Abe B. Cline, Interviews with Jews in Utah, Accn 998

Page 50

HI AB lin --0- - sl·--1 in order t mak cigars, you had to have tobacco. And in order t prepare that tobacco for cigars, you had to strip the big stem ut f these leaves. Now this is a job usually done by 'omen and sometimes by children, because it requires a smallhand to do it properly. People with small hands know how to do it, can do it better than a grown person with large hands. And Iused to do it for my Dad. He showed me how to do it. And I used to strip the tobacco for him . And when he sold his business there, why I was hired. And I ~emember I was paid SO cents a day to strip tobacco. Now, SO cents a day doesn't sound like very much. But in those days, you couldhire a man to work in the field for 50 cents a day. But I was probably the only person in Southern Idaho who knew how to strip tobacco (laughs). I would work, !don't remember - anywhere from 6,8,10 hours a day, And sit there and strip tobacco whilemy Dad was making cigars. Now, it's not easy for a 10-11 year old boym sit there and do a mechanical job that doesn't require any thought there, so My DAd would entertain me by telling me stories from the bible. He--as I toldyou before - he had a tremendous retentive memory! He knew practically the whole Bible from memory . And so what ljttle knowledge I have of the Bible is what I got from what he told me. L Do you have any favorite stories? AC Oh, I can't tellyou. Now. I was pretty young at that time. If somebody brought up somf·~thing Imight remember that my Dad told me about it years ago.