Brackets

Goldendomer10

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2022
777
1,424
66
There was a smoking section for students at Pisgah in the early 90s.

However, I remember a (standout) football player getting caught smoking off campus and his punishment was running 40 miles at the track over the course of a week to be reinstated to the team. He also had a dad that was going to see to it that he “manned” up for his punishment and supported the coach.
 
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BigRed Cav

Freshman
Nov 10, 2015
40
87
17
When I was in HS … 1980s… kids smoked at school and we always had our .22 rifles or shotguns in back window of the truck. A couple times I remember being asked to put it in the seat where it wasn’t visible. The times have changed immensely. But kids really haven’t. Teachers never really said anything about tobacco, but coach better not see it.
 
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Ram1982

Sophomore
Aug 26, 2025
118
147
43
anyone who thinks vaping is safe for anyone might need to get a brain scan......
 

80prepster

Freshman
Sep 26, 2025
59
60
18
I heard a former high school school football coach make this statement the other night." You mean to say, it's the first week in November , high school football season, and the top 16 teams for each classification are not playing?" It does not make much sense to me either. The RPI is as good as the NCHSAA can up with to justify split conferences and unequal match ups. I don't like it being the sole reason for seeding. There should be consideration for Conference Champions at least!

I completely agree. This is the season for football. I don’t like the first round byes. If there are not enough schools to fill brackets and play every Friday night until there is a champion, they should find a way to reduce the playing field. Teams with 0 or 1 or 2 wins don’t deserve to be in the playoffs. It’s like everybody gets a participation trophy! I also feel teams should be rewarded for playing up in classification especially against tough winning competition.
 

Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
Can recall when smoking was permissible for high school students as long as they were outside the building. Don’t remember anything even being said about chewing tobacco. The coaches didn’t allow athletes to smoke but if they were caught, any punishment was determined by the coach.
‘Sometimes, comparing today’s standards with those half a century ago, are almost unrecognizable. Thinking back, it’s incredible how much influence the tobacco industry had back then.
Tobacco built most of the schools. We smoked at school whenever we were outside on the terraces. I’ve seen coaches that smoked. We also took our shotguns to class whenever we were skeet shooting in FFA.
 

Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
I think there was a study that said vaping is just as bad as smoking. Vaping doesn't hurt anybody of course but over time it can affect your health as you get older. I think for athletes and performance it's counter productive. It's unfortunate some kids dont think about their future health and only think for the moment. Then again alot of us did, and some of us learned early while others learned the hard way, but at least they learned.
Chopper those chemicals in vapes are worse on your lungs than smoking.
 

Lincolnton

All-Conference
Jul 8, 2025
525
1,591
93
Tobacco built most of the schools. We smoked at school whenever we were outside on the terraces. I’ve seen coaches that smoked. We also took our shotguns to class whenever we were skeet shooting in FFA.
I shouldn’t be surprised, Mr.Otis. My Mother would have the radio on in the mornings. When the news came on it would say, “This is TN News,’’the (Tobacco Network).
Up on this side of the state, much of the local economy centered around textiles, and at one time, Cleveland County was one of the leading areas for cotton farming…I could imagine how much of the economy was tied to tobacco down east, and the north central part of the state, and I’m thinking there was a certain type of tobacco grown in some mountainous areas…Remember my Father showing me tobacco fields, when our family would go to the coast for vacation. Some of them looked like they went for miles.
 

Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
I shouldn’t be surprised, Mr.Otis. My Mother would have the radio on in the mornings. When the news came on it would say, “This is TN News,’’the (Tobacco Network).
Up on this side of the state, much of the local economy centered around textiles, and at one time, Cleveland County was one of the leading areas for cotton farming…I could imagine how much of the economy was tied to tobacco down east, and the north central part of the state, and I’m thinking there was a certain type of tobacco grown in some mountainous areas…Remember my Father showing me tobacco fields, when our family would go to the coast for vacation. Some of them looked like they went for miles.
They felt like they went for miles when you were pulling tobacco on your feet! My grandfather was a tobacco farmer. He put me on a farmall Super A when I was 6 yrs old. I pulled the tobacco trucks /carts from the barn to the fields and back to the barn. He rode on the drawbar for about 2 hours with me before he got comfortable enough to let me go. Driving it on dirt roads with traffic. I thought I was a man!! Paid me 15.00 a week! When I started school which back then it was just 1st grade I bought my own school clothes with the money I made. I had a Green Bay Packers notebook! Would have been 1965.
 

