Home General Discussion

Anyone ever work on a tobacco plantation before? Share your stories.

rad1964rad1964 Posts: 190 ✭✭
Hi folks,
It is true. I have worked a tobacco plantation.
It all began back in 1978, I was 14 years old and I had exhausted all my whiney child/teen infused verbal debates at the parental units for them to buy me a motorcycle.

It is then they told me, "we will never, ever, buy you a motorcycle. You will have to buy one for yourself.

A switch clicked ON in my head and I decided I would do just that! So I found a local ad wanting young folks to pick tobacco. So I told my parents I wanted this summer job, and they supported my efforts. So in the morning I would get dropped off 15 miles from my home in Connecticut and wait with other local teens for the bus. On the bus we went from Willimantic to East Windsor and were dropped off.

We arrived to see dozens of other buses all loaded with local youths from other towns. It was then I knew this was going to be a rollarcoaster of an adventure.
We unloaded, after a long ride of older teen harrassment and a "straw boss" was there explaining rules and what we were to do and what we were to be paid at the end of the day, which was decided upon how many baskets/rows of tobacco you picked and gathered.
That first week I made $160. It was tremendously hard work, but as a 14 year old, I knew it was my path to a motorcycle.

In the beggining, you would be on your butt dragging your butt down this isle of tobacco that was so long you couldn't see the light of day until half way down. They expected you to do this this rain or shine. If and when there was an arguement, which were many with all that young testoterone, and the one bad thing, one member of your group was made into a "straw boss" and those bastards, most of em, would torture you to no end, if they didn't like you. So consequently there were a lot of fights and you learned quickly that if you broke just one mature tobacco plant you could be fined, an amount of money depending on the maturity of the plant/per plant. I remember hearing a mature was worth $220. A weeks worth of pay if you picked fast.

One rainy day, I just did not want to work. It was pouring, not just sprinkling, there was no extra gear, except for your baseball cap and the basic issue rain garment which, if you had to be on your butt, did not help at all.
So they told me to stay on the bus until 4pm when they'd bus me home. Being an ownry youth, I tried to hitch hike home. I made it to Willimantic about the same time the bus arrived. Doh! Plus I was soaked anyways.

I did end up earning a motorcycle on my own. And I still drive one today!

If I had the chance to to go back in time and re do it, I think I would find a different job! :)

Comments

  • andrewhandrewh Posts: 97
    Growing up in east tennessee, I knew a fair amount of people who either grew tobacco or had family or friends that grew it and could always use the help. Some weekends we would do it from sun up to down, looking back it was a lot of fun but at the time I thought it was horribly hard and sticky work.
  • rad1964rad1964 Posts: 190 ✭✭
    image

    Tobacco Horn Worm was just one of the very odd, very large (with TEETH) scary item a 14 yr-old could almost sit on touch/grab by accident. Man, to this day I still shudder...
  • LasabarLasabar Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    I grew up in Wisconsin, the closest thing to a Tobacco farm I've seen was picking up cigarette butts outside the movie theater I worked at...

    We didn't have rain gear either!
  • gmill880gmill880 Posts: 5,947
    Lasabar:
    I grew up in Wisconsin, the closest thing to a Tobacco farm I've seen was picking up cigarette butts outside the movie theater I worked at...

    We didn't have rain gear either!

    My dad raised tobacco until I was about 6 or 7 years old. I remember the tobacco barns and the smell, riding a tobacco sled pulled by a pony and "sword fighting with older kids using tobacco sticks" ...
  • KamelyonKamelyon Posts: 109
    rad1964:
    Hi folks, So I found a local ad wanting young folks to pick tobacco. So I told my parents I wanted this summer job, and they supported my efforts. So in the morning I would get dropped off 15 miles from my home in Connecticut and wait with other local teens for the bus. On the bus we went from Willimantic to East Windsor and were dropped off.

    We arrived to see dozens of other buses all loaded with local youths from other towns. It was then I knew this was going to be a rollarcoaster of an adventure.
    We unloaded, after a long ride of older teen harrassment and a "straw boss" was there explaining rules and what we were to do and what we were to be paid at the end of the day, which was decided upon how many baskets/rows of tobacco you picked and gathered.
    That first week I made $160. It was tremendously hard work, but as a 14 year old, I knew it was my path to a motorcycle.

