In the last entry, Submitted For Your Approval, I stated:

You’d be hard pressed to find any other “peanut man” in American history besides Roger who’s sold peanuts in one location for nearly 30 years or more.

Evidently, my clothes now have that fresh from the drycleaner feeling. Clean, warm, and definitely hard pressed, because I found out some information to the contrary, and rather easily at that. So before you are taken to the cleaners by my last entry, let’s set the stage and travel to that other dimension once again…

One Peanut Man, Two Peanut Men,
Three Peanut Men, Four,
How Many Peanut Shells Can We Count On The Floor??:

There is probably a handful of peanut vendors nationwide who have worked at one location or venue for nearly 30 years or more. That group would include, for example, Dodger Stadium long-time vendor, Mort Rose. But in many cases, these peanut vendors have also switched to selling other items to make a dollar. So in reality, one could argue for or against their role in history as a peanut vendor selling peanuts consistently in the same location, depending on how you looked at it.

But you could say the same thing for good old peanut man from Washington D.C., “Steve” Nicholas Stephanos Vasilakos as also mentioned in the previous entry. He sold popcorn in addition to peanuts at his peanut cart. And it was popcorn that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt stopped by to purchase from ”Steve” on that sunny day 73 years ago.

And furthermore, for your enjoyment, I found another TIME article from Feb. 12, 1934, but this time, it’s a section for reader feedback to the original about Vasilakos. Note the first reader’s opinion and his generous dose of political cynicism. Perhaps that individual later changed his surname from Benway to Limbaugh.

So how does Roger measure up to all these other vendors, or vice versa??

Well, to say a peanut vendor has sold peanuts in the same location for approximately 30 years or longer, that’s in itself an accomplishment. But what makes that so special?? For starters, it’s the consistency of doing something that seems unimportant, silly, or trivial, but has the potential to bring enjoyment or nourishment for others. And to find a place to do it at where people come to recoginize the individual over a number of decades is also not such an easy task.

So in all of this, we applaude all peanut vendors who have done it consistently for 30 years or more, but even more so the vendor entertainers, like Roger and one other individual in particular.

The Peanut Man Goes To Chicago, Part I:

Let’s first not forget we’ve journeyed to the Twilight Zone for this entry like we did in the last one, and in this other strange dimension, we’ll find there’s not only the Dodger Peanut Man, but the Peanut Man ”Dodger.”

In asserting a clarification to my point about peanut vendors, I found out that one such peanut vendor has remarkably sold peanuts and entertained customers, drivers, and onlookers for 46 years in one location, in the midst of a busy intersection of Grant St. and 25th Ave. in downtown Chicago. I’d say that would make him a ”dodger” and a pretty good one, too.

According to Post-Tribune article from Jan. 14, 2007, peanut man, Joe Mays, at 76 still finds ways to bring a smile to those who catch his act and his peanuts, and in doing so, has caught the attention of Mayor Rudy Clay. It seems the mayor authorized a street sign to be named Joe Mays Corner. Mays not only sells peanuts, he puts on a show with acrobatics, peanut bag juggling with super-sized clown shoes, all in the busy intersection.  In addition to his 46 years, which he has done consistently nearly every day, he performed many show benefits for the community, and with Bozo the Clown, and during Harlem Globetrotters’ halftime shows, and that’s saying something if you’re the Globetrotters’ pick for halftime antics.

The Peanut Man Goes To Chicago, Part II:

Mays, also known for tossing peanut bags into the rolled down windows of passing cars he deems as going too fast, is the eldest of eight kids, and is the “attention-getter of the group.”

It just so happens another entertaining peanut man, a Dodger for a different reason, also the eldest of eight kids (until a ninth sibling was born many years later), and also known as the “attention-getter of the group,” Roger Owens tossed peanut bags into passing cars with the windows down while touring America as the National Peanut Advisory Board’s official spokesperson in 1981.

And where exactly did he toss those peanuts into open car windows??

Downtown Chicago, of course.