Post by Brian on Jun 5, 2009 7:37:23 GMT -5
01/13/07 at 12:37 PM
Maria
We all know that in the olden days many things were different from what they are today. This includes how we do our laundry, to methods of communication, to clothing and hair styles, etc. I heard an interesting thing a couple of months ago from one of the old timers in Walnut Cove. This involved baseball. In those days, (late twenties and early thirties) she said they would take the inner tubing from old discarded car tires and cut them into strips. They would then take and wrap that tubing around and around, forming it into a ball. Then they would take a piece of twine from a bale of tobacco and wrap the twine around and around the ball covering it entirely . They used this rubber tubing for the innards of the ball because it made the ball bounce much better. They would then get a plank and go out into the pasture and have their selves a good old ball game. There was one draw back with their method though...the smacking of the wood of the plank against the twine on the ball stung the person's hand pretty badly. Just a little piece of history here to help flesh out how things were done in the days of the Lawson Family.
Maria
01/13/07 at 01:22 PM
sissy
That reminds me of when I was little going to my grandparents homes and playing baseball with tobacco sticks it would my brother and cousins and myself. But we always used plums or apples, sometimes duck tape for a ball.
D 01/13/07 at 01:37 PM
jackhammer
I guess we all make do. I remember balling up a rag and wrapping, wrapping, wrapping tape all around it. It actually made a pretty good ball, but didn't have the "bounce" to it like the one mentioned above.
I suspect that we all had a little MacGyver in us.
Much of the evil in the world is brought about by people believing they are acting for good and righteous reasons. -
Margaret Weis
jackhammer
01/13/07 at 06:17 PM
ladebug
Ok you all,I am not from the south and I have seen tobacco but..What the heck is a tobacco stick? I thought tobacco had a stem?
ladebug
01/13/07 at 06:33 PM
sissy
my grandpa used the sticks to hang the tobacco in the barn to dry
sissy
01/13/07 at 06:33 PM
Maria
Hi Ladebug,
A method of curing tobacco was derived using hardwood sticks. The large leaves were impaled on sticks and hung to dry in a tobacco barn. When the tobacco was cured it was removed from the sticks and saved for use the following year. The sticks were made from locally grown timber. The average tobacco stick is approximately 4.5 foot long. That's about all I know.
Maria
01/13/07 at 06:41 PM
ladebug
Thanks, that makes more sense.
Ladebug
01/13/07 at 06:53 PM
Maria
That's probably why sissy had to use them thar plums as a baseball because tobacco sticks are very long and thin albeit tough and probably wouldn't be able to hit a real baseball with it.
Maria
01/13/07 at 06:56 PM
sissy
no we were poor folks and we couldn't afford them thar new fangled baseballs
sissy
01/13/07 at 07:39 PM
cephus
when i was growing up we had chickens and we would make coops out of old tobacco sticks
cephus
01/13/07 at 07:53 PM
Maria
It surely is amazing how many uses one thing...in this case, a tobacco stick can have, who'd a thunk. Even though this forum is predominately about the Lawson Family Tragedy, we continue to learn new and different things all the time. It's also thrilling for me to leam how innovative people were in those other times of long ago. Instead of running to a store with a credit card or going shopping on line every time they needed something, they just used or made do with whatever was already on hand. Thanks Cephus and Sissy for this fascinating bit of insight into the lives and times of other people in other times.
Maria
01/13/07 at 09:52 PM
tarheel
this has nothing to do with baseball's nor tobacco sticks,but just another way we kids found to keep us entertained on the long, cold, winter days/nights!
mom would give to us the small wooden spools on which the thread was wound for her sewing machine(it was pedal
operated)...
we would find rubber bands and slip them throught the hole of the spool and attached a small piece of a match stick
through the pertruding loop.
then we take a full match stick(used of course)and attach it through the other end of the loop of the rubber band!
once you gave a few turns on the match stick and wound it up bght,you could then put the spool of the floor and
watch it zoom across the room I
i spent many winter days making a few of these and racing them against the ones that my younger sister had made,
across the floor or from one room to another!
it didn't cost a dime nor anything!
just mom's tender love and knowing that us kids were happy and content!
tarheel
01/13/07 at 10:30 PM
Maria
Oh Chuck, what a wonderful story. This is what it's all about...isn't it. Reminiscing about the days long gone, while in the telling they come back to life and once again we're filled with awe of those simpler times and a mother's love. Thank you for reminding us of these things.
