THE LAST DAYS OF TOBACCO: Buster and Jessie Norton on the crop that grew then went away. FOA Ep.14
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2023
- Buster and Jessie Norton are hardworking farmers. This funny and loving couple farm multiple plots of land in the remote Grapevine section of Madison County, NC. They grow a large garden, make hay, cultivate corn, and are one of the last people to produce tobacco.
Tobacco was once the main crop of North Carolina and Madison County was one the three counties in the western part of the state that were major producers. But times change and the demand for tobacco has dropped due to a reduction in smoking and foreign imports, so the crop is all but gone today.
Here you can watch this all-but-gone process as Buster and Jessie describe the growing and harvesting process, talk about their life farming, and the demands they face as they grow older in the profession. We visit their tobacco fields, watch them harvest the crop, and sit with them for a conversation in the barn where the tobacco is hanging to dry.
For over forty years I have photographed tobacco production from planting through harvest, and all the way to the auction houses at the end of the season. I’ll share images from my files and books, The Face of Appalachia, On Earth’s Furrowed Brow, and Hands in Harmony.
Tobacco barns is one of the best smells God came up with.
I agree. Even though I have never smoked, I think it, along with hay, are two of the best smells in the country.
My husband (Charles Arrington) worked for Buster and Jessie almost 40 years. We live over the mtn from them. They are a dying breed, best people in the world!
Thats a connnection I was not aware of. Wauld that be Bee Tree or Laurel? Do you all farm today?
@@thefaceofappalachia We live on Will Arrington Road. Instead of staying straight going to Buster and Jessie’s, you turn left right above Arrington Branch Church
Melisa, thanks for watching and letting us know about your connection to the Nortons. I hope we get to meet you and your family at some point. We sure love your neck of the woods. The Nortons are truly wonderful people.
Yes, just down to earth, good folks!
I spent many hot Louisiana summers, walking garden rows with my PawPaw. Snapping, and shelling peas, shocking corn, slinging small square hay bales, oh the life of a 10 year old boy!! Haha
If I could go back in time, I wouldn't change a thing!
They'd be even more of a dying breed if they smoked their own product
when the days were young, this put tears in my eyes how I wish we were in those days again. It was hard I bet , but very fulfilling and wholesome.
Melissa. Thanks for watching. You really have to have a strong work ethic to support yourself with this way of life, for sure.
Melissa, so glad you stopped by the channel. Thanks for your comment. Please come back often and continue to let us know your thoughts.
So says all of us, when the days were young.
Not hard at all
You'd be the first one complaining
The first ten seconds made me want to cry. Many of my best childhood memories are tied to tobacco. Tobacco wasn't only a cash crop for Appalachia, but a big part of life. It was a way for folks to get enough money to climb out of debt, or have a slightly better quality of life. Many a birthday present and school outfit were bought with tobacco. It was means to an end, and now that it's gone there's been no worthy replacement. It's a bygone era.
Well said. It is a mostly bygone era and a sorely missing souce of income that almost every farm here cold count on each fall to pay the taxes and settle up on groceries and all.
I grew up in southwestern Virginia in the 70s and 80s. Tobacco was king then. I performed these same tasks. Brings back memories of simpler days. It was hard work, but we did it without grumbling. Most kids today don’t have a clue about manual labor. I still live on the same farm, but no one raises tobacco anymore. Oh how times have changed 😢.
Yes its hard to find anyone farming tobacco today and it used to be a take it for granted sight along the roadsides here.
I remember taking vo ag classes at John Battle HS near Bristol VA. Part of the fundraisers for FFA came from growing tobacco on the high school grounds. How times have changed
I’d say I’m 10 year older, never grew tobacco but no stranger to a hoe. Young people just don’t know.
I went to college in Danville va in the 80s. Part of our first week of freshmen welcoming we were taken to the warehouses in downtown where they dried it. Knew several people who were tobacco farmers.
