Editorials

I was not hiding under an umbrella on the beach or looking for an errant golf ball or even managing my smoker on July Fourth.
Instead, I was reliving a childhood trauma that really wasn't that traumatic, maybe more so that the child at the time was dramatic.
Due to the kindness of a distant relative and old friend, I found myself with a large box of sweet corn on my kitchen floor on the most patriotic of holidays.
I was shucking. My wife was silking, there was a huge stockpot boiling and another almost as big pot with cool water and ice in it.

This week's Backward Glance sure brings back a lot of memories - especially since I spent a few of my teenage years working for Tim and Dale Thorne during tobacco season.
The photo not only reflects a family farming operation, but a time where local farmers had teenagers knocking on their doors wanting to work to earn money during summer vacation - which is indeed a thing of the past.

This photo published in The Nashville Graphic on July 21, 1977. Tim and Dale Thorne (kneeling) examine their bumper crop of tobacco in the Macedonia Community that had the benefit of more rainfall than many farms in the county that year. Tim and Dale farmed with their father, Bunny. They anticipated a harvest a total of 100 acres of tobacco in 1977.