Bull Durham® …not just for smokers
by
Bob Nishimoto, Honohina Hongwanji
Bob Nishimoto, Honohina Hongwanji
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Our Honohina Hongwanji in Ninole has served the Jodo Shinsu Buddhist community in Ninole and neighboring camps since 1916. This two-story building, classified as a Simplified Japanese architectural design, resembles a typical plantation worker residence. The temple sanctuary is located on the second floor with three rows of wooden pews facing the single shrine recessed into an alcove. There is a narrow room in the back of the altar that is mostly used for storage. On the mauka end of this back room is a corner kitchen counter fitted with an antique porcelain sink and a water faucet. This sink is mostly used by Mrs. Takasaki to prepare cut flowers for our monthly service, which always adds elegance to our simple altar. What is unique about this sink is a small, white, muslin-like materiel bag tied to the faucet with the attached yellow string. This is a re-purposed Bull Durham tobacco bag used as a water filter. It was meant to keep out a few pebbles and sometimes a river opae (native shrimp), but not muddy water. During plantation days water was directly piped to homes from a nearby stream. Now it serves no purpose except to remind us of our plantation roots. Ninole’s water is now from the Ninole (Hawai’i County) water system.
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Photo courtesy of Gail Maesato
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Smoking has been practiced since ancient times. Tobacco was smoked as early as 5000 BC in magical rituals in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes culture. In our country, smoking was widely accepted socially and was a symbol of being cool and glamorous. In the 1960’s an estimated 42% of Americans were regular smokers. Remember the advertising posters for cigarette brands like Lucky Strike, Chesterfield and Camels. Remember the radio ad, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel”. Later, the Marlboro man made the scene, depicting the rugged cowboy persona.
As America grew and migrated westward, so did tobacco. At first the pioneers had only the dried, ‘rope and twist’ tobacco called Cotton Boll, which they chewed. In 1860 J.R. Green from Durham Station, North Carolina, began producing a finely chopped tobacco, cured for quality and mildness. He packaged the tobacco in a soft white muslin sack with drawstrings, all of which fit neatly into the average vest or shirt pocket. Later he added a small pack of cigarette papers to the bargain and the rest of the story is history. The product was further enhanced in advertising posters picturing a cowboy showing a small round paper tag hanging from his vest or shirt pocket. This is the same period that popularized the Stetson cowboy hat. Bull Durham was sold as loose tobacco in a roll-your-own packet and sold as “The Cheapest Luxury In The World”. Bull Durham tobacco continued to be manufactured and sold worldwide until around 1988. Now it can only can be purchased as a collectors item.
As America grew and migrated westward, so did tobacco. At first the pioneers had only the dried, ‘rope and twist’ tobacco called Cotton Boll, which they chewed. In 1860 J.R. Green from Durham Station, North Carolina, began producing a finely chopped tobacco, cured for quality and mildness. He packaged the tobacco in a soft white muslin sack with drawstrings, all of which fit neatly into the average vest or shirt pocket. Later he added a small pack of cigarette papers to the bargain and the rest of the story is history. The product was further enhanced in advertising posters picturing a cowboy showing a small round paper tag hanging from his vest or shirt pocket. This is the same period that popularized the Stetson cowboy hat. Bull Durham was sold as loose tobacco in a roll-your-own packet and sold as “The Cheapest Luxury In The World”. Bull Durham tobacco continued to be manufactured and sold worldwide until around 1988. Now it can only can be purchased as a collectors item.
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As a teenager working in Nishimoto Store, I distinctly remember the Cotton Boll, locally referred to as rope tobacco. I fondly remember Diego Sajor, our bachelor neighbor, who would carefully unwind the twisted tobacco, secure each section with thread and cut it into (pipe) bowl-size pieces. He re-purposed the chewing rope tobacco for his pipe. Genius! Diego-san only smoked during break while working in the sugar cane fields. Our generation calls it “coffee break” while he called it “tobacco” (break). Hands down, Bull Durham was the most popular brand of tobacco in Hawai’i because, like in the Old West, it was inexpensive. The naturally cured tobacco was mild and a pleasurable distraction from the hard labor in the cane fields. Many plantation workers had a bag in the front pocket of their blue palaka or ahina work shirts. Other families, like Mr. Yamashiro from Yoban (Camp 4, Ninole), kept his rolled Bull Durham cigarettes in an old teacup. He enjoyed smoking while listening to Okinawan music on his radio every weekend. When I delivered groceries from the store, he often offered me a cigarette from his teacup holder. I always politely refused, knowing he had to lick each rolling paper to finish making individual cigarettes.
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The re-purposed Bull Durham bag was widely used as a water filter in most plantation home kitchens. You can still find one at the Honomu Hongwanji club-house sink and in the kitchen at the Hakalau Jodo Mission. Children would use them to carry marbles in their pocket for a friendly competition with schoolmates during recess. Another use was to fill the empty bag with newly cut grass for a game of tag. We called it alabia. I read about a similar game, they called it alavia, in the early 1900’s in Moiliili, Oahu. They used sand instead of cut grass to fill the bag. No mention was made whether it was a re-purposed Bull Durham bag.
When I am at our Honohina Cemetery, I look at the headstones and think about our ancestors. When I am in our sanctuary back room, I see the Bull Durham bag over the faucet and think about our plantation roots. Both situations remind me to be grateful and thankful for who we are and what we have. |
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