Shade tobacco was covered by a very light weight, almost sheer, cotton fabric called "tobacco cloth". When I was first married & had no money, I bought many yards of it (at 19 cents a yard, I think) to make curtains....... -----Original Message----- From: Richard White <rwhite@pone.com> To: FLORIDA-L@rootsweb.com <FLORIDA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, November 28, 1998 12:07 PM Subject: Re: HAV-A-TAMPA Cigar Company >Just some general thoughts on the history of "organized tobacco" on >Florida... > >Tampa was *the* center for rolling of cigars because of the "cheap" >hispanic labor available in the area at the time (recent imigrants have >always been suppliers of cheap labor in the U.S., no matter where they >were from)... and (if I understand correctly) because there were already >tobacco rolling skills available in that population (especially Cubans) >that they brought with them to the U.S. But there was also a kind of >solidarity amongst the exploited and it boiled over into labor strikes, >unionization efforts and so forth at times. One of those times that I'm >specifically aware of was in the immediate post World War I period >(about 1920). But I believe that there were earlier episodes back >perhaps as far as the 1880s. > >On the other hand, while tobacco was grown all over the South including >much of North Florida, the specific type of tobacco that was required to >wrap fine cigars was grown primarily, or perhaps exclusively, in Gadsden >County Florida. This was not just the only place it was grown in >Florida... it was the only place it was grown in the U.S. > >Known as "shade tobacco" it was grown under some kind of partial barrier >to light. In my lifetime, before the business folded entirely, I guess >due to cheaper foreign competition, the "shade" was a type of plastic >screen. I don't know for a fact, but I suspect that the earlier >versions were probably small wooden slats nailed so that only partial >sunlight came through. I wasn't around Gadsden County before about >1970, so I cannot say that as a matter of fact, at all. I am basing it >on the shades that my father built for growing nursery stock in South >Florida in the 1950s. He used slats comprised of wooden lath (used to >hold together plaster walls in houses before metal lath and gypsum >"sheetrock" was invented. He got the lath from Victorian houses that >were torn down in Fort Myers during thec 1950s. But then he also used >rolls of metal wire similar to that used to fence in hogs, with steel >wool wrapped all over it, pained olive drab with black splotches. It >was surplus CAMOFLAGE material used to hide U.S. artillery, trucks, and >such from enemy observation in WW II or Korea. The only problem with >this was that the steel wool rusted away really fast. The wooden lath >was good solid wood and lasted much longer. > >Anyhow, there was one attempt that I know of to bring cigar >manufacturing to North Florida. A man whose name I cannot remember now >built a fine brick building a block and a half from the railroad depot >here in Tallahassee. Tallahassee is only about 15 miles from the county >seat of Gadsden County, Quincy, and it is a lot closer than that to the >county line... probably 10 miles or less at many points. > >That building still stands. For many years in my lifetime it housed a >local lighting fixture sales company, McGowan Lighting. It was recently >converted to a dance hall known as the Cow Haus, as it originated under >that name at another location... out in the country on an old farm. > >I cannot remember the man's name now... but it could be looked up in the >files of the old Tallahassee Historic Preservation Board. > >I also distinctly remember that there was a brand of cigars that had the >name "...... y Garcia". I cannot remember the other name that went >before the "y", which if my rudimentary Spanish does not fail me... "y" >means "and". It may be that company that you are looking for. On the >other hand, I am really only familiar with two brands of cigars that I >can recall... one was "Hav-a-Tampa" and the other was "Home Made". My >grandfather (my mother's father) smoked "Home Made" and I still have >boxes sitting around my house 30 years after he died. I just checked >one of those and "Home Made" was manufactured by Hamilton Harris. My >father smoked Hav-a-Tampas, but he quit smoking anything when I was >about 10 years old... long before grandpa died. I have a grave >suspicion that I remember ".... y Garcia" from inside the lid of >Hav-a-Tampa Cigars, and I believe that I still have one of those boxes >around somewhere, too... but I can't seem to lay my hands on it right >now. Maybe someone else can fill in...? > >RW >