When I was a boy, the green tobacco barns were always my favorites. My brother and I used to play in one near our house and the first time we ever went inside it we were spooked by a Barn Owl (Tyto alba). The green in question is actually tar paper siding, added by many farmers at one time or another to insulate older barns.
Update: This barn was demolished by 2018.
I loved the smell of fresh cured tobacco. It is nothing like the odor of a cigarette or cigar. Like Tara, I remember to cool of the dirt floor in the flue cure barns, also in Bacon County. Tobacco was always a part of our summers growing up. Before I was old enough to help with the harvest, we were in the pack house, removing it from the sticks, while Mother stacked it on the sheets. We got a penny a stick and thought it was great when the pay increased to 2 cents per stick!
We made money in the summer taking tobaco off sticks. It really did smell good!! We made tge money to buy school clothes.
Nothing smells like the inside of a tobacco barn…used to spend the hot days of summer on the cool(er) dirt floor of tobacco barns in Bacon County.
Wow! Love this photograph. Folks today don’t know what they missed by not having one of these nearby.
Thanks for sharing.