15 cents

You can barely see it but the price of 15 cents is on the top of this bag of Beech Nut chewing tobacco. When my Dad died in 2001 I found the bag in his personal papers.

My Dad smoked cigarettes most of his life but didn't chew. I am 99% certain he kept this bag as a memento from his father after he died in 1973.

My grandfather, Millard Fillmore Green chewed tobacco and I can remember him with a bag of Beech Nut in his pocket or on the rocking chair of his front porch. My other grandfather also chewed but he preferred the hard block and he would cut off a plug with his knife.

Cancer, self induced or not caught up with many of my relatives but Fillmore Green was a step ahead of it.

He enjoyed sharing with everyone that he had outlived two of his doctors who told him he was going to die from one thing or another. He lived to be 93 years old and did it on his own.

He lived in his own house, had several other rental houses that he kept up with and grew vegetables that he would sell to local grocery stores. The only assistance he needed was a ride to the store since he didn't drive.

He walked every where else, including to downtown Perry, Florida every day to check his mail and visit with friends on the courthouse lawn. This photo was one I took in 1968 outside the Perry post office. I remember we were driving through town and stopped at his house to say hello. He wasn't home so we drove around for a while and found him coming out of the post office door.