Maria
Maria
We all know that in the olden days many things were different from what they are today. This includes how we do our laundry, to methods of communication, to clothing and hair styles, etc. I heard an interesting thing a couple of months ago from one of the old timers in Walnut Cove. This involved baseball. In those days, (late twenties and early thirties) she said they would take the inner tubing from old discarded car tires and cut them into strips. They would then take and wrap that tubing around and around, forming it into a ball. Then they would take a piece of twine from a bale of tobacco and wrap the twine around and around the ball covering it entirely . They used this rubber tubing for the innards of the ball because it made the ball bounce much better. They would then get a plank and go out into the pasture and have their selves a good old ball game. There was one draw back with their method though...the smacking of the wood of the plank against the twine on the ball stung the person's hand pretty badly. Just a little piece of history here to help flesh out how things were done in the days of the Lawson Family.
Maria
01/13/07 at 01:22 PM
sissy
That reminds me of when I was little going to my grandparents homes and playing baseball with tobacco sticks it would my brother and cousins and myself. But we always used plums or apples, sometimes duck tape for a ball.
D 01/13/07 at 01:37 PM
jackhammer
I guess we all make do. I remember balling up a rag and wrapping, wrapping, wrapping tape all around it. It actually made a pretty good ball, but didn't have the "bounce" to it like the one mentioned above.
I suspect that we all had a little MacGyver in us.
Much of the evil in the world is brought about by people believing they are acting for good and righteous reasons. -
Margaret Weis
jackhammer
01/13/07 at 06:17 PM
ladebug
Ok you all,I am not from the south and I have seen tobacco but..What the heck is a tobacco stick? I thought tobacco had a stem?
ladebug
01/13/07 at 06:33 PM
sissy
my grandpa used the sticks to hang the tobacco in the barn to dry
sissy
01/13/07 at 06:33 PM
Maria
Hi Ladebug,
A method of curing tobacco was derived using hardwood sticks. The large leaves were impaled on sticks and hung to dry in a tobacco barn. When the tobacco was cured it was removed from the sticks and saved for use the following year. The sticks were made from locally grown timber. The average tobacco stick is approximately 4.5 foot long. That's about all I know.
Maria
01/13/07 at 06:41 PM
ladebug
Thanks, that makes more sense.
Ladebug
01/13/07 at 06:53 PM
Maria
That's probably why sissy had to use them thar plums as a baseball because tobacco sticks are very long and thin albeit tough and probably wouldn't be able to hit a real baseball with it.
Maria
01/13/07 at 06:56 PM
sissy
no we were poor folks and we couldn't afford them thar new fangled baseballs
sissy
01/13/07 at 07:39 PM
cephus
when i was growing up we had chickens and we would make coops out of old tobacco sticks
cephus
01/13/07 at 07:53 PM
Maria
It surely is amazing how many uses one thing...in this case, a tobacco stick can have, who'd a thunk. Even though this forum is predominately about the Lawson Family Tragedy, we continue to learn new and different things all the time. It's also thrilling for me to leam how innovative people were in those other times of long ago. Instead of running to a store with a credit card or going shopping on line every time they needed something, they just used or made do with whatever was already on hand. Thanks Cephus and Sissy for this fascinating bit of insight into the lives and times of other people in other times.
Maria
01/13/07 at 09:52 PM
tarheel
this has nothing to do with baseball's nor tobacco sticks,but just another way we kids found to keep us entertained on the long, cold, winter days/nights!
mom would give to us the small wooden spools on which the thread was wound for her sewing machine(it was pedal
operated)...
we would find rubber bands and slip them throught the hole of the spool and attached a small piece of a match stick
through the pertruding loop.
then we take a full match stick(used of course)and attach it through the other end of the loop of the rubber band!
once you gave a few turns on the match stick and wound it up bght,you could then put the spool of the floor and
watch it zoom across the room I
i spent many winter days making a few of these and racing them against the ones that my younger sister had made,
across the floor or from one room to another!
it didn't cost a dime nor anything!
just mom's tender love and knowing that us kids were happy and content!
tarheel
01/13/07 at 10:30 PM
Maria
Oh Chuck, what a wonderful story. This is what it's all about...isn't it. Reminiscing about the days long gone, while in the telling they come back to life and once again we're filled with awe of those simpler times and a mother's love. Thank you for reminding us of these things.
Maria