Went to Tractor Supply yesterday for feed for animals. Wife always says I"m a recluse because I don't want to shop.,Well I stopped at Walmart to look at the smaller flat screens for a spare bedroom . Comeing out was this little old gal and I mean little who checks the sales slip when you leave. Made the comment boy it's hot and right around the corner is cotton picking time. She said yes then it was on to our Family farm to work the tobbaco. She stopped me in my tracks. She said I"m a Kentucky gal, we went all over the country doing farm work, but in the fall it was back to Kentucky for tobacco. Here are her words, the plants were tall 5 to 6 feet high, cut down by men with sickles, turned upside down and hung in the Big cureing barn. When we got there it was cold, 5 of us were at a table and each one had a leaf to strip on the plant that was passed down, the plant had 5 differen leaf useage and we stripped the leaf threaded it through a tobbaco stick, you would call it a tomato stick, when we had a bundle we used the last leaf to tie it off and went to a press with a big handle. I was too small to pull the handle, my Uncle did it for me, then the pressed bundles were put in approiate tote bins. One leaf was for cigarettes, one for chewing tobbaco, one for pipe tobbaco, I don't remember the other 2. When the stripping was done they were hauled off to an Auction Barn and the Tobacco buyers would inspect and bid on them. I asked her how did a Kentucky girl wind up in La and married to a Cajun. She said my standards are not high, we got a good laugh out of that. Learned all that by casually commenting on cotton picking weather.
