StoryCorps: Gregg Goins and Steve Nelms

From: StoryCorps
Series: StoryCorps
Length: 03:02

Former tobacco auctioneers Gregg Goins and Steve Nelms talk about their work. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps: Gregg Goins and Steve Nelms
From: StoryCorps

Goinspic_small In North Carolina, tobacco auctions were once festive occasions, where the smell of money competed with the scent of newly dried tobacco leaves. But those days are over. And once-busy auctioneers like Gregg Goins and Steve Nelms are left trying to adapt to what's next. Goins and Nelms talked about their former jobs, and the way things have changed, during a visit to a mobile StoryCorps booth parked at an old tobacco factory in Durham, N.C. When the farming business started changing, and policies for higher taxes and smoking bans went into effect, both men knew their lives would change, too. But they're surprised it has happened so quickly. And although Nelms and Goins are aware of the ills of smoking -- both have relatives who have died of cancer or related complications -- they also know the tobacco industry has been good to them.

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Piece Description

In North Carolina, tobacco auctions were once festive occasions, where the smell of money competed with the scent of newly dried tobacco leaves. But those days are over. And once-busy auctioneers like Gregg Goins and Steve Nelms are left trying to adapt to what's next. Goins and Nelms talked about their former jobs, and the way things have changed, during a visit to a mobile StoryCorps booth parked at an old tobacco factory in Durham, N.C. When the farming business started changing, and policies for higher taxes and smoking bans went into effect, both men knew their lives would change, too. But they're surprised it has happened so quickly. And although Nelms and Goins are aware of the ills of smoking -- both have relatives who have died of cancer or related complications -- they also know the tobacco industry has been good to them.

Broadcast History

NPR Morning Edition 4/21/2006

Transcript

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 auctio...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

Time now for StoryCorps ... that's traveling the country collecting your
stories. Interviews go to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. And each Friday we bring you excerpts here on Morning Edition.

Today a story about a lost art in North Carolina.

TAPE --- "My name is Greg Goins <>...it's all over." plus auctioneering tape ... dips under
These two men took part in an auction tradition that stretches back generations. But modern farmers aren't bringing their crops to market in droves anymore.

Goins and Nelms recently talked about the once-booming business ... at a mobile StoryCorps booth parked at an old tobacco factory in
Durham, North Carolina.

TAPE --- "1970, that was my first sale..."

OUTRO:

Gregg Goins and Steve Nelms in Durham, North Carolina.