Bunch of Bull...

If you're coming into Ashland on Hwy 9 North, you've probably noticed the remnants of an old "Bull Durham" tobacco ad painted on the wall of the building on the corner.  If you haven't, check it out next time you come through town.  It's a little piece of history and it is literally "fading fast."  Cheryl had Jennifer Alam, a local photographer and good friend of ours, take a picture of the ad and frame it for me.

The city of Durham's History At A Glance site has this to say about the origins of the company: "The origin of Durham’s nickname, the “Bull City,” has nothing to do with cattle!
John Green of the Blackwell Tobacco Company named his product “Bull” Durham Tobacco after Colman’s Mustard, which used a bull in its logo and which Green mistakenly thought was produced in Durham, England.
By the time James B. Duke of the American Tobacco Company purchased the Blackwell Tobacco Company in 1898, Bull Durham was the most famous trademark in the world. It sparked such popular phrases as “bullpen” (from a Bull Durham ad painted behind the Yankees’ dugout) and “shooting the bull” (most likely from chewing tobacco). The famous bull’s image was painted all over the world, including on the Great Pyramid of Egypt!
Duke put cigarette cards, predecessors of modern baseball cards, into each pack of tobacco. By the 1930’s they were immensely popular, and today they are much sought-after collectors’ items."


I'd like to know, if anyone out there knows, when the Ashland sign was painted.

You know, there are so many interesting things about our county.  Many of us will live here all our lives and do not even try to find out about the people and things that came before us.  Don't let that be you.  Know where you came from.....it can help you realize where you're going.