I have never smoked a cigar in my life and since I'm writing about cigar makers, that seems like it could be a problem. So when I learned that the Broome County Historian, Roger Luther, was giving a talk at the Lost Dog Cafe on the history of cigars in Binghamton, and that there would be a cigar lounge in the tent out back afterwards, well, I had to go, right?
The Lost Dog Cafe is a Binghamton institution housed in the Hull Grummond building, which was built in 1886 as a cigar factory and employed 600 people in its heyday. Michael and I used to be such regulars there that one Christmas our server gave us the gift certificate they'd been given by management to give to a customer (I'm sorry about that sentence). But we don't go out to dinner much any more, so it has been a while.
Roger Luther told me when I chatted to him afterwards that his primary research passion is the New York State Inebriate Asylum, a massive gothic pile overlooking the river on the east edge of town, but he put together an exhibition of cigar workers for Women's History month earlier this year, and last night's talk emerged out of that. He said only a few things that I didn't already know, but it was all fascinating, and I enjoyed how much the audience was into it and I was intrigued by their questions about things that I've taken for granted ever since I first started researching women's work during my college thesis on the Dunedin Tailoresses Union. For example someone asked why were women doing the low pay work. And I'm thinking, uh, because of the long history of devaluing women's labor, both economically and socially, that leads to women being deliberately excluded from skilled crafts?
Anyway. I asked my writing group if any of them wanted to go, since they've read some of my chapters, and Ethan and Rhonda and Rhonda's husband Jonathan all came along and we bought one cigar and smoked half of it together and I asked the cigar dudes how to properly smoke it and because they are cigar dudes they were so happy to explain stuff to a lady, and like a lot of people who are into a thing, they were thrilled that someone else was about to start on a journey of exploration. Except I'm not going on a journey, I'm getting off the train after one stop. One quarter of one half of a cigar with a mild Connecticut wrapper was enough for me. My mouth still tastes ashy and burnt even though I've brushed my teeth several times and the cats keep sniffing my hair like I smell wrong. But the whole thing was a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
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| Me trying to look like I know what I'm doing. Jonathan took the photo. He is a professional photographer and his original framing tells a better story, but I cropped it to take out the faces of people in the background. Perhaps I will pay Jonathan so I can use this as my eventual author photo. |
Here's a link to one of Roger Luther's pieces on the State Hospital. He's still researching the place, and has given updated talks as recently as last year, but these photos from his 2014 post are particularly fascinating. http://nyslandmarks.com/treasures/14feb.htm
And here is a post Roger Luther wrote in 2012 about the Hull Grummond building. http://nyslandmarks.com/treasures/12jul.htm
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