The good days iv got Two boys this is what put them through school and taught them respect for life and how to work for a living God bless the farmers
Sounds like they had a great upbringing!
these folks right hear are what built this country -salt of the earth folks for sure
That they are. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Wrong color…the folks who literally built this country arent these folks…they may be good people and as a nc native i appreciate what they do…but…lets not rewrite history
@@TheAcenightcreeper
Then stop trying to
@@TheAcenightcreeperwhites have been an overwhelming majority in this country from the beginning. We wouldn’t be where we are today if they sat back and let 10 percent of the population to do the work.
@@TheAcenightcreeperboth groups built this country.
What a beautiful couple, as a 55 year old man this took me back to my younger years of working in tobacco, hay, and gardening with my parents. Little did I know at the time that I was experiencing some of the best this world affords us.
So glad to hear this brought back such nice meories. Thanks for reaching out!
Good honest and hard working family.
Yes they are. Widely respected in their community and very involved helping others.
Thanks for your comment. They are awesome people.
thank you for showing us that these gems of human beings still exist. godspeed to those on both sides of the camera
Thanks so much for the encouragement and we appreciate you for watching and glad you are enjoying the episodes.
What a lovely couple. Hard, physical work is good for the body and the soul.
They are fun to be around and claim they are taking it easy these days, but you wouldn't know it to spend the day with them!
I grew up in the holler just about a mile from these two, They are great folks. Hard working people who are just as good as they come. Alan Coates
Alan;
I'll second that. They are valuable members of their communtiy.
Tim & Scott, Another good one. My daddy raised tobacco like most people in the area. Buster was good friend of Nathan. They always traded work whether it was making molasses, raising tobacco, or hay . Good memories as usual. Don't stop!
It always brightens my day to hear from you and learn about the threads and connections that ran through the community. Hope to see you soon.
Tobacco is good insecticide, I use it for mites,
A lot of memories just came back to me. When I left home in 1988, Daddy quit raisin backer, sold the cattle, and bought a Gas heating stove! I miss that work so much. Hard work, but it builds good character. Younger generation needs a good dose of the past! That sound of the spear made me smile.
Glad this brings back good memories and thanks for sharing the story about your dad.
Doug, thanks for watching and commenting. I love that sound as well! Hope to hear from you again.
@@scottallen6062 thank you, I actually had an uncle that worked on the test farm in Waynesville back in the 80’s. Tobacco was a large part of my childhood.
I’ll never forget that smell of burley curing up in the tier rails,weren’t much money but helped daddy pay the GI farm payment and and a little left to make ole Sanny Claus slide down the chimney.
we get a dose of the past when thinking about prices
My mom's family is in Floyd county KY and my grandfather was a coal miner, as was many generations of my family, and grew tobacco. I was a butcher for 40 years and I understand being a dying breed and no one wanting to man up and work. I will be 65 Thursday, May 2nd and I am retired and still working. I sure feel at home around people like buster and Jessie and out of place in the world we live in
Happy Birthday! We were just at Buster and Jessies this morning filming them seeding trays to plant sorghum in a few weeks to be harvested this fall. Sounds like you come from a family of hard workers!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!! Hope all is well for you and your family
Man Up. Aw that cute
You sound rediculous
@@PNNYRFACE "rediculos" oh my goodness, you can't have bad grammar AND a bad attitude it's one or the other.
God bless you
I love North Carolina
I have family there
I lived there 7 years while I raised my children there
Oh to be there again!
I love these country folk
Thanks for sharing your life stories
Thanks for sharing! Glad you are enjoying the episodes!
These two are so cute! Bless their hearts. Can you imagine what all they've seen and had to deal with thru the years. Wow. God bless them and may their days continue to be filled with laughter and love.
They are a fun and loving couple who have worked hard together to make a great life for themselves and their children. Can't say much higher praise!
So much I could say and the memories I could share. They're right when they said people are scared and lazy. I'm from east Tennessee and up till about 20 years ago I made extra money working several crops , tobacco being one . I really miss the old days on the farm. I'm over 50 and you have to drive way out to find any tobacco fields. Used to be everywhere. Blessed my soul watching this. ❤
So glad to know that you enjoyed the episode and that it relates to your life as well.
I had family from sweetwater. Your cool!
You're dead on about the 20 years ago part. I'm from the tri cities and i can remember my grandfather taking me to show me his friend's cattle farms and tobacco fields as a small boy. Sadly most small farms in East TN seem to be going to land developers anymore as nobody in the family ever want to take them over.
