Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/04/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Wasn't the very black-toothed Jessie Helms from NC? Not a great poster
boy for tobacco interests.
Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of David
Mason
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 9:11 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] a new one
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
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