Anyone Ever Work in a Tobacco Field?

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diamondback

Lifer
Feb 22, 2019
1,215
1,932
54
Rockvale, TN
I worked harvesting burley one summer between semesters back in the 80’s. Hardest manual labor I’ve ever done, and I’ve worked some tough jobs in my younger days. All the farmers in the area would use the same crew, so it went farm to farm. Lord-a-mercy did the sweat pour... phwew. It payed pretty good though. Not sure how much of it wound up in someone’s pipe.
Anyone else have the pleasure?

 

diamondback

Lifer
Feb 22, 2019
1,215
1,932
54
Rockvale, TN
Oh it wasn’t spectacular, but IIRC it was a couple bucks higher than minimum wage, so it was perspective based. I was all over it... at first... but it was a blast.

 

acidpox

Can't Leave
Nov 18, 2018
460
317
I have, from the time I was 11-17 years old I would work on an 120 acre tobacco farm. I would work weekend when school was in and everyday excluding sundays during summer. Then when all the bases/contacts got bought out the farm slowly switched to produce. By the time I was 18 or 19 it was 100 percent produce and I would occasionally work there to make a little extra cash. The farm I worked for our tobacco whent to make Marbolo Reds, or at least that's what the owner told me. Cosmic is right, pay sucks for the amount of work that is involved. Job I hated most was hanging it/booking it down.

 

acidpox

Can't Leave
Nov 18, 2018
460
317
Yeah, being younger and more nimble than a lot of the workers I was always "volunteerd" to have to climb to the 3rd or 4th tier of the barns come hanging time. Looking back it was super dangerous work.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,565
27,066
Carmel Valley, CA
No, but I watched some tobacco being put up near Rabbit Hash, KY.
I did work in a barn putting up hay. For one day. Allergic reaction to the hay dust as well as the heat and straining a 15 to toss 65 pound bales. Also helped me decide to make it through college.

 

diamondback

Lifer
Feb 22, 2019
1,215
1,932
54
Rockvale, TN
Quickly decided to work hard in school so I didn't have to do that kind of work when I was 40.
Most definitely. I was majoring in Computer Science at the time. I remember thinking that exact thought: I’m NOT going to do this kind of work for a living! Though I often think back to those “good old days” now.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
My late wife (1948-2000) never worked in the fields but would stick tobacco (hang the leaves on sticks to hang in the tobacco curing barn) on her grandparents' tobacco farm in Dover, N.C. I've seen the harvest from the highway going on into the night with the harvester tractor with many headlights aglow.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,343
Did any of you guys who worked in tobacco fields get interested in pipes that way?
That came the year after I quit. I did learn how to make and chew twists at that time though.

 

acidpox

Can't Leave
Nov 18, 2018
460
317
Just now picked up the pipe about 9 months ago, but I did start smoking cigs at 16, 31 now

 

yohanan

Lifer
Oct 1, 2011
2,120
4,003
Old Belt/U.S.A.
worked harvesting burley one summer between semesters back in the 80’s. Hardest manual labor I’ve ever done, and I’ve worked some tough jobs in my younger days. All the farmers in the area would use the same crew, so it went farm to farm. Lord-a-mercy did the sweat pour... phwew. It payed pretty good though. Not sure how much of it wound up in someone’s pipe.
Anyone else have the pleasure?
Yes I have, many years ago.

 

upnorth1

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 7, 2017
969
3,604
La Belle Province, Canada
Back in the day I picked tobacco in Southern Ontario. We would travel there from Quebec to work the fields. It was back breaking labor, and then we partied hard at night. It paid well because no one wanted to do it.

 
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