Editorial: ‘Peanut man’ tradition honored

At the de facto center of town — the busy intersection of West Main Street and the Ross Clark Circle — the most enduring enterprise on the northwest corner was not a brick-and-mortar outfit, but a peanut stand operated by a friendly man in a pith helmet.

Byron “Cotton” Trawick — the Peanut Man — was a community fixture up until he passed away early this year.

His death came shortly after construction began on a new bank that recently opened on the corner, a project that included plans to incorporate Trawick’s peanut stand on the institution’s property.

We applaud Friend Bank and its staff for realizing the importance of a quaint tradition such as Cotton Trawick’s enterprise; many developments would have simply shooed the roadside merchant away.
Instead, Friend Bank unveiled a memorial to Trawick near the spot where he sold “about a billion” peanuts, by his son’s estimation.

Fittingly, the Peanut Man is remembered as a peanut man — a peanut-shaped likeness of Trawick dipping up a cup of boiled goobers.

It’s an uplifting tribute.