A Vacation to the Tobacco Market - A Disappearing Market

Growing up I'd head to the [http://buy-electroniccigarette.org/ market with Granddaddy every opportunity I got. There I was never bored, well maybe a little bored even if it meant paying hours, but I always enjoyed it. I can still remember the smells and sounds of the market in my own mind.The song of the auctioneer walking down the lines of tobacco with the consumers following him is hard to forget. There was row after row of cured tobacco with each number of programs introduced by a different farmer wishing to obtain the very best value of your day for his sale.Several years ago when I was working as an account director for a commercial preservation service agency I visited a cigarette plant near Macon, Georgia. I had to park my car near the raw material getting docks at the back of the center. When I stepped out of my car I can smell the dry, cured tobacco and a feeling of nostalgia washed over me in a flood of thoughts of the tobacco industry and Granddaddy. As quite a while ex-smoker who dislikes the smell of cigarettes I must say I love the smell of relieved tobacco.Most decades being the first to the industry was essential. Never as a point of pleasure but since the best money was taken care of the first plants and by that time of year money was limited and the income was needed to keep going. The first markets to open were the South Georgia markets and often Granddaddy and handful of the other local small producers might get together and put a load of these tobacco on a big vehicle and drive from New York to the Georgia markets to get in on the first sales. I never got to get on these trips.There were lots of local tobacco markets in Eastern Vermont 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 spending the most effective price. I can remember him saying after the survey, "We will the marketplace in Greenville tomorrow with a load. Do you want to come?" My response was usually "Yes." We would get another day up before sunrise and fill the truck with relieved, sorted tobacco and off we'd move. You'd to obtain there early because you desired to get yourself a area near the beginning of the market line, not at the beginning but near it. The little tricks were known all by granddaddy to greatly help get a better price for his crop.When you came and examined in they'd give a whole lot number to you for your purchase. The buyers from the various tobacco companies would commit the first element of the day travelling and taking a look at the various lots and making records for the auction. Once the market began the auctioneer could start going down the rows of tobacco and hesitating, maybe not stopping, at each lot and never missing a of his bidding track. The consumers would follow behind him showing their estimates with a jerk, a hand wave or several other specific way. There were other people close to the sale would be written up by the auctioneer who right it had been mentioned and would leave a couple of copies of the sale paper along with the lot. One was for the organization buying the lot and the other was for the character to cash out with. His copy would be taken by granddaddy to the cashier window and he would be paid by them on the spot.The tobacco areas were usually an exciting place to go and back in those moments it played a significant part in the local economy and history. Dreams could be made are damaged by what occurred at the market on any given time. A years work will be counted by the outcome of a few days at the market.Tobacco is no longer the wonderful leaf crop that forced the economy of several southern states and similar to the smells and sounds of the New York tobacco areas are fading in my memories, they're also fading in our history.