As I ride through Bladen County this time of year, my thought are of yesteryear … and rows and rows of tobacco … farmers busy topping, suckering, treating it like the precious commodity it was. … It would become the financial ‘where with all’ that determined if farming that year would be successful or not. … Today … drive for miles and seldom see a ‘hill’ of tobacco. … There are a few patches, but few and far between…
I remember listening to Charlie Stafford, sales supervisor of the Fairmont Tobacco Market daily, when sales began. He began his comments on WFMO, Fairmont radio station with … “Mr. and Mrs. tobacco growers and all you little tobacco growers” … and he began to talk about prices always better on the Fairmont Market … anyone remember? Border Market tobacco markets were located in Clarkton, Chadbourn, Whitevillle, Lumberton, & Fairmont … very competitive … may have been a couple or more on the South Carolina line … and others nearby…
And, when the golden leaf was sold, the small towns reaped some of the rewards. … Farmers would take their checks to the local bank to be cashed, pay for the fertilizer, the chemicals used to rid the crop of horn worms and bud worms … pay their help and hopefully have a few dollars for themselves…
Just a memory today … markets are closed, warehouses are now used for storage or some type of retail outlet (??????), some useless … and Mr. Stafford departed the scene years ago. … Tobacco was king. … Today, its blueberries, hogs, chickens, corn, beans, peanuts and cotton … and some veggies…
Good to see the stock market roaring back … but the nation as a whole seems to be strugglin’. Many in retail suffering, bigtime…
I still have wonderful memories of yesteryear…
“Well, here I am! What were the other two questions?”
“Treat each day as your last, one day you will be right.”
“Bureaucrats cut red tape, lengthwise.”
robert g hester
rgh4612@gmail.com
910-876-2322
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