There is a vast difference between Thanksgiving Day now and earlier days in Graham County – even up to the time I came along and for years to come.
Thanksgiving Day wasn’t a day off on the farm, as is now the case in most situations. Even though by late-November most farm crops were finished, this was not the case with burley tobacco.
Thanksgiving found most farm families in the tobacco barn “handing off” (grading) tobacco leaves as they were stripped from the stalk. The leaves were then put in sections on the grading board. Most farmers sorted the leaves into at least five grades, that would include Lugs, Brights, Long Red, Short Red and Tips. Brights was considered the best grade and brought the most money at the tobacco market.
There was also a big difference in the meal that day as is eaten today. Instead of turkey, it would likely have been ham, fried potatoes instead of mashed, leather-britches beans (dried green beans dried in the hull), canned tomatoes, sweet potatoes, dried apple stack cake and/or pumpkin pie. All of this would have come from the family farm and not the grocery store. There were no visiting relatives at the meal, as they were all busy doing much the same thing at their own farm.
After the meal was over, there was no settling down in front of the television to watch football, no one had a television anyway. Instead, it was back to the tobacco barn, or cutting firewood and other farm chores such as feeding the livestock. Most farms had horses, cows, hogs and chickens that all had to be taken care of, including milking the cows.
It wasn’t that this hard-working generation was not thankful for their blessings from God; it was a different time in America then, especially in the rural areas.
I suspect that they were much more thankful then than people are today: they lived closer to the land and to God.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.