From East Tennessee to. Worked tobacco along the French Broad River in the Riverdale community.
Great story! I enjoyed the description of the dying mountain tobacco farming and loved the back and forth comments of the couple. I remember watching my granddad, Ransom Teaster, who was from Madison County, taking tobacco leaves, putting molasses on them and twisting them to dry to make chewing tobacco.
Great memories of your grandfather. Tobacco was a big deal for many folks as far as making extra income to help them survive.
Gerald, I had not heard of the chewing tobacco recipe. Thanks for that story. Great to hear from you!
You will be proud to know that here in Central PA, Northern Appalachia, tobacco grows through our valleys. Mostly the Amish doing it
Interesting to know. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Would love to see that sometime.
Thank god for the Amish, basically our human time capsules.
My Grandparents worked in Tobacco for years. Orange county NC.
Still to this day I love the smell of a gold Tobacco leaf.
Love the history in these videos.
Thanks for sharing..
Thanks for sharing! Its great to hear how many people remember this from their past.
One of the best memories I have is my time in the tobacco field. And the smell of cured hanging tobacco is sweet.
It is, for sure. Thanks for sharing.
@@thefaceofappalachia Thank you for the trip back in time.
The last of the baccer went away bout 15 years ago here in NW North Carolina. The barns are all still here. Most growers in this part of the mountains of NW swapped to cattle or christmas trees.
My family has small pastured poultry farm. Buster mentioned about the income per acre, pastured poultry seemed to be the best for our small acreage. Expecting a hard freeze tonight 10/07/23. Winter will be here this month with the snow no doubt. Lord's giving us a break from the garden and farm. God Bless you and yours.
Got a neighbor of mine, we're both in the fire department, his parents are right about 95 years old. His father cut the first power line right of way to ever enter our county. In our part of our county the electric came right about 1960. One of the last parts of the county to get electrified due to the remoteness and rugged terrain, even moreso than Jefferson and Lansing.
So good to hear from you! Hope you guys were ready for the freeze. Got down to 34 here last night.
What great stories. The power came into these communities in late 1940s. A frind has a refrigerator bought new then that is till working! There have been lots of attempts at replacement crops, and many have gone to beef cattle but livestock is a lot of daily work, so its been tough.
Hello from Kentucky! On this side of the hill, I still run across tobacco around. But, it's real sad to watch a long tradition die out. God bless the farmers.
Thansk for watching and getting in touch. We certainly appreciate it.
Farmer's Tobacco Co. of Cynthiana, Ky. produces "Kentucky's Best" brand. The non filters are comparable to the much higher priced Pall Mall non filters. The best tasting tobacco I know of. The filtered variety uses a lesser tobacco, because I have tried those as well. The same is also true of Pall Mall.
Kentucky's best are only sold by Casey's stores, so very hard to find. I contacted the company and asked why I can't buy what they make in more than a few stores state wide. They are being throttled. A classic example of an excellent product being choked to death. You can buy 10 different brands of junk all over the state, but can only buy the great stuff when lucky.
Brings back lots of memories, I use to use those tobacco sticks for my "horses" as a kid. I had a whole herd. I remember stringing up those leaves as the guys brought them in from the fields. I must have been about 8 yrs old. Shows how old I am now. We played outside and no computers invented. Barely had TV.
Connie; those are some great memories. I can see it in my minds eye. I have a walking stick someone has made recently from an old tobacco stick. Piles of them in the barns sitting unused now.
So good to hear from you! I love your memories of your stick horses. Awesome!
A diffrerent time for sure. Glad it brought back good memories!
