Tobacco
Tobacco was used first by Native
Americans for medicinal purposes even before Columbus
discovered America. It began to be popular in Europe during
the 1500's and in the early 1600's tobacco became the
colonies’ largest export and fueled the demand for slave
labor.
At first tobacco was used mainly for pipe-smoking, chewing
and snuff. Although cigarettes had been around in crude
form they didn’t become popular until after the Civil War.
As I was growing up I thought that only women dipped snuff
and only men smoked and chewed tobacco. Both my
grandmothers dipped snuff. My only living granddaddy chewed
tobacco. My Daddy smoked cigarettes and his twin brother
Uncle Earl chewed tobacco. I was in my teens before I saw a
woman smoking. Mrs. McCollum lived across the street from
us. She was an older lady considered “liberated”. One day
she was sitting in a lawn chair in her front yard smoking a
cigarette. I couldn’t believe my eyes. As the years went by
cigarette smoking became the habit of choice by both men
and women.
I remember when many public places provided spittoons to be
used by those using snuff and chewing tobacco. The streets
of Fayetteville never had these. I still remember going to
town on Saturday when most of the rural people came to town
and having to watch my step to keep from sliding down in
tobacco juice.
When I worked on weekends at Alford Brothers I sold a lot
of tobacco products. The “roll your owners” primarily used
Prince Albert (in a red metal can) and Bull Durham (in a
small cloth bag with a draw string opening). “Chewers”
liked Brown’s Mule and Beechnut plug tobacco best. Plug
tobacco came in little wooden boxes. I would take the empty
ones home with me for different projects. Women bought
Railroad, Buttercup and Tube Rose snuff frequently.
Today tobacco usage is less acceptable after it was
determined that it caused health problems. In 1965,
Congress passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and
Advertising Act requiring the surgeon general’s warnings on
all cigarette packages. All broadcast advertising of
cigarettes was banned in 1971.
My mother hated tobacco in any form, although she condoned
my daddy’s habit. I feel that his heavy smoking led to his
early death. My mother’s influence and my father’s untimely
death kept me from ever using tobacco.