORK!
>>
>> John
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "charlie hill" <chill8 at suddenlink.net>
>> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
>> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 11:42 AM
>> Subject: Re: [AT] History Exam, now kid memories
>>
>>
>>> John,  you haven't lived until you have "filled out" the last "room" of
>>> a
>>> stick barn on a rainy day.  It requires that you go to the top, hang the
>>> last stick in the corner, come down one set of poles and do the same
>>> until
>>> you are out the bottom.  All of the time your  face is stuck in wet
>>> tobacco
>>> leaves.  The juice burns your eyes like acid.
>>>
>>> Going to the opposite extreme.  Try climbing back up to that same top
>>> tier
>>> corner when the barn is running at high heat (160 to 175 degrees for
>>> those
>>> not familiar with curing tobacco) to feel the stems of the tobacco
>>> leaves
>>> to
>>> see if they are "killed out" (dried) yet.  The humidity in the barn at
>>> that
>>> temp. late in the curing stage is in the single digits and sand is
>>> falling
>>> out of the leaves into your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and down your
>>> clothes
>>> into any other hole or crack it can find.
>>>
>>> Charlie
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "John Hall" <jthall at worldnet.att.net>
>>> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
>>> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>>> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 9:43 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [AT] History Exam, now kid memories
>>>
>>>
>>>> Must be all true because you had to live that life to be able to tell
>>>> it!
>>>> Thank goodness for bulk barns is all I can say! By the time I came
>>>> along
>>>> school didn't close but you could get excused for working on the family
>>>> farm. I doubt that is permissible any longer.
>>>>
>>>> Out of curiosity, do you know the name of the IH dealership or what
>>>> town
>>>> it
>>>> was in? The one dad worked for had a lot of customers down around Apex.
>>>>
>>>> John Hall
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Paul" <pwaugh at mchsi.com>
>>>> To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'"
>>>> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 10:21 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [AT] History Exam, now kid memories
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I lived outside of Raleigh, near Apex, (Apex now swallowed up) ..
>>>>> worked
>>>>> on
>>>>> a dairy farm, peaches and tobacco, everyone worked tobacco. This was
>>>>> when
>>>>> I
>>>>> was 12-15 years old .. Super A's did every thing, plow, cultivate,
>>>>> manure
>>>>> ..
>>>>> just a lot of hours spent in the top of a tobacco barn at 3:00 in the
>>>>> morning unloading it, my legs spread as wide as they would go .. of
>>>>> course
>>>>> during the next few days, we loaded the barn back up, my longest day
>>>>> was
>>>>> 22
>>>>> hrs, but 18 was normal, heck school CLOSED at planting season. And
>>>>> yeah,
>>>>> RC
>>>>> cola and peanuts was a big treat. We had 80 acres of pasture which I
>>>>> 'clipped' with a 4 ft sickle bar mower on a cub .. that took the
>>>>> better
>>>>> part
>>>>> of a week.  Can you imagine sending a 12 year old 1/2 mile from home
>>>>> with
>>>>> a
>>>>> tractor and sickle bar mower .. in this day and age .. I don't know
>>>>> who
>>>>> would arrest you but some one would.  I carried my own anvil and spare
>>>>> parts, it took too long to come to the house for repairs.
>>>>> At 16 moved back to Indiana, IH M with 2-16, that was about all it
>>>>> would
>>>>> handle on a regular basis.  That muffler definitely turned red at
>>>>> dusk.
>>>>> One
>>>>> afternoon I got the bright idea that it would sound good with out a
>>>>> muffler,
>>>>> that damn tractor roared all night long.  Our neighbor used JD A.  I
>>>>> would
>>>>> shut mine down just to listen to him pull through a clay hill side ..
>>>>> never
>>>>> die, just a long time between pops.  After the planting was done the
>>>>> IH=H
>>>>> with 2 row cultivators' became 'mine' for the next month or so .. 40
>>>>> acres
>>>>> in a day with 2 rows, is a long big day.
>>>>>
>>>>> Paul Waugh
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> AT mailing list
>>>>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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