Working in tobacco in southern Ontario Canada alot of farmers would hire north Carolina farmers to come up an cure the tobacco for them they had the knowledge met alot of people from Goldsboro and rocky mt. NC
I’m in SE NC and I grew up helping in tobacco on the old harvester and I would string tobacco on a wood stick. There was 8 people working on the harvester, 4 stringing and each stringer had someone cropping and handing it to the stringer. One person driving the tractor which pulled the harvester and a trailer behind which held the sticks full of tobacco. A person was on the trailer waiting for the stringers to call STICK. The full stick was handed to that person and in exchange an empty stick was given to start all over again. Sometimes at this point a cropper would begin to collect too much tobacco in their lap waiting on the new stick and they’d have to holler WHOA which signaled to the tractor driver to stop so we could catch up. Hot and dirty work but I wouldn’t trade those memories and the opportunity to work at 12 years old for nothing in this world. Good crowd of farm hands, talking while they work or singing and laughing. It was a great time really. Such wonderful memories. ❤❤
What great memories and stories. Thanks for sharing! Hard work for sure. Thanks for watching the video and sharing your thoughts.
Beautiful story and people. I'm so happy I found your channel. Thank you and God bless you!
Welcome!. Glad to have you along. I hope you'll take a look at some of our other videos as well for more great folk!
This is why Im on UA-cam. Quality stuff.
I thoroughly enjoyed this mini documentary.
Well, we are honored to have you along. Thanks for watching and hope you'll stay in touch!
Very refreshing to see such a loving couple.
Thanks. We agree and appreciate you watching!
My great grandfather had 100 acres of tobacco allotment in 1936, year he died. My grandpa inherited a 1/3 of it ( 33 acres ) in 1938 after estate was settled. The “feds” had cut that 33 acres to about 12 acres by 1974. Great video of great people!
Great story. Thanks for sharing and for watching!
So good to hear from you. Thanks for continuing to visit. Great to hear about your history with tobacco farming. Things sure have changed!
Fuck the government taking from us.
What a wonderful couple! Thanks for sharing their story.
Thanks for watching! We appreciate you and are glad you are enjoying the episodes.
Hey Darren. I am so glad you enjoyed this episode on the Nortons and tobacco. Please come back often. You are always welcome.
❤ I just love these true Americana videos. Wonderful, hardworking folks. The last of the real builders of America.
Susan, you have made my day. We so appreciate you spending time here and commenting on the video. I hope you have or will subscribe to the channel it really helps us to continue this tribute to the people in our area.
That was a big part of my growing up,miss the way we used to do things.
Thanks for joining us and glad it brings back good memories!
More people need to see this video
Thanks Brian. I hope so!
How I long for days gone by. My papaw was a tobacco farmer in Yancey county, NC. I grew up handing "baccer" and the smell of a barn hanging full is unmatched.
And these kind of people are the best kind.
Sounds like you have some great memories. Glad this video was meaningful to you.
Fifty years ago when I was a soldier and stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC, we were frequently in the field on maneuvers. We would often meet tobacco farmers who would let us sleep or get out of the weather in their barns (as long as the tobacco wasn't drying). I don't think I ever met a better class of people. We would always pay for our stay by leaving 5-10 lbs of coffee when we left.
What a wonderful story and a great memory. It sounds like everyone benefitted and helped each other out. And my experinece with farmers is the same; such helpful and giving folk.
I lived 45 min from Bragg thank you for your service
I grew up in south central Kentucky and was raised in the tobacco patch. It was our way of life until the buyout when they took all the tobacco bases from farmers.
I kn ow Kentucky was second only to NC in production so both economies took a hit.
I'm from here in Central Kentucky and from a little boy my family raised tobacco and the same thing happened the buy out came and not very many people even raise it anymore, but I sure do miss those days.
My family was in the tobacco business in S.C. and N.C. for generations both growing and tobacco auction houses. I last farmed flue cured tobacco in the late 90's. Miss it! Hard work and a way of life. Thanks to you and the Norton's for sharing.
Thanks for sharing! Sounds like you have some great memories!
Hey Frank, thanks for spending time with the video and channel. What is "flue cured" tobacco? Keep coming back. You are always welcome.
@@scottallen6062
I grew up on a small farm in Robeson County NC near a little town called Lumber Bridge. Our Dad raised flue cured tobacco as well also soybeans, corn, cotton, wheat and peanuts. Yessir, it was hard, good work.
Flue cured tobacco was harvested a few leaves from the bottom of the stalks as they began ripe and strung onto a tobacco stick and hung in a barn. When all of the rooms in the barn were filled the burners, gas or kerosene, were fired to cure the leaves of tobacco. Early flue curing was achieved by using wood heat, I remember my Dad and Uncle telling stories about filling the tobacco barns during the day and watching and feeding the fire during the night.
