To show just how obsessed I am with local history, especially family history, let me tell you about this piece that appears to be a piece of garbage, ha.
I was cleaning in our family barn in Talcott with granddad around 2012 or so. I put my hand up over one of the beams, felt something, and pulled out this 1930s empty Mail Pouch tobacco envelope that had been placed there and forgotten about.
The family barn was built by my Great Grandfather O.D. Thompson. He chewed, but Grandma Thompspn did not like him doing so. So, he must have kept his Mail Pouch hidden in the barn over a beam and would sneak him a chew when he was out of the house around the barn.
Most people would have simply thrown this in the trash but not me. I am a bit obsessed with the Thompson side of my family. So, I brought this antique envelope home, ironed it flat and placed it in this frame where I could display it with other things similar to it.
Mom was recently reminding me of an O.D. story regarding tobacco. As I said, Grandpa Thompson did chew and grandma did not like it. When mom was a kid, he had a large brass spittoon beside his chair that had belonged to his father. Grandma picked it up one day, went out the front door, down the steps, walked across the road, and flung it over the bank into what is now the John Henry Historic Park because she was tired of cleaning it.
On a side note, as I have mentioned in a few of my pieces before O.D. and his father were exceptional craftsmen and built fantastic furniture. Mom already had a smoke stand that O.D. carried up to what we call the “Little House” when my grandparents were in one weekend in the 1970’s. He gave it to my Grandmother Bea; moms mother who used it to hold her alarm clock by her bed for many years.
My Great Uncle Buck Thompson’s estate auction was held in Union in September of 2024. He had a smoke stand that L.W. Thompson, my great great grandfather, had turned out on a lathe. To keep it in the family I purchased it to add to my ever-growing collection. The black and white photo is from the early 1960s and shows the smoke stand to the right of the chair.
