Booker’s Business
Broad green and yellow leaves dotted the landscape after each tobacco stalk received a single whack from the blade of a well-used but sharp tobacco knife. In a continuous stoop, Booker T. Brooks, 63, of rural Corydon, Ky., moved down the row, repeating the move until 60 or so plants lay on the dirt waiting to be staked and hung in a barn to cure. The annual ritual of tobacco harvest has come again for Brooks on the same plot of ground he’s farmed since he was a child.
As the last of the afternoon sun peeks through the trees, Booker T. Brooks loads the last of his day’s tobacco bounty onto a rack for transport.
Booker T heads out to visit his son’s horse, Slow Baby, at feeding time. Besides raising tobacco, Brooks keeps a few goats, chickens and a vegetable garden on his spread.
At 63, Booker T. Brooks is a hard-working man. Besides farming the field that he’s worked his whole life, he still climbs around the rafters of the tobacco barn like a teen-ager when it’s time to hang the plants to dry and cure.
Booker T. calls it quits early so he can give his grandson a ride to the doctor. When the tobacco is cured, he strips the leaves from the stalks and grades the leaves before baling them for sale at the auction house.
Odie Mae Brooks, Booker T.’s wife of about seven years, fries up a pork chop for breakfast as Booker T. plays with his 3-year-old grandson, Christopher.
As they wait for the sale of tobacco in the Farmers House lounge, Brooks and buddy, Thomas O. Robertson, keep each other entertained by telling stories and talking about the presidential election.
After the buyers made bids on Booker T.’s tobacco, he checks his price against the other farmers’ bids.
Although most of Booker T.’s tobacco sold for above the average price, his medium grade tobacco bids were too low in his estimation. Robertson who likes to keep an eye on his friend to make sure he doesn’t get a raw deal, told him not to accept the bid and try again at the next week’s auction.