    In the beggining, you would be on your butt dragging your butt down this isle of tobacco that was so long you couldn't see the light of day until half way down. They expected you to do this this rain or shine. If and when there was an arguement, which were many with all that young testoterone, and the one bad thing, one member of your group was made into a "straw boss" and those bastards, most of em, would torture you to no end, if they didn't like you. So consequently there were a lot of fights... :)

    That sounds like my days detasseling corn in Nebraska, but we didn't get paid by the row, we just got good ol' fashioned minimum wage. It is a rite of passage, really. There are lots of dangers like "corn rash" and "jungle bunnies" (I'm not sure if there are any of those in tobacco fields :P) but then we'd always know to good fields to take the new kid in town out snipe hunting.
  • LasabarLasabar Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    Jungle bunnies just sounds bad on many levels....

    But I'm smirking!
  • rad1964rad1964 Posts: 190 ✭✭
    OMG how could I forget to include the stickiness! So sticky that your cap stuck to your head. The top of your head was the only spot that remained unsticky, until a mean straw boss took your cap off while his buds smeared substances in your hair. FUN TIMES! lol
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    i didnt see this thread....

    i just posted in the Tobacco Barn thread my experience with harvesting tobacco.
  • I'm working on one right now...just got back from a 9 hour day actually. Let me tell ya, nothing sets up a good cigar night better than bustin' your ass all day in a tobacco field.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    Dude Love:
    I'm working on one right now...just got back from a 9 hour day actually. Let me tell ya, nothing sets up a good cigar night better than bustin' your ass all day in a tobacco field.
    seriously, dude...
    we should hang out some time.
  • Matt MarvelMatt Marvel Posts: 930
    I've never even seen one. In fact, I'm not sure if it's even grown here in Texas. The stories of working in the fields and on crops around these parts either have to do with picking cotton or bailing hay.
  • LasabarLasabar Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    kuzi16:
    Dude Love:
    I'm working on one right now...just got back from a 9 hour day actually. Let me tell ya, nothing sets up a good cigar night better than bustin' your ass all day in a tobacco field.
    seriously, dude...
    we should hang out some time.
    The Dude abides.....
  • Dude Love:
    I'm working on one right now...just got back from a 9 hour day actually. Let me tell ya, nothing sets up a good cigar night better than bustin' your ass all day in a tobacco field.
    Im starting to think this is my dream job, busting my ass in some place semi-tropical all day does not sound so bad at all, Can anyone get me a job in Honduras or Nicaragua? Hell Dude love any opening where you are?
  • jeff_connors:
    Dude Love:
    I'm working on one right now...just got back from a 9 hour day actually. Let me tell ya, nothing sets up a good cigar night better than bustin' your ass all day in a tobacco field.
    Im starting to think this is my dream job, busting my ass in some place semi-tropical all day does not sound so bad at all, Can anyone get me a job in Honduras or Nicaragua? Hell Dude love any opening where you are?


    Semi-tropical, I wish...I live in Ohio man, the only thing semi tropical here is the weed!
    And hellyeah kuzi, unfortunately my wonderful days (bullshit) in Tiffin are over and I'm going to college back down south this year, but I'm down for Kuzipallooza!
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    when do you leave for school? ill be in cincy from sept 11-13.
  • I don't start school until after Thanksgiving, so if I can OK it with the boss I'll definitely be down for a mini-herf. I should know by Wednesday what the weekend load will be.

    I also got some pictures while out in the fields today, so if I can hunt down my phone cable I'll post them.
  • KriegKrieg Posts: 5,188 ✭✭✭
    Kinda reminds me helping my Grandfather picking corn, lima beans, green beans...etc in his garden. And being out in 95 degree heat mixed with 80% humidity in the hot Georgia sun was not fun. I can still hear those big ass cicadas. My Grandfather is gone now, but boy what I would I give just to have one more afternoon out there with him.

    "Long ashes my friends."

Sign In or Register to comment.