Dorothea, Are you saving this last email about cigars when you were young? If not, you should, plus all your other memories. Your descendants will treasure this information someday. it was an interesting story. Chas ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dorothea Sanderson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 4:16 PM Subject: Re: [NYMADISO] CIGAR FACTORY > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lynn Eivers > Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 12:11 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [NYMADISO] CIGAR FACTORY > > When I was a young girl, there were miles and miles of tobacco growers > in Connecticut around Hartford, and many of us kids even worked on > them during the harvesting season for extra cash. Most of them are > gone now and have been turned into miles and miles of bedroom > communities. They grew both shade tobacco and non shade grown. I > remember being told that the northern tobacco was usually used for > wrapping. Whether true or not, I don't know!! > > Very early some of the cigars were hand rolled and each man had his > own tools much as a sculptor has his own tools, and they carried > them wherever they went. It was close to an art form. They were > also very expensive and highly prized. I never knew my grandfather, > but he had his own tools which have not survived after his death in > 1917. I surely wish they had. However, almost every male member of > the family would smoke a cigar on occasion. Most, however, smoked > pipes, but an occasional cigar was a treat. My late husband also > smoked a cigar on occasion. Most women hated the smell of > them...actually either a pipe or a cigar. My Husband told the story > that his grandfather had to go out in the hall to smoke, whatever he > smoked. (They lived in a three family tenement.). My mother was more > lenient. Maybe because her father smoked both, and she adored him. > My father smoked both too, but during the depression there was not > much money around. He smoked Granger tobacco and had paper to roll > his own cigarettes, but if someone gave him a cigar, it was a treat. > > As far as taxes are concerned, it was also a different era. Many > states like Connecticut had a Poll tax. I think I paid it once when I > was 21 or 18. People hated the Poll tax. When I had to pay it, it > meant I was all grown up. It was as I recalled declared > unconstitutional and repealed in the early forties. You had to be > really well heeled to make enough to pay income tax before WW2. My > parents never did. It certainly wasn't as common as it is today to > have enough money as income to have to pay taxes, but senators didn't > get paid what they get paid today either. This is probably why so > many politicians were so well heeled in those days. I don't think we > have many poor people in Congress today either. > > Dorothea > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.8/1362 - Release Date: 4/6/2008 > 11:12 AM > >