[Leica] a new one

[dcm at pobox.com (David Mason)]

Tina Manley wrote:

>>I'm back after a week in Kentucky. There seem to be more die-hard 
>>smokers in Kentucky (where lots of tobacco is grown) than even in North 
>>Carolina (where all of the tobacco companies are based). 


Actually there are no more tobacco companies in N.C. They are all gone. 
We still have loads of growers and one or two auction houses left(if you 
have never seen a tobacco auction - you should!). Still, N.C. acts like 
a tobacco state despite the massive decline in tobacco business. There 
are no towns with smoking bans in N.C. and it is generally considered a 
'public right' outside of the major cities.

Here is a small anecdote - when I was in high school ('87) we had a 
smoking section outside (years before there were ashtrays inside the 
school halls). Keep in mind that my hometown was the number one grower 
of tobacco in the World in the 70s. At some point the school 
administration decided to close the smoking section as it was getting 
too popular - when they did we actually had some parents coming out to 
protest the action. The pressure grew so large that they opened it back 
up. I remember signs like "my son picks it, he should smoke it." I've 
been told that it was successfully closed a few years later - but that 
is where I grew up!

Being a non-smoker, the one positive I take from growing up in the area 
is my memory of the smell of cured tobacco during auction time. The 
whole town smelled of it when all those farmers brought their crops in 
to sell. It is a sweet, rich smell that I LOVE - its too bad people ruin 
that by burning it :)

Dave