Deb Taylor Duarte

(Deb Taylor Duarte on 'Manchester Redux' and working tobacco)

This is awesome. I sent it on to my brother, Bill Taylor, MHS class of 1968. Maybe you guys know each other, he’s also a Vietnam vet. I also worked tobacco at Culbro Silverstein farm in Ellington. I had a blast and the 45 bucks/week (hmmm maybe more? I worked Saturdays, too because I had so much fun even though it was hot and dirty). I sewed leaves and was proud that I got good enough at it to make piecework and get paid extra. I think we had to do 8 bundles of 40 or 50 laths and then you went on the piecework after that. I walked down the hill from the Vernon/Manchester town line to Wells Farm Wagon near where Golfland is now, it used to be a big dairy farm and I would get the bus at like 6 AM and then walk up Elm Hill Rd after work with my fingers still taped up from sewing. I was 14 and 15 when I worked there and then graduated to a real job at the HoJo's when I turned 16.

Deb Taylor Duarte
Tolland, Ct
August, 2011