Tobacco sticks start out as square cut "sticks" that are approx 1 1/4" square and 4 1/2 ft tall poles that have a semi-point cut out of the top. The top "point" is designed to wear a metal spear when the tobacco stalks are, literally, speared onto the stick. Tobacco grows to about 4-5' tall, and when cut near the base, they are then speared onto the tobacco sticks and hung across wooden poles in a tobacco barn to dry and cure. Months later, when cured, the stalks are removed from the tobacco stick, and the stick goes back into a nice, neat pile, to sit there until the next year. Physically, that's a good description of tobacco sticks. But, oddly enough, that is not the whole story.
We never liked the new sticks...too many splinters. Hated the "old" sticks, for they were twisted and gnarly, hard to carry when full of tobacco stalks, and really hard to spear without splitting the tobacco stalks. Yes, we had our favorite types of sticks. They had rounded tops, but not too rounded, or the spears did not stay on them right. If we were irritated with someone, or sometimes just for fun, we tried to put the "bad" sticks in their pile of waiting sticks to use next. The easier the spears fit the perfect sticks, the easier it was to do our summer, manual labor on the farm. Easier was always better, because everything was a race. We raced to see who could get their side of the trailer done first. We raced to see who speared the best, who cut the rows of stalks down faster, who could walk faster, who could run faster, who gave who The Word, and the list never ends. Sometimes we used the sticks as writing tools, to make art or messages in the dirt. What farm kids did.
But the tobacco sticks are a dying breed. There are no more fields in Maryland (or very few?) and the sticks are finding new homes. They become art in some homes, sometimes clever and cute, sometimes just stupid looking non-art. I have a few from my grandparent's farm, that I asked Grandma if I could have. Even if I never use them, they remind me of the fond memories of the farm. Not of the tobacco parts, but of the camaraderie, the fresh apples and watermelons, and family barbeques.
Now, there are tobacco sticks available for sale on Ebay for $1 each or 5 for $14.99 and postage. A friend is going to sell some at the community yard sale at our place, because she just came into a barn with a pile of them. Whatever ones are not removed from the barn "will be burned up!" Who in the hell burns up tobacco sticks? They are not just sticks, they are not just about the tobacco. Quite frankly, I hate tobacco. Hate smoking, the smell, the nasty, dirty stains we all endured as kids, stains that tasted bitter and horrid (while trying to eat watermelon). BUT, it is a travesty to burn up tobacco sticks. They represent a lifestyle and a culture, a dying breed, but not deserving of being burned up. Let people take them for free, before burning them up! They can be used in gardens, as stakes, for decoration, for tee-pees for the little kids, to make a fence, and the ideas are endless. I hope our friends are able to retrieve all of these sticks, because the owner is adamant that no one else is allowed on the property to help them relocate the sticks. Must be the kids of the previous farmers, or perhaps a new owner of an old farm, with no appreciation of a culture that so many of us participated in, and "came from". Perhaps more than any other tool or item on a working farm, the tobacco sticks are symbols of so much more than they appear to the untrained or unknowing eye. As the day went on, after hearing earlier that this guy was just going to "burn them up with the barn, they WILL get burned up if we don't remove them" I was surprised at just how much it just rubbed me the wrong way. Stupid people, only thinking of destroying history with no regard to how they can pass on some of the county history to others who may be more appreciative.
This is not a soap box. Just the truth.
Tobacco sticks.
