Hi, yall sit down and have a donut. My Name is Doug Abrahamson, the President of the Nomocotton Chamber of Commerce and the owner of German John's Mercantile. Now German John's was founded over 120 years ago by my Great Great Grandfather the original Doug Abrahamson Now for most of that time we were the only place in town you could buy a hot meal.

In 1995 someone in the fast food universe noticed Nomocotton and the Invasion was on. First we got a DMC's and I wanna Tell you it is nice to get a chili dog without driving all the way to Greenville. Then we got an Uncle Bob's Southern Fried Chicken and we thought we were in High Cotton.

Now Dick McCullough the owner of the DMC's was from North Carolina and he just sorta fit in Nomocotton. Dick plays a mean fiddle and became a regular down at the Nomocotton Opry House. Andy Richardson opened the Uncle Bob's. Andy was from Northern Alabama and was a distant cousins to about half the town. He might as well have grown up here.

Aside from cutting into my Chicken selling business Dick and Andy didn't really have that big an impact on the town. Then Giuseppe DiCapua opened "Mama Ruth's Pizza Pavilion". I don't know who Mama Ruth is or exactly what a Pizza Pavilion is but I do know that Giuseppe was the biggest shock to hit Nomocotton since Big Bobby Rich married Sissy Hogston. Giuseppe is a short Round man from a far away land. His accent is still sometimes hard for us to understand and all the local kids loved to hear his stories of his childhood in far away exotic Connecticut.

Giuseppe's ideals of marketing were new and to be honest really upset some of the old timers. First he hired the high school choir to sing his jingle around town. On Founders Day 1995 he hired the high school marching band to march in the Parade dressed up as Bell Peppers, Pepperoni's and Anchovies. At the Annual dance that night we feasted on free chili dogs and Cowboy Pizza (For Yall who have never been to Texas Cowboy Pizza is Canadian bacon and Pineapple.)

I guess at this point Dick McCullough must have been losing business to Mama Ruth's cause he decided to host a Chili cook off and Fiddle Jamboree. Dick set up the Jamboree for Memorial Day Weekend. We don't know how he did it but he managed to get commitments from Charlie Daniels and Jerry Jeff Walker (A TEXAS ICON) to play at the Jamboree.

When the details started coming out Stella Mhin (CG's wife) the President of the Nomocotton Youth Sports Association decided that would be the perfect weekend for a softball tournament. It didn't take her long to line up 12 teams for a double elimination three day tourney with complimentary passes to the Fiddle Jamboree for the families of the players.

CG Mhin and Little Bobby Bullen always quick to see an opportunity for a profit decided to stage a motocross race for the same weekend. They figured all the tourists would need something to do. The race would be on the old Margison Ranch.

By January of 1996 Giuseppe realized this festival was gonna be either a major boom for DMC's or a total disaster. Well he didn't want to miss out on a possible boom so he decided he needed to get involved. He called Junie Jones our town historian and offered to sponsor a Genealogical conference for that weekend. Junie and Janet Birkner the President of the Nomocotton Genealogical Society jumped at the offer and agreed to his one condition. After a couple of more phone calls it was settled Mama Ruth's would host the Gen. conference and the Featured speaker would be Antonio Fusco, the President of the Italian-Texican Club of Italy Texas.

In February Andy Richardson over at Uncle Bob's Southern Fried Chicken got into the act by announcing that he was gonna sponcer a Civil War Reenactment for Memorial Day Weekend.

Now I'm gonna tell you I was more than a little concerned about the fact that German John's Nomocotton oldest business was not involved with any of the festivities and went over to talk to Judge Hogston about it. She suggested I sponsor a Jazz Festival for that weekend. Well I wasn't exactly sold on the idea but I started looking into it.

About a week later I got a flyer from the Nomocotton City Council announcing the "1st Annual Nomocotton Cultural Collusion and Festival" for Memorial Day Weekend. The festival would include German John's Jazz Festival, DMC's Chili Cook off and Fiddle Fest, Mama Ruth's Genealogical conference, Uncle Bob's Civil War reenactment, The Joey Beddingfield Memorial Softball Tournament and the 1st Annual Ling Pau Lunsford Memorial Motocross.

Well that was four years ago and it was a roaring success. In 97 we added a battle of the bands, in 98 a crafts shows and this year we are adding a turkey shoot. So if yall don't have plans for Memorial Day drop bye for the biggest party in East Texas.