Great maybe you can still get a little credit for some of the cancer deaths , right??!
@@jefferyschirm4103Why do you have to come here and start your nonsense? If you don’t like it don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
I'm 45 this is what my childhood looked like,we grew five acres each year, I'm just across the mountain from you in TN,in unicoi county, sounds like our way of life sawmills, gardens, hunting, fishing
Great to hear from you. Sounds like you got a great way of life! I especially like the hunting and fishing part......lol
I grew up in Lumberton NC working in the backer field as we called it and it was hard work. Them days were the golden days where you had little money but were still happy. Man I miss them day's. Not being poor, but just the way life was just so simple. Love your channel.
Thanks so much for watching!
Lumbee from Pembroke we raised Bacca at Burnt Swamp
I love and miss my farming relative's,...I became a man working on their farm, I'm grateful to have had that privilege. They're all passed on now. Bless you folks.
Well said! Thanks for getting in touch and sharing your thoughts.
Great video yo make me smile. I am 68 and headed out the the fields. Help is hard to find.
Sounds like you stay busy. I just spent the day with folks making molasses and they rely solely on family and neighbors for help as its hard to find other help.
What a lovely couple of folks.
Buster and Jesse are a great couple. They work side by side and seem to enjoy every minute, no matter how hard they work.
These are two beautiful people, often make the same comment to my bride... act like you love me, that was absolutely Priceless for me.
Yes they are a special couple, married 47 years they've figured something out to still enjoy being and working together.
What agreat real life story old america we once knew❤.
Thomas, thanks for watching and responding to the video.
As a cigar smoker, I’ll take a second to say thank you for the effort and dedication it takes to produce tobacco.
Thanks for stopping by the channel and your comment. You are always welcome here.
Wow! This video was phenomenal in every way!! Jessie & Buster Norton are amazing people! They truly are the epitome of hardworking, honest, fun loving, devoted, & knowledgeable & skilled farmers!! I cannot imagine what a wonderful & rare goldmine of friendship & neighborly comradely must exist in this part of the country!!! Especially among the older generations!! The Appalachian people are truly as amazing as their beautiful land!
What a pleasure it was to watch this video - I learned so much!!
Thank you!!👍🏻🤗👏🏻
Thank you so much for your comments. Its so great to know that what we are doing is meaningful to others and that they both learn from it and enjoy watching. The Norton's are a great couple and two of the hardest working, but fun, folks I know. Stay tuned for more!
In between Baxley and Blackshear, Ga. on both sides of highway 15 grows about 250 acres of tobacco. It was being topped and suckered and the plants were in great shape.
In South Georgia we would grow tobacco that we cured with heat from a fuel oil fired burner. We had a small tobacco allotment but we weren't full time farmers. In the beginning, we would hand crop a few leaves at a time. It would take 3 or 4 cropping before the whole plant is harvested. Later on we used hand cropping but we rode on a mechanical harvester. One of our neighbors had a Tie Master tying machine, it was like a sewing machine for tobacco. My favorite part was going to the tobacco sales.
Thats sounds neat. We appreciate you sharing your memories. The crop was a lot of work even with mechanization, and hand doing things was especially hard. The auctions were neat events, warehouses piled high with bales and folks walking up and down the aisles bidding in some unknown code, it seemed.
I dont miss any of and i miss it terribly at the same time.
I worked many summers in tobacco fields and at the barns in Eastern NC. I loved the work and cherished the people. I’m thankful for the memories. When I visit my home now, the few farmers who are growing and harvesting tobacco aren’t doing it the same as we did back in the 80-90’s. Thank you for sharing this couple’s story.
Good to read your comment. Times keep rolling and ways keep changing.We hope to preserve a time capsule here of people and ways that are slowly passing!
Hello I really appreciate these folks I didn't know the government had athority over growing tobacco good people 😊❤
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I was fortunate enough to grow up on the fringe of the end of the tobacco growing industry in OH. I'll always remember the field full of tobacco at our friends' farm, and the amazing smell in the barn when it was all hanging to dry.
