Buoy Silver by Rouseco

[Briar Lee]

About 35 years ago I was at the front office, dictating a letter as the assistant typed, and there was the vilest, horrible, natural born killer looking low brow imaginable who walked in the door wearing a trench coat, and stood there glaring at us.

I asked May we help you, and he was silent.

Slowly he opened his trench coat and reached inside, and I was prepared to give that man all the money or anything else he wanted.

He handed us a card, that read—-

I am a deaf mute

Any contributions to the Society for xxxx
something or another, we were so relived we both reached for a twenty to hand the poor fellow to send him on his way I forgot.

Then, I realized, it was too pat, too perfect, and stepped outside.

Down the street was a new big, black Cadillac and other men in trench coats were headed towards it.

My secretary then was related to the sheriff and she called and the Sheriff, who actually managed to nab them, and it turned out, they were indeed all deaf mutes, except the driver.

After a bit of reflection, I told the sheriff I didn’t want my twenty back, and they went on down the road.


The man with a cardboard sign out by the freeway might really be, a veteran, just like the sign says.

 

[towhee89]

All the cotton sack tobaccos I ever saw came with papers on the bag.

Bull Durham used Rizla X brand.

I can remember sitting down and trying to follow the instructions on the fly leaf of the papers.

By then Bull Durham had shrunk to a 5/8 ounce sack for fifteen cents.

The coolest sack tobacco in the early seventies was an eight ounce sack of Country Gentleman. It was just loaded with packages of papers behind the paper label.

I would say the majority of roll your own smokers then used Velvet or Prince Albert (much easier to roll) and they paid a nickel for a package of 100 OCB papers, although PA and Velvet had free papers for the asking.

The 150 packs are still sold today, ungummed.

View attachment 288261

I was gifted this by a friend along with a Copenhagen Snuff jar from the late 1800s back when it was Weyman & Bros.




I was born in Winston-Salem, Camel City!

 

[OzPiper]

I love Briar Lees folksy charm. He’s a decent man

i just worry for his soul and pray he doesn’t go to Hell.

What ? For telling porkies by the barrel ?

I, like a lot a lot on the Forums, enjoy @briar Lee’s folksy tales

 

[towhee89]

Yes, I bought several packages in 1988 when they stopped.

Bull Durham was probably whole leaf North Carolina bright leaf, aged several years.

It was about the consistency of coffee grounds, and so were Our Advertiser, Country Gentleman and Old Hillside—which was the last to go about twenty years ago.

I’ve never heard any really good reasons the cheapest tobaccos used a cotton sack and a powdery fine grind.

I do know this. Straight burley isn’t all that good, without flavorings, casings, or toppings. Bright leaf is good all by itself.

All over the nation in the middle 1800s there were flour and grain mills that ground flour and feed and then it was put into sacks. It would have been easy to do the same with bright leaf.

There is no way in the world somebody could make better smoking tobacco from their garden than aged North Carolina bright leaf, and it was only a nickel a bag.

Bright leaf has to be flue cured for about a week, and then aged, like bourbon. There are really no shortcuts possible. And today good bright leaf is only about two dollars a pound.

Essentially that’s what cheap tobacco is today, only it’s ribbon cut. They use the middles, the bottoms, and the tops in blends, and they might add some burley or orientals, even flavorings.

Buoy Silver is mostly mild , bottom leaves, bright leaf.

Close to Country Gentleman, as I remember it.

I am not gonna open my sack of Our Advertiser but it's interesting it's such a finely ground cut. So it's basically was like the Copenhagen Snuff of smoking tobacco?

I know some of them were branded for dual purpose smoking and chewing. I actually have done that with 5 brothers and while not geared for that I actually enjoyed it. Now I know other sack blends like Honest and Weymans Cutty Pipe were shag like the 5 bros. Well the weyman's came packaged like the 5 bros. They also made a plug back then too.

 

[Briar Lee]

I am not gonna open my sack of Our Advertiser but it's interesting it's such a finely ground cut. So it's basically was like the Copenhagen Snuff of smoking tobacco?

I know some of them were branded for dual purpose smoking and chewing. I actually have done that with 5 brothers and while not geared for that I actually enjoyed it. Now I know other sack blends like Honest and Weymans Cutty Pipe were shag like the 5 bros. Well the weyman's came packaged like the 5 bros. They also made a plug back then too.

The prime directive of any brand of consumable is to make the factory owner rich.

Walk into those cheap booze and smoke shops and there are dozens of choices to catch a dollar.

What I like about Rouseco is like me, they have a family operation for five generations, like our farm.

Unlike me, they can’t rent their tobacco factory to the Amish and become a gray haired philosopher about their product.

Their Golden Harvest line sells for a dollar a pound more than Buoy.

Golden Harvest has less stems and it’s likely aged longer in oak.

There once was a brand of cotton sack tobacco from Kentucky named Old Hillside, perhaps the last one sold in a sack. The packages read it was aged three years.

Bright leaf only gets better, as it ages.

Wish I could say the same about me.

 

[towhee89]

The prime directive of any brand of consumable is to make the factory owner rich.

Walk into those cheap booze and smoke shops and there are dozens of choices to catch a dollar.

What I like about Rouseco is like me, they have a family operation for five generations, like our farm.

Unlike me, they can’t rent their tobacco factory to the Amish and become a gray haired philosopher about their product.

Their Golden Harvest line sells for a dollar a pound more than Buoy.

Golden Harvest has less stems and it’s likely aged longer in oak.

There once was a brand of cotton sack tobacco from Kentucky named Old Hillside, perhaps the last one sold in a sack. The packages read it was aged three years.

Bright leaf only gets better, as it ages.

Wish I could say the same about me.

I will give them a try if I see them locally. Don't recall seeing Buoy but Golden Harvest I am sure is around. Seems like there are quite a few companies making bagged tobacco here in nc....Privateer and Cheyenne. My dad gave me a bag of Good Stuff silver because he smokes menthol and mistakenly got it, I wasn't a fan.

 

[simong]

Simon says life’s too short to smoke crap tobacco!
YMMV