Tobacco auctioneering is a family tradition
Stephenson describes his entry into the tobacco auctioneer profession. He grew up in the business—his father and eight uncles were all auctioneers—and he always knew he wanted to become a part of it. If that sense was not enough, it also offered a chance to perform and a decent wage.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Edward Stephenson, September 21, 2002. Interview R-0193. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- WILLIAM MANSFIELD:
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What got you into being anauctioneer? How'd you get started?
- EDWARD STEPHENSON:
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Well, as I said, my father was a tobacco auctioneer, and when he went to
Work, where I went to work with him, I went to a tobacco warehouse. Of
course when he got ready to go to work in the morning he was practicing
auctioneering in the shower and I heard it day and night, seven days a
week. It was a part of my life. When I went to work with him, when into
the warehouse working, when I got old enough to work, I wanted to be an
auctioneer but more than that, it was just a job I was just expected to
do. It wasn't really forced on me, but it's just
like a bricklayer's son, I was an auctioneer's
son, a warehouseman's son and just . . . . . . When I got old
enough that's what I started doing. When I got old enough to
get paid for it I started doing it for a living. Since then most of
them, all of them, but one of my uncles [has passed on]. My
daddy's passed on. My mother also. And we just kind of took
up where they left off, and [we] went on with it. And now I'm
operating my own warehouse and auctioning my own sale. I'm
just carrying on my family tradition.
- WILLIAM MANSFIELD:
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Well why did you decide go into auctioneering as opposed to managing the
warehouse, or ticket marking, or . . . . . . Why was it auctioneering?
- EDWARD STEPHENSON:
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Well, I just wanted to . . . . . . I was fascinated with tobacco
auctioneering. I just thought it was the neatest thing. I always thought
my father, and my other uncle, the late Snoxie Stephenson, who I was
named after, I just felt like it was what I wanted to do. And felt like
it was what I should do. And I just pursue it with everything I had.
That's what I always wanted to be.
- WILLIAM MANSFIELD:
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When you say you were fascinated by it, what was it that appealed to you
about auctioneering?
- EDWARD STEPHENSON:
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Well it was flamboyant. Seemed like everyone was, you know the
auctioneer was kind of like the star. The better you could do it, the
better job you could get. And, quite frankly, it was a very good paying
job. And it wasn't a real strenuous job, like splitting wood
or anything. It was just something that I though would be a neat way to
make a living. And also carry on my family tradition.