My father was a tobacco farmer…not a large scale farmer…a very small farmer. We just got by. I left southwest Virginia in my 20’s and when I returned around the year 2000, I wondered…”where’s Mr. Burley?” Tobacco had been on every patch of land in Poor Valley, and it was gone! He had his faults but Mr. Burley kept us warm in the winter and we got new shoes for school in the fall.
Companies work so hard to develop teamwork today. and I think know the real secret…necessity builds teamwork. Small farmers helped one another in every aspect of the tobacco crop’s life…they worked as a team because they needed one another to succeed.
I was too little to do the hard work of tobacco. I remember only having fun riding the tobacco sitter and singing songs…keeping Pepsi Cola cold in the creek. If a mule team was involved, I rode the mules.
In my home, there are bits of my tobacco heritage throughout the house…
The dining room table my husband built me..it’s a beautiful table, but it’s the barn siding from a local Mendota tobacco barn that was being torn down that makes it unique.
In the den where I cleaned yesterday (finally), there’s wormy chestnut from old Burley tobacco barns everywhere…the table, the mantle, and the picture frame are all wormy chestnut. Soon an entertainment center will join them.
And is there any home in Southwest Virginia that doesn’t have one of these hanging somewhere?
I love home decor and like changing things out. However, I’ve found when I stay true to things I love or are a part of my history, I am the happiest with the results.
I like this red room. Do you have a tobacco basket? Do you have it hanging somewhere?
Yes….as a matter of fact I have a tobacco basket hanging on my back porch over a very comfortable bench. And sometime I’ll have to send you a pic of “papaw’s pantry.” It came out of the house my husband’s papaw built for his family in North Carolina and it’s very primitive wormy chestnut! I love it as well as all the “old” things in my house (that includes my old husband!)… 🙂
Why don’t you send pictures of both and I’ll post them on the blog?
I’ve got one of those old husbands, too. I wonder which is older…the wormy chestnut or the wormy husband…what do you think?
I would love to have one of those, tobacco baskets, I remember them well, I was old enough to drop the tobacco sticks in the tall rows, I remember thinking I would get lost because I couldnt see over the tobacco leaves, I love your blog about Mendota.
Michelle Woodward…thank you so much. Are you the same Michelle that works at Bristol Herald Courier?
Right after I married your sister, I helped your mom and dad in tobacco. I remember hoeing tobacco all day with them and when we got back to the house my arms were so tired, I could not raise a glass of water to my mouth.
And you married her anyway…which says you really loved her a lot!