Goldendomer10

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2022
777
1,424
66
I shouldn’t be surprised, Mr.Otis. My Mother would have the radio on in the mornings. When the news came on it would say, “This is TN News,’’the (Tobacco Network).
Up on this side of the state, much of the local economy centered around textiles, and at one time, Cleveland County was one of the leading areas for cotton farming…I could imagine how much of the economy was tied to tobacco down east, and the north central part of the state, and I’m thinking there was a certain type of tobacco grown in some mountainous areas…Remember my Father showing me tobacco fields, when our family would go to the coast for vacation. Some of them looked like they went for miles.
The type of tobacco grown in the mountains was Big Burley. I’m not sure if that was different than other areas in the state.
 

Goldendomer10

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2022
777
1,424
66
It was mainly chewing (mostly plugged) and pipe tobacco from the best I remember. Much bigger, broader leaf than the type you probably worked according to an older gentleman that lives near me. He said most of the cigarette tobacco came from down East. I was young and that was right toward the end of tobacco’s heyday in the mountains.
 
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Lincolnton

All-Conference
Jul 8, 2025
525
1,591
93
Thanks for the information fellers, that’s interesting. Goldendomer mentioned plug tobacco, something I haven’t heard of in years. Recall as a young guy, talking to a lawyer, just in passing, who was well known around here. He handled a lot of highly publicized cases. During the conversation he pulled out a yellow pouch, unfolded it, took out a plug of tobacco, and a small pocket knife, then cut a corner off of the plug. The wrapping on it said Cannonball.
 

Kingbluedevil

All-American
Apr 2, 2014
6,230
6,688
113
They felt like they went for miles when you were pulling tobacco on your feet! My grandfather was a tobacco farmer. He put me on a farmall Super A when I was 6 yrs old. I pulled the tobacco trucks /carts from the barn to the fields and back to the barn. He rode on the drawbar for about 2 hours with me before he got comfortable enough to let me go. Driving it on dirt roads with traffic. I thought I was a man!! Paid me 15.00 a week! When I started school which back then it was just 1st grade I bought my own school clothes with the money I made. I had a Green Bay Packers notebook! Would have been 1965.
I'm same age and we had tobacco started same way you did driving farmall pulling slides. Most of our family had tobacco and worked at rj Reynolds. One of our cousins was plant manager and raised tobacco he said just to show his 4 daughters what work was all about.
 

Lincolnton

All-Conference
Jul 8, 2025
525
1,591
93
I'm same age and we had tobacco started same way you did driving farmall pulling slides. Most of our family had tobacco and worked at rj Reynolds. One of our cousins was plant manager and raised tobacco he said just to show his 4 daughters what work was all about.
Kingbluedevil, someone I’ve known for a long time from here had a situation way back in the day which could have been distressful for her, so she left for sometime. I knew her well enough to ask her where she went, and she said a place named Walnut Cove, NC.Said she worked in a store that belonged to a family who owned a tobacco farm. She also talked about the kindness people showed her there.
 
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Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
I'm same age and we had tobacco started same way you did driving farmall pulling slides. Most of our family had tobacco and worked at rj Reynolds. One of our cousins was plant manager and raised tobacco he said just to show his 4 daughters what work was all about.
We used the sleds also. My grandfather went somewhere and saw them so he built a set and as far as I know around here he was the first to use them in this area. We only used them for first and 2nd pulling. Then we did the rest on foot. Good old days!! Pull tobacco in 90-100 degree heat and rush to get to football practice. Eat those salt tablets!! Never ever heard anyone say it was too hot to practice. A/c is our enemy! Our home didn’t have A/c. We had a fan in one ende in a window blowing out. Open windows on the other end of house so it would create a draft through the house. Seemed fine. Didn’t know anything else!
 

Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
My wife’s cousin is a big tobacco farmer still. His name is Jackie Anderson. Years back he was working on an idea to transport more tobacco from the field to the barns. He bought an old school bus and cut the top off just behind the driver and made a long truck out of it. Went to my cousin who works on heavy equipment and farm equipment at a shop behind his house and they started looking at this bus and how to make it work. Van came up with the idea for a conveyor belt in the back. Now just about every where you go you see cut off buses in the summer hauling tobacco. Far as I know Jackie was the first to do that.
 

