Goodwin Remembers Putting In Tobacco as a Child

“Tobacco Barn Camp Out” by Hilda Goodwin as printed in Special Memories: A collection of stories by Chowan County Extension Homemakers

Tobacco was cured with wood when I was a child. The whole family helped put it in the barn.

Daddy had to keep putting wood in the cement furnace to keep the heat regular. When he needed to go up on the heat, he had to spend the night at the barn to get the heat high enough to dry the tobacco. There was a small one-room camp near the barn and once in a while Mama would take us down there with quilts to spend the night sleeping on the floor.

It was fun because we roasted hot dogs on the fire and sort of had a picnic. Neighbors would come by and stop for a visit. The children played games and the adults sat around the barn joking and having a good time.

Even though it was a hard day’s work to help put in tobacco, there was a little fun time, too.