I drive through Southwick, MA almost every day and as the growing season progresses, I get to enjoy the farms’ emerging lushness.
Prevalent in the farms of Southwick, MA is shade tobacco, a crop grown for cigars in this part of Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Yesterday I noticed one of the tobacco fields was teeming with teenagers working on the harvest and it brought me back to my teen years.
One of my first jobs was working on a tobacco farm in Southwick, MA. I started at 15 and because I was small and fast, I was able to make a good amount of money doing piecework. I was on a team of kids that went row by row tying the tobacco by string wrapped up the stem, but carefully between the tender leaves up to a wire frame above, then cutting the string with your fingers. I can still remember the taped callouses where the string had rubbed and I can still do the motions for the tying to this day!
Working tobacco was a right of passage in Southwick, MA when I was a kid. It was filthy and hot, but everyone did it and somehow we made it fun. There were field mice, tobacco worms (giant green caterpillars), 110 degrees or higher heat under the nets, tar stains on your hands and balls of tar on your hair and back breaking work, BUT it was a job.
I had thought that kind of work ethic was gone until I saw the group of kids working in the field yesterday. I am glad to see that there are still kids willing to put in a hard days work for their paycheck. That lesson has brought me far and I know these kids will benefit from it, too.
Saying that makes me feel like an old fart, but so be it.
