Hi its me, Junie again. Yall come on in and sit down and have a cup of coffee. The Chamber of Commerce decided that since they couldn't get certain old coots (Hiram and Big Bobby) to quit telling people that Nomocotton was famous for only two things, Jalapeno Waffles and nuts, maybe I should explain.

Now I know Big Bobby explained the Jalapeno Waffles last week and even though I have my doubts I'm gonna explain about the nuts instead, and no I don't mean Hiram and Big Bobby.

Way back in the early days of our little town almost everyone had a small farm and raised a few cows. Now I know there are rumours that the first herd of cattle in Nomocotton had been stolen, that just aint true. You go down to the Library they have the original bill of sale from the Lunsford family to the Civic leaders of Nomocotton. Once a year they would hire that Drover, Joe Moore, from Cooper Texas to drive them up North. They hired Mr Moore because none of the locals wanted to deal with the Yankee meat buyers up in Abaline. Personally I think they still held a grudge. This system worked real good for a few years until it became widely known that Joe Moore rode with them James boys from Missouri. This didn't bother us much, but the sheriff up in Kansas kept arresting him.

After that the Cattle trade just sorta petered out. Now Joe Bob Margison Tried to convince everyone that the future of Nomocotton would be guaranteed if we would switch to sheep herding. Most of the town just laughed at him, but old Joe Bob went ahead and brought a herd of sheep in. This sparked one the strangest range wars in the history of the west, but that's the subject for another day. When German John opened his General Store most folks thought it would go under very quickly. It probably would have if it wouldn't have been for Spindletop.

Them wildcat oil speculators drilled wells all over NewKirk County. They would come into German John's almost every day for their breakfast and supper. A lot of folks got very rich here in Nomocotton during the Oil boom renting rooms, cooking dinners and selling the mineral rights to their farms to speculators. Of course yall know no one ever found any oil around here. Although inderectly they did plant the seeds for what would become the big Cash crop. About the only requirement anyone put on those wildcaters is that they plant some trees around their holes to keep out the cattle and sheep.

After the boom ended most of the folks around here settled back into farmin and ranchin. Prohibition was another financial good time around here. I doubt there is a single family in the county that didn't either make or deliver shine to Dallas, Commerce and Greenville. Now I don't want yall to think our little town is full of criminals but folks around here don't allways follow the normal path. Our politicians have always been a little on the odd side too, from Maudel Adams former Mayor and owner of the "Boarding" house to our current Mayor Sweet Julie Hogston. Which might explain why when Bubba Joe Margison (Jim Bob's Grandson) opened his factory in the late 30's everyone in town just knew it would be a big success. Some of them good ole boys that had run shine in the 20's delivered his product all over East Texas in the 40's. Next time you go into Stuckey's you look and see if that Pecan Roll wasn't made with pecans from Nomocotton, Texas. The Nut Capital of East Texas.