I was enjoying a bowl of Virginia flake today. I decided to stick my nose in the tin to breathe in the aroma of the aged Virginia tobacco and a childhood memory from long ago blasted into my mind.
I had the childhood fortune of witnessing one of the tobacco auctions when tobacco was still king in North Carolina. It was probably the 1983-1984 and Dad asked if I’d like to play hooky to “help” his friend that operated a nearby tobacco farm. Within an hour, we were heading to Whiteville or Tabor City, NC ( can’t remember) with a truck full of burlap bales of golden tobacco.
The tobacco market was about as foreign and strange as anything I had ever seen. There were piles of tobacco as far as I could see inside the warehouse. It was the smell that stuck in my memory. The whole warehouse smelled of rich, wonderful, delicious, golden tobacco. Even as a child, I appreciated the smell. The air was thick with the scent of sap, raisins, and brown sugar.
The most fascinating thing was when the auctioneer came along singing the strangest jibber jabber I had ever heard. He was jabbering away and a bunch of old, fat guys were twitching, waiving, and flapping their arms in what seemed like a strange but fast moving carnival. As quickly as he came by, he was gone on to the next piles of tobacco. A small piece of paper was left behind and the tobacco was immediately hurried away with a forklift. My dad’s friend all but ran to the cashier with his little slip of paper grinning from ear to ear. We were there and gone in two hours.
It was the smell that I most vividly remember. I had largely forgotten about that quick trip to the tobacco market until today. One whiff of that tobacco tin brought me right back to the early 80’s. I don’t remember the faces, our farmer friend’s name, or specifically which town it was in but I absolutely remember the smell that day.
I wonder how tobacco is sold from the farm to the manufacturer now. I wonder if folks still get to put on a show of jibber jabbering and wing flapping like they did back then. I would guess not since almost everything in our world has changed. I’m glad to have witnessed it and , more importantly, to have remembered it.
I had the childhood fortune of witnessing one of the tobacco auctions when tobacco was still king in North Carolina. It was probably the 1983-1984 and Dad asked if I’d like to play hooky to “help” his friend that operated a nearby tobacco farm. Within an hour, we were heading to Whiteville or Tabor City, NC ( can’t remember) with a truck full of burlap bales of golden tobacco.
The tobacco market was about as foreign and strange as anything I had ever seen. There were piles of tobacco as far as I could see inside the warehouse. It was the smell that stuck in my memory. The whole warehouse smelled of rich, wonderful, delicious, golden tobacco. Even as a child, I appreciated the smell. The air was thick with the scent of sap, raisins, and brown sugar.
The most fascinating thing was when the auctioneer came along singing the strangest jibber jabber I had ever heard. He was jabbering away and a bunch of old, fat guys were twitching, waiving, and flapping their arms in what seemed like a strange but fast moving carnival. As quickly as he came by, he was gone on to the next piles of tobacco. A small piece of paper was left behind and the tobacco was immediately hurried away with a forklift. My dad’s friend all but ran to the cashier with his little slip of paper grinning from ear to ear. We were there and gone in two hours.
It was the smell that I most vividly remember. I had largely forgotten about that quick trip to the tobacco market until today. One whiff of that tobacco tin brought me right back to the early 80’s. I don’t remember the faces, our farmer friend’s name, or specifically which town it was in but I absolutely remember the smell that day.
I wonder how tobacco is sold from the farm to the manufacturer now. I wonder if folks still get to put on a show of jibber jabbering and wing flapping like they did back then. I would guess not since almost everything in our world has changed. I’m glad to have witnessed it and , more importantly, to have remembered it.
