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Growing up I would go to the tobacco market with Granddaddy every opportunity I got. Even if it meant spending hours there I was never bored, well maybe a little bored, but I always enjoyed it. I can still remember the smells and sounds of the market in my mind.

The song of the auctioneer walking down the rows of tobacco with the buyers following him is hard to forget. There was row after row of cured tobacco with each group of bundles brought by a different farmer hoping to get the best price of the day for his sale.

Several years ago when I was working as an account manager for an industrial maintenance service provider I visited a cigarette plant near Macon, Georgia. I had to park my car near the raw material receiving docks at the back of the facility. As soon as I stepped out of my car I could smell the dried, cured tobacco and a feeling of nostalgia washed over me in a flood of memories of the tobacco market and Granddaddy. As a long time ex-smoker who hates the smell of cigarette smoke I truly love the smell of cured tobacco.

Most years being the first to the market was very important. Not as a point of pride but because the best money was paid for the early crops and by that time of year money was tight and the income was needed to keep going. The first markets to open were the South Georgia markets and usually Granddaddy and couple of the other local small farmers would get together and put a load of their tobacco on a large truck and drive from North Carolina to the Georgia markets to get in on the first sales. I never got to go on those trips.

There were lots of local tobacco markets in Eastern North Carolina and when they opened Granddaddy would listen intently during lunch time to the market reports on the radio and read them in the newspaper trying to find which market was paying the best price. I can remember him saying after the report, "We are going to the market in Greenville tomorrow with a load. Do you want to come?" My answer was always "Yes." We would get up before sunrise the next morning and load the truck with cured, sorted tobacco and off we would go. You had to get there early because you wanted to get a spot near the beginning of the auction line, not at the beginning but near it. Granddaddy knew all the little tricks to help get a better price for his crop.

When you arrived and checked in they would give you a lot number for your sale. The buyers from the different tobacco companies would spend the first part of the morning walking around and looking at the various lots and making notes for the auction. When the auction started the auctioneer would begin moving down the rows of tobacco and hesitating, not stopping, at each lot and never missing a beat of his bidding song. The buyers would follow behind him indicating their bids with a nod, a hand wave or some other special way. There were other people next to the auctioneer who would write up the sale as soon it was indicated and would leave a couple of copies of the sale paper on top of the lot. One was for the company buying the lot and the other was for the farmer to cash out with. Granddaddy would take his copy to the cashier window and they would pay him on the spot.

The tobacco markets were always an exciting place to go and back in those times it played an important part in the local economy and history. Dreams could be made are broken by what happened at the market on any given day. A years work would be tallied by the results of a few days at the market.

Tobacco is no longer the golden leaf crop that drove the economy of several southern states and just like the smells and sounds of the North Carolina tobacco markets are fading in my memories, they are also fading in our history.

Larry Gray. I was born and grew up in Eastern North Carolina in the small rural town of Aurora. After marrying my high school sweetheart I moved to Lakeland, Florida where I spent my adult years raising a beautiful family and working in the Citrus Industry, with over 38 years in various leadership and management roles ( http://www.larrygraysells.blogspot.com ). I have also been busy as a writer wannabe ( http://www.growingupinauroranc.com ).

Come join me on this great adventure, remembering the past and building the future.

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