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In his short life, Shorty Lawson owned the reputation as hardest-working man around Person County: first on the job, last off it, plowing tobacco by mule, hauling water by bucket, living off hogs he killed, fish he caught, axes with handles he carved from hickory and — on Saturdays only — moonshine he knocked back. He and Annie Lawson raised seven kids in a tenant farmer’s house with no running water and a fireplace for heat, where five boys slept in one windowless room no bigger than a closet and everybody took baths in a washtub. Growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s, Randy Hester witnessed all of this because his family owned the 200-acre farm where they worked, and he spent summers cropping tobacco alongside Shorty Lawson, who showed him everything from how to build a rabbit trap to how to gig bullfrogs. So about 10 years ago, long after Shorty Lawson died, long after his family scattered, Hester got the idea to save the falling-down house where they lived all those years — partly as a shrine to his friend but more as a living history of the tenant farmers who drove North Carolina’s economy, building cities like Durham and Wilson. Read more about the life and legacy of Shorty Lawson through the link in our bio. ✍️Josh Shaffer 📹Kaitlin McKeown
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