When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

18 September 2005

Winston-Salem Journal: Quota holders, farmers get checks

The tobacco price support system has been dismantled, and the payouts to farmers and "quota" owners are starting to arrive. Over 40% of the payouts in the entire nation will be going to North Carolina farmers and quota owners.

An anecdote from an article in the Winston-Salem Journal illustrates a kind of dry humor that is rather typical of this region of the country.

I love this kind of thing.
Some financial advice that farmers are getting is uninvited. One western Piedmont farmer said that consultants from an insurance company showed up at his office recently and asked to speak with his mother about managing her money from the tobacco buyout.

"I said, 'If you'll hold on just a minute, I'll get her for you,'" the farmer said.

"I went over and got her ashes in this aluminum box that had some books sitting on it. I said, 'Right here she is.' And they turned gray, like they'd been shot. You could've raked their eyes off with a stick," he said.

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