Yes its a beautiful plant to look at and is something to smell when hung as you say. Thanks for your comment.
We even used to have baccer here in parts of north GA when I was a kid back in the 90s/early 2000s, not a whole lot but still enough that I knew what it was and could recognize the smell. Recently went through rural kentucky because the highway was shut down and I had to take a detour and it brought me through hundreds of acres of tobacco and it just flooded me with memories
It was certinly a way of life. NC and KY were the country's largest producers in the day. Lots of folks have fond memories of the fellowship they had working together farming all sorts of crops.
Hoss Tool grows it down in GA
My grandfather was a depression era tobacco farmer in Reidsville, NC. My grandmother went on to work at Lorillard in Greensboro till she retired in the 90s. I remember as a kid seeing it growing in the fields of the NC piedmont. It was our states crop, and sort of a shame it’s almost gone now. I think we need to make an effort to preserve the barns while some are still standing.
There are efforts in some places to preserve the barns or at least document them but I agree that it would be great if more could be done.
Good people like these folks are few and far between
So true. They are really great, hard working folks.
I am amazed how much they accomplished in life, then decide to become farmers of all things in retirement. I hope they both have many more prosperous years, we need more people like them.
I think farming has always been Busters first love, after Jessie, and now she is able to help full time, but it's her third career she says! Amazing couple.
I'm sure glad you posted this. Helping my Grandfather and Father get their crop in was a big part of my childhood and adolescence. In fact, that was my first taste of "spending money". We worked mules and had a red belly Ford tractor, which was the extent of our equipment. Buster says the young guys today don't want to "man-up". That's a shame. Honest, hard work from those days is something I think about often. And with tobacco, you do need to man-up. It's hot, hard work, but surely builds character. We raised burley and one sucker in southwest Kentucky. Working in the tobacco patch helped me decide that college might be a good idea. It was, but I miss those days and the people who populated them with me. Thanks again for a wonderful program. Buster and Jesse are my kind of people. Sure wish I could have supper with them sometime, my treat.
Jeff; Thanks for sharing such great memories. It sounds like the hard work built character and allowed you to have some pocket money. I hope you'll check out our latest episode on molasses, featuring Buster and Jessie, which might be another thing you remember making or seeing made.
Jeff, great to hear from you. Hope you are a subscriber to the channel. We need folks just like you to keep making these videos.
I sure will. My Grandfather always called it Sorghum. Probably not entirely accurate, but it sure was good on Mema's biscuits, homemade of course.@@thefaceofappalachia
I subscribed this morning after watched The Last Days of Tobacco killing time before leaving for Church. I'm glad the magic algorithm or whatever it is recommended it for me. I guess I'm getting old, but I despair of the current culture. I guess that's what we're destined to do at a certain age. I'm glad to see this channel is documenting what once was - and could be again. We could do worse.@@scottallen6062
Beautiful people. This country is in short supply of these kind of folks.
Agreed. Its been a pleasure to spend time with them on the tobacco crop and on the molasses making just done.
Brings back good memories. Nice to see the tradition is still going. Worked the fields in Barnardsville several times as a young guy. Sure made me understand what Hard work was! Great video and thanks for sharing 👍
thanks William! Keep coming back.
He spoke of the buy outs, this was the late 90s and we sold out to. Strange that most money set aside for farmers went everywhere. I remember a headline in the paper saying $100,000 was given to the Carter Fold in Hiltons Va. why
It was hard work and people were strong, wonderful memories.
My understanding is that there weren't restrictions on how the money was to be used so in North Carolina, for instance ,the legislature put it in the general fund so much of it didn't go to the farmers.
I financed my teens in tobacco and hay, right over the hill in Barnardsville NC (Northern Buncombe Co).. .hot,hard work but I truly enjoy looking back at the experience.
Thats neat. Glad the video brings back good memories!
What a hot job that was. August in those tobacco barns was brutal. $3 an hour cash in the 80's. Absolutely will teach a young man a lot about the value of money and the satisfaction of a good day's work.
Sounds like you've done your share of hard work and appreciate its value.
