G: My name is Gregg Goins, I’m 61 years old.

S: I’m Steve Nelms, I’m 57 years old. Gregg and I we were tobacco auctioneers for a long time.

G: We had been were not anything now, that’s all over. (auction chant)

G: In 1970 that was my first sale. A couple tobacco buyers helped me get a job in Georgia selling tobacco. Steve, where’d you start at?

S: I went to college in 1966. I didn’t do very well. And um, the statement for the second semester’s tuition came in right after Christmas. And uh, Daddy said Whaddaya want to do with it? I said You can throw it away if you want to cuz I ain’t goin back. I reckon that’s the first thing I ever told my daddy I was not gonna do and didn’t get a stick across my butt. He said Well what are you gonna do then boy? I said, Well I heard auction school lasted a week, I thought I’d try that. (chant Now you do the start, Steve. 82! 82.) When I went to auction school we started out, we’d just hum numbers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Then we’d hum em backwards.

G: It’s just a matter of practice. Anybody can do it. Ol Colonel Dale Brown at Fort Wheel Arkansas gave us a little rhyme: Engine engine number 9 runnin on Chicago line, if the engine jump the tracks you will get your money back. Engine engine number 9  runnin on Chicago line, if that train jump the tracks you will get your money back. That’s how we practiced it. (Little better here, 88! 88)

G: Every tobacco auctioneer, and I think I can truthfully say this, thinks that they’re gonna be the best in the world and you know just because you sound pretty don’t mean you the best auctioneer in the business.

S: That’s right. (Very good. So mine goes like this) You know if a tobacco auctioneer would follow the whole circuit he didn’t spend but bout 2 months at home. Wed travel from Georgia to North Carolina, and then we’d either go from Tennessee or Kentucky, later on to Virginia. And you look forward to it every year, you know, when July came we’d get ready to travel. (87, 87, 89, 90)

G: We all wore coats and ties and everybody dressed up, it was a job to have a lot of pride in. But in the last 10, 12 years that has really changed.

S: And I knew we were gonna see some change but I had no idea it would be this drastic and this quick. (92 92 92)

G: We’ve lost a lifestyle.

S: Yeah, we’ve lost a complete lifestyle. We really did. And plus we lost a job and a livelihood.

G: No income.

S: Part of it, that’s right.

G: I never did smoke. Never did start. I just had no idea that it was as harmful as it is. And I’m, you see people, I saw my dad go down with lung problems and I’ve got some friends that’s had, you know, emphazema and things like that.

S: I do smoke and I’m convinced its not good for ya but there’s so much other stuff out there that’s even, that’s just as bad or worse.

G: My grandfather lived to be 88 and he chewed all his life. So uh you know, if I can live to be 88 I’ll be happy.

S: Tobacco business its been good for us, been good to us. And I have enjoyed it.

G: Definitely, I mean, hey, this has been my life 35 years, it was. (chanting fades out)