Katie Chesebro’s bad dad joke — “Cashew later “ — was a fitting parting shot as she returned to her ride — the peanut-shaped Planters Nutmobile.
Katie, a recent college graduate from the University of Wisconsin, is a peanutter — one of a team of three people who ride the nation’s roads 320 days a year to tout all that’s awesome about the mighty goober.
She and colleague Mason Mulrooney, also 22 and a new graduate from Virginia Tech, spent the weekend in the Charleston area after strutting the Nutmobile in a parade in Plains, Ga., celebrating the 99th birthday of former President Jimmy Carter.
In the Lowcountry, they posed for pictures, handed out packets of Planters peanuts and cashews and gave out stickers (I heart Planters and I Spotted the Nutmobile) after pulling up the Big Peanut vehicle to The Rise Coffee Bar in Charleston to celebrate National Coffee Day and at Holy City Brewing to, well, celebrate beer and nuts. Occasionally, a costumed Mr. Peanut made an appearance that gave kids, old and young, a nutty thrill.
During a couple of days off, the pair got a little sun on the beach at Sullivan’s Island, listened to loud music and ate some crab on the Market.
“We travel all over the country and visit a new city every week,” Katie said during an East Bay Street visit to the City Paper office. “When we’re driving down the street and you see how it makes someone’s day, it’s pretty cool.”
Mason said Planters, founded in 1916, has been in his family’s life since his great-grandfather’s day in Memphis, Tenn. Back then, his great-granddad ran three Planters Peanut Shoppe stores. Now, only one — the Peanut Shoppe on Pembroke Square — remains after the company divested the stores years ago.
As Mason was growing up, he recalls celebrating the peanut at Christmas when family members wore Planters sweaters. Because he was following Planters on social media as he was preparing to graduate, he got word of the traveling year-long job in the Nutmobile. So since June 1, he, Katie and another Peanutter have been on the road seeing the sights and celebrating the peanut.
They’re next headed to a peanut festival in Suffolk, Va., where the Mr. Peanut character was designed in 1916 by a student. It also is the location of one of two Planters manufacturing facilities.
Check out the latest: #NutMobile or @PlantersNutmobileOfficial.
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