Kingbluedevil

All-American
Apr 2, 2014
6,230
6,688
113
Kingbluedevil, someone I’ve known for a long time from here had a situation way back in the day which could have been distressful for her, so she left for sometime. I knew her well enough to ask her where she went, and she said a place named Walnut Cove, NC.Said she worked in a store that belonged to a family who owned a tobacco farm. She also talked about the kindness people showed her there.
Believe it or not walnut cove is where our cousins farm was. My dad quit growing tobacco before I was teenager but we helped the neighbors. None of our family used tobacco products and my dad passed at 94 mom still living. I remember getting sick few times priming everything wet and by afternoon drying out. Not good feeling
 
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Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
Believe it or not walnut cove is where our cousins farm was. My dad quit growing tobacco before I was teenager but we helped the neighbors. None of our family used tobacco products and my dad passed at 94 mom still living. I remember getting sick few times priming everything wet and by afternoon drying out. Not good feeling
I got sick one time. Throwing up. They took me home and I was laying on the couch. Every time I closed my eyes I was back in the tobacco field. We got a watermelon out of the patch and cut it and ate. For years I thought I got sick from it and never wanted it again. Years ago I heard of getting nicotine overdose from working in wet tobacco. All the symptoms fit to a tee. But I still don’t want watermelon!!

 

theKidd#12

All-American
Feb 17, 2015
5,132
9,185
61
My wife’s cousin is a big tobacco farmer still. His name is Jackie Anderson. Years back he was working on an idea to transport more tobacco from the field to the barns. He bought an old school bus and cut the top off just behind the driver and made a long truck out of it. Went to my cousin who works on heavy equipment and farm equipment at a shop behind his house and they started looking at this bus and how to make it work. Van came up with the idea for a conveyor belt in the back. Now just about every where you go you see cut off buses in the summer hauling tobacco. Far as I know Jackie was the first to do that.
That is a great story about the bus. Made their own conveyor bus. And yes they are on almost every tobacco farm now. We raised flue cured my entire life until 2014. Daddy put me on a Farmall 140 at age 5 and turned me loose in the field. By 8 I was priming, stupid little brother was on tractor. Played as many sports as I could so wasn’t working 😂
Now I’m just an old guy with a few cows eating grass that used to be tobacc fields…
Yeah I miss it some but my children don’t 😂😂😂😂
 

TheMule1

Junior
Aug 29, 2025
204
320
63
Well, I'm a little, make that a lot, older than you guys. I started draging slides with a mule when I was eight years old. When I was twelve I graduated to pulling tobacco in the fields. Tractors came along a few years later after I had graduated from the tobacco fields to a white collar job and then Uncle Sam had other ideas for me as this thing called the Vietnam War (they called it a "Conflict") started to get heated up. Nice to read about others experiences. I recently read an obituary from a guy whose favorite saying was "Every day not in a tobacco field is a good day". So very true.
 

CatScratchFever23

All-Conference
Sep 15, 2006
794
1,400
48
When I was 13 I was drafted to help my uncle on his tobacco farm. He was struggling and 3 of his sisters in law came to assist too. He was struggling financially and didn’t pay the sisters but he did pay me. I begged not to go back every weekend.

I learned the value of hard work and also saw service modeled by the sisters in law, as they stepped in to help - cropping and tying.

No doubt I am a better person due to that experience, but I did grow up and get an indoor job!!!
 

Lincolnton

All-Conference
Jul 8, 2025
525
1,591
93
Well, I'm a little, make that a lot, older than you guys. I started draging slides with a mule when I was eight years old. When I was twelve I graduated to pulling tobacco in the fields. Tractors came along a few years later after I had graduated from the tobacco fields to a white collar job and then Uncle Sam had other ideas for me as this thing called the Vietnam War (they called it a "Conflict") started to get heated up. Nice to read about others experiences. I recently read an obituary from a guy whose favorite saying was "Every day not in a tobacco field is a good day". So very true.
TheMule, those are the credentials 0f the All-American guy, even without the ones you haven’t mentioned. Thanks for your service.

You mentioned “Uncle Sam,” haven’t heard that term used in a long time. Wonder if a lot of people even know what it’s a reference to.
My Father told a story about a very old man who lived in the neighborhood that he grew up in. He said this old guy was a lunatic and would tell these wild tells that he (this old man) probably believed, himself. One of them was about his daddy taking him to the train station in Shelby, to see Uncle Sam. He went on to say he was the tallest man he’d ever seen, and he had to stand on his Dad’s shoulders to reach up and shake hands with him…I asked my Father why he would consider someone a lunatic for telling fantastic story’s. He said he carried an axe around the neighborhood and had attacked several of the residents… I get it.
 