I miss the tobacco worms and playing tag in the barn before we hung. I can smell this video and it brings me joy. Thanks 👍
So glad it rung true with you and brought back fun memories!
Great video! Two of the finest people in Madison County.
We agree and glad you are enjoying the videos.
This is amazing life,I used to work in tobacco in Tennessee,I now reside in Arizona,no one knows hard work until they have farmed....thank for you Chanel....brought back many memories
Steve, so good to hear from you. Tim is in Arizona as we speak. I have been there often. I love your neck of the woods. Thanks for watching and commenting. I hope you keep coming back. You are always welcome.
This was the best part of my childhood!!
Glad this brought back good memories! Thanks for watching.
Such a cool couple 💙
They are the best kind of people. Great chemistry between them for sure. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Thanks for making this. Real sweet.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching.
I grew up in North East Tennessee , Johnson County. Grew up on my mom's family farm . We always grew between 6 , sometimes 14 acres of tobacco . Last several years of farming we grew between 3 and 8 acres of bell peppers. Very hard work but very satisfying also . Most definitely good times and precious memories . Times were different , either we would visit some of the neighbors or they would visit us 2 or 3 evenings each week .
That sound like you have lots of good memories of raising crops and spending time with family and friends. Thtas wonderful and something to hold on to.
George, great to hear from you. Keep stopping by the channel. You are always welcome.
@@scottallen6062 thank you sir . Have subscribed and looking forward to more stories . May the Lord bless you.
Tobacco was my first job, Ed Mackey in little River NC. From plowing setting plants, cutting, grading and my favorite part the sale barn. I started at 14 years old, up till I graduated high school every spare moment was in the field. Lots of memories.
That sounds wonderful. Glad this brings back some good memories.
Thanks. Lovely couple.
They are, for sure. Its been a real plaesure to spend time with them. Thanks for watching and getting in touch!
Two good people, you don't know it but your way of life is honorable and is fast disappearing. Keep that farm going as long as the good Lord will allow you.
Thanks for your time and comment. Please keep stopping by for a visit!
I love tobacco, its a beautiful, magical medicinal plant. You don’t have to abuse it. Harvested it with my family every summer then had a big country cookout afterward. Miss those days.
It is a communal effort as it requires so much labor so its great when folks get together to help with one anothers crops.
They don't build em like that anymore. Amazing people!
Yes they really are. He's 73 and climbing arouind the poles in the barn like a teenager and she's always working on something!
What an amazing couple and story. Thank you for sharing❤
Thanks for watching!
I lived in Madison 1984-1997. Every year my neighbors would go to harvested Tobacco. I was a little girl then. They said it was fun but also very hard labor. Tobacco and Corn what a lot of people harvest for extra cash during harvest season.
They were the two cash crops in these mountains for decades. They supplied needed cash to pay taxes and buy Christmas presents at the end of the year.
Looking good guys, happy to see you're doing something you love.
Sharon, thanks for tuning in. Hope you will stop by often. We need you!
They seem like hard working good folks
They certainly are. Be sure to check out the next video where they are making molasses.
Tobacco and the families who cultivated/processed it, built this country... and now the government is legislating these families/businesses out of existence 😢
We owe these people a debt of gratitude. Without tobacco, the economic independence prerequisite to our very existence, would not have been.
Great video, full of information. My ancestors on my dad's side were all tobacco farmers in Davidson County. My dad and his siblings got as far away from farming as they could. Dad said it was a hard life.
It is a hard life and you are at the mercy of the elements and high fuel cost and such and no guarentee of an income after all the hard work. I can see why someone would choose a different way. Just glad there are folks still out there living this life so we can still witness a bit of it.
That crop built America
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Thats the most simpler life you can live peaceful No phones No computers. You really don't need much at all as long I have food on the table I would be happy with that. GOD BLESS THEM! YOU ARE WORKING PLEASURE FOR THE PEOPLE LOVE TO SMOKE
Thanks for watching and thanks for your comments.
That was awesome, thanks for making this!
Thanks so much for your words of encouragement! So grateful that you spent time with the video and channel. You are welcome here.
What a cool video. I didnt expect to watch it from start to finish, but I really enjoyed it.
Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! We appreciate you letting us know.
did cukes and bacci in northern mass my entire 11-17yrs growing up and ended up in arborculture. Outdoor work is gods work. Sandersons veggie farm N.hatfield mass area, i miss it.
Thanks for getting in touch and for watching!
Reminds me of when I was a child and we would go to the family farm during tobacco season. We would ride the skids pulled by my grandpa’s matched mules. Sure miss it.
What an image provoking description. I can see it in my minds eye.
i'm from KY, originally born and raised in the foothills but, now i'm a true Appalachian. and our area did tobacco all the way up til the 90s, i think, maybe a little later. i have fond memories of running through the barn at my grandparent's house, age 4 or 5, when it was full of plant drying. extremely hard work! it idn't for the faint of heart
Yes this is hard workand requires a community of support. We appreciate you commenting and watching and sharing your thoughts.
@@thefaceofappalachia i respect anyone who does farming of any kind, but especially baccer! thank you for the videos, i love watching stuff from other Appalachians :) y'all take care!
I never grew up near a tobacco farm, but I grew up a block away from Bloch Brothers Tobacco in Wheeling, WV. That sweet sweet smell of snuff and molasses on a balmy summer night is a memory I miss.
Wow, that does sound nice. Those smells are part of growing up here and I'm sure many of us share those memories. Thanks for watching.
In 2015 Harvard University confirmed nicotine wasn't addictive. The chemicals allowed to be added by the FDA were addictive. Nicotine is natural and actually good. Also a fantastic anti-resprory inflation treatment per the Harvard study..This crop should be worth it's weight in gold!
Big corporations ruin it all . Including countries .
You’re kidding right?
@@paddyoak1 not at all!
@@TheGoodguy68 I know that natural tobacco is not as bad as
“factory tobacco “, but nicotine is an addictive poison.
A jack of all trades and a master of none is still better than a master of one - that is the full quote, I learned this about a year ago and thought it was worth knowing so I am sharing
Thanks for sharing! Nice to know.
I remember working on my grate Uncle's farm in the summer. He grew tobacco over near Wilson, NC. Long days, hot and very sticky. It was a small family operation, I miss working on the farm and all those older family members.
Wow what a great memory! Keep stopping here for a visit, you are always welcome.
Love this!!!
Thanks so much for letting us know. Hope you'll check out some other episdoes! Also have a new one coming up that features them some more.
I enjoy your videos! Such a lovely couple!❤❤
Thank you so much!! Tey are great. Spent another day with them yesterday working hay and preparing to make molasses.
I grew up in Western Ky and working in the tobacco was how I made my spending money in the 1970's, and on in the 1980's after I was grown and worked full time I would still work in tobacco on weekends and afternoons, it paid very well.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
I remember living in N.C in the 60’s and all the tobacco farms and the smell of the drying barns .
Kevin, good to hear from you. So glad the video brought back good memories.
This is almost identical to the way we picked broadleaf tobacco up in northern Connecticut. Right down to sharpening the hatchet on the back of a dodge! That sound of the stalk being pierced over the spear was a blast from the past. Amazing.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your memory. I noticed the sound of the plant on the spear as well! I hope you keep coming back for a visit.
This video belongs in a museum so people can see it in 400+ years easily
We appreciate that and hope it will outlast us and be something future generations will enjoy and learn from. Thanks for watching!
Burning plantbeds, drawing plants, pegging barefoot when it was wet, discing over acreage when the college boy came to measure, topping after a rain, priming leaf in the field, dropping sticks, housing when it was 100° in the top tier, book it down when it came into order, stripping when it was 20° and you couldn't feel your fingers. Tobacco was a hard crop. I've been there and done that. Never again. These folks deserve every penny they are paid for their crop. God bless America.
👍👍👏👏🇺🇲
Sounds like you know the drill. Yep, its a long hard season growing tobacco. Only a few continue to do it as they try to bring in a little extra money to pay the bills.Its interesting to watch all that is involved.
We still grow a ton of tobacco in southern ontario canada. Near lake erie particularly
Good to hear from you. Thanks for watching and taking time to comment here on the channel. I have been up that way lately. Very beautiful!