The Night Riders

This week has been perfect ... except for the mosquitos. Those little boogers have hatched, and boy, are they vicious.

ONE MORE WEEK OF SCHOOL. Teachers have continued to squeeze in field trips as the school year winds down. Ben's class went to the Robertson County Museum sometime in the last week. He said he enjoyed it, but he had been there before so he probably remembered a lot of what was there.

Jenna went on a field trip Thursday that she has been looking forward to -- the Jr. Beta trip to Holiday World. She was worried about the weather because it has been too cool to think about enjoying water rides at an amusement park. Thursday wound up being a pleasant day. It warmed up enough to enjoy a few wet rides, but there are plenty of other rides at the park to allow for her and her friends to have a great time together.

BASEBALL. Ben's baseball season has got two more weeks left. I think he's had a good experience this year. He's gotten to play every infield position now except pitcher. Yesterday was the first time he's played catcher. He was moved behind the plate when they needed to relieve the catcher. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw him suiting up in all the catcher's padding. He did a good job for the brief time he got to play there.

SMOKE: A BALLAD TO THE NIGHT RIDERS. Last night we splurged and drove over to Adams to see a musical. We got there a bit early and enjoyed supper at the Schoolhouse Cafe before the show.

Smoke (http://www.smokenightriders.com/) was written by David Alford, the local playwright who wrote Spirit, the story of the Bell Witch (http://bellwitchplay.com/). All the music is original. The story is about a fictional family and how they cope with the Black Patch Tobacco Wars that happened in this area after the turn of the last century. It was very well done and we really enjoyed the whole evening. When we got up to leave Nate was full of enthusiasm when he said, "That was the best thing ever!" I could tell Ben was impressed as well because all the way home he asked some really good questions regarding the historical events and moral issues addressed in the play.

I know this sounds like a small time show, but this production is made of professional actors and musicians. While this is performed in the open air pavilion behind the old Bell School (with trains rumbling through just a few blocks away, blowing their horns for the railroad crossing), it could easily be staged at TPAC in Nashville or some similar venue. We had a wonderful evening.

ABOUT THE BLACK PATCH WARS. In case you don't know, Robertson County is part of a larger area of northern Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky that is known for raising dark fired tobacco. This variety of tobacco is fire cured after it is harvested (something similar to how people used to smoke hams to preserve the meat before refrigeration). This is the aroma of tobacco smoke I mention on occasion in the fall.

Tobacco had been raised in this area from the beginning when people began to settle this area. Farmers of that time raised almost everything they needed for food on the farm, but tobacco was their cash crop. By the early 1900s the American Tobacco Company had created a monopoly, buying out or running the competition out of business, becoming the only company farmers could sell their tobacco to. Once they controlled the market they continued to offer lower and lower prices until farmers were losing money just to plant a crop. There were two factors that further compounded the problem for farmers. First, tobacco was the only crop that made any significant money for a small acreage farm, and second, the farmer was practically starting the next crop before he could get the last crop ready for market.

In 1904 an association of farmers was formed to oppose the monopoly by boycotting the American Tobacco Company. This was working to a small degree, but some more militant farmers began to pay night visits to those formers not part of the Association to persuade them to join. Within two years the violence had caught national attention as barns were burned, warehouses dynamited, and farmers killed. Terror reigned in this area until 1908. This whole event has gone down in American history as the most violent civil uprising since the Civil War. In 1911 the US Supreme Court ruled that the American Tobacco Company was a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

As I said above, the play follows a fictional family as they are caught up in the events of the day, choose sides, and are affected by their activities in the Black Patch Wars. What I am failing to capture here is how the music gave such a strong voice to the characters' emotions throughout the story like the helplessness of their situation, the anger with the tobacco prices, the pain of being part of something going the wrong direction, and the love the couple shared for each other and their son. Alford did a great job of exploring the people and what they must have been feeling during that time.

Joe