Kingbluedevil

All-American
Apr 2, 2014
6,230
6,688
113
When I was 13 I was drafted to help my uncle on his tobacco farm. He was struggling and 3 of his sisters in law came to assist too. He was struggling financially and didn’t pay the sisters but he did pay me. I begged not to go back every weekend.

I learned the value of hard work and also saw service modeled by the sisters in law, as they stepped in to help - cropping and tying.

No doubt I am a better person due to that experience, but I did grow up and get an indoor job!!!
It didn't seem like good deal at the time but I wouldn't take anything for the experience. 5 years old handing 3 leaves to my mom to tie on a tobacco stick. My dad said he spent the last night at home watching the barn before going to Army and Korea. He said he didn't mind going at all.
 

Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
That is a great story about the bus. Made their own conveyor bus. And yes they are on almost every tobacco farm now. We raised flue cured my entire life until 2014. Daddy put me on a Farmall 140 at age 5 and turned me loose in the field. By 8 I was priming, stupid little brother was on tractor. Played as many sports as I could so wasn’t working 😂
Now I’m just an old guy with a few cows eating grass that used to be tobacc fields…
Yeah I miss it some but my children don’t 😂😂😂😂
I’m not going to say we were tougher then but how many kids today do you think could do that?? A/c has spoiled people including us old guys.
 

Otis1144

All-American
Jan 30, 2003
42,942
6,044
113
When I was 13 I was drafted to help my uncle on his tobacco farm. He was struggling and 3 of his sisters in law came to assist too. He was struggling financially and didn’t pay the sisters but he did pay me. I begged not to go back every weekend.

I learned the value of hard work and also saw service modeled by the sisters in law, as they stepped in to help - cropping and tying.

No doubt I am a better person due to that experience, but I did grow up and get an indoor job!!!
I’ve never wanted to be indoors. I worked on the farm and hunted with my grandfather. I’m a 66 (67 in march) yr old kid. Still working at building power lines. Thought I was going to retire in January but decided to go for 1 more year. Pretty sure 1-2027 will be it for me if I’m still here. I may find something a little easier and inside to get past 70 before I mess with social security if we still have it. I do pretty good. We got to Legion Stadium in Wallace 20 minutes ago and instead of going up the steps I took a short cut running up the benches. I know a lot of guys younger than me that can’t do that.
 
Nov 15, 2014
295
454
63
There was a smoking section for students at Pisgah in the early 90s.

However, I remember a (standout) football player getting caught smoking off campus and his punishment was running 40 miles at the track over the course of a week to be reinstated to the team. He also had a dad that was going to see to it that he “manned” up for his punishment and supported the coach.
40 miles?!?? Geeez
 
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CatScratchFever23

All-Conference
Sep 15, 2006
794
1,400
48
There is one guy who picks against us almost every week. Last year we beat Warren County 70 something to zero, and before the game he picked them.

I’ve never wanted to be indoors. I worked on the farm and hunted with my grandfather. I’m a 66 (67 in march) yr old kid. Still working at building power lines. Thought I was going to retire in January but decided to go for 1 more year. Pretty sure 1-2027 will be it for me if I’m still here. I may find something a little easier and inside to get past 70 before I mess with social security if we still have it. I do pretty good. We got to Legion Stadium in Wallace 20 minutes ago and instead of going up the steps I took a short cut running up the benches. I know a lot of guys younger than me that can’t do that.
I love the outdoors too but the summer gets to me. I typed that post from the deer stand!!
 

blackbulldog

All-Conference
Dec 7, 2014
1,309
1,052
51
I’ve never wanted to be indoors. I worked on the farm and hunted with my grandfather. I’m a 66 (67 in march) yr old kid. Still working at building power lines. Thought I was going to retire in January but decided to go for 1 more year. Pretty sure 1-2027 will be it for me if I’m still here. I may find something a little easier and inside to get past 70 before I mess with social security if we still have it. I do pretty good. We got to Legion Stadium in Wallace 20 minutes ago and instead of going up the steps I took a short cut running up the benches. I know a lot of guys younger than me that can’t do that.
Glad to c u otis!!