Yes, we all need names so mine is Macadamia Mulrooney, that is my Peanutnutter name.
Is that your favorite nut?
Actually, actually yeah. it really is because basically whenever like I used to have to put macadamia nuts in and also my favorite small energy bars- so it’s a macadamia and white chocolate. But of course, I like all types of nuts. I am a big nut enjoyer.
So how did you get to be are doing this
So oddly enough, like my great grandfather used to own and operate three old Planters, brick and mortar shops back in Memphis, Tennessee. So basically ever since I was a wee lad, we had Planters things everywhere on my dad’s side of the family. You go into every house, see little Mr. Peanuts everywhere.
To give an example, during Christmas and there’s a tradition of hiding a paper in the Christmas tree but we would hide a Mr. Peanut in the Christmas tree for the kids to find and things like that. So basically for my whole life, Mr. Peanut and Planters has been like a part of it like even though my family hasn’t been involved with it since my great grandfather. And so when I told my grandmanwhen I got this job, she was overly ecstatic. Because that was her dad like that was her dad who owned and operated those stores, and one of them is still standing operating.
Oh, where’s that one?
A Memphis, Tennessee.
What’s it called?
It’s called the Peanut Shoppe.
So, you’ve been around Mr. Peanut your whole life. How did you apply and find out about it?
So I found out about this job because I was following all the Mr. Peanut and Planters Instagram accounts. They posted a job application for this. I was like, wow, this is like the perfect thing. You travel across the whole entire country and make people smile. So then the application process. It was basically a resume cover letter and then we had a minute long video. Basically, you know, of us explaining why we would be the perfect Peanutter. And so it was like a personality snapshot to see if we were good for the job. And then we’ve had interviews after that multiple rounds. And then they chose us from them.
Tell me about Peanuts Prep.
Peanut Prep was all the training that goes into basically preparing us to be Peanutters because we’re just young young people beforehand, but now we’re grizzled peanut enjoyers.
[Laughter]
… We became honey roasted after that session. All sweet and ready.
[More Laughter]
Well, since we’re on with the puns, were you shy before?
I was shy before college but not in college…even though my major is completely different from what this job entails. I was involved in student organizations, which also includes being Vice President in the class, So, I’ve been involved with just like a promotions and communications outside of the classroom.
What was your major?
My major was National Security and Foreign Affairs in Russian with a minor in Religion.
Wow. That’s a pretty interesting combination.
Very much so. Now I’m driving a peanut for a year. So you know, life is always full of surprises…
I understand the class there is a new class that will be coming after you. So, what will you be thinking of or looking for opportunities later?
I would love to continue working for both, the Planters brand but also with my major. I would also love to work with. So with this job it gives so many great avenues in Canada it would be really cool to basically continue family legacy with over planter so but also I would love to serve my country.
OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Tania Castro from the Planters Nutmobile at Hy-Vee
Tanya Castro in front of the Planters Nutmobile at Hy-Vee
How long have you been with the Nutmobile?
So, I started with Katie and Mason on June 1st. We met May 31st. June 1st was our first day on the job. We trained for about nine days in Austin, Minnesota. We like to call it “Peanut Prep” and after the nine days we hit the road.
Now I understand the meaning of ”class”. So you are Class 10 (Tenth group to graduate from “Peanut Prep”)...
Yes, Class 10.
What did you do before this? How did you get this job?
So I’m a little different than Mason and Katie. They just graduated from college in May. I actually graduated college in December of 2021. After that, I started working for the government. I worked for a government agency in southern Nevada that did all public transportation, roadway planning… Funny story, one day I was picking up lunch from that job in Las Vegas and the Nutmobile passed me. And I was like, “This is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” So, I snapped a picture of it. I posted it on my Instagram. My friend responded that it’s the Nutmobile, so I started doing research on it. And I came across their TikTok and Class 9 was doing really well with it. This seems like fun. Luckily, they were accepting applications at the time, so I decided to apply and here I am.
What’s it made of?
The outside is made out of fiberglass and pool noodles. If anybody ever comes across the Nutmobile, you’ll see the ridges. Those are actually pool noodles covered in fiberglass.
Yes, it’s definitely conversation starter.
What’s the engine or the rest of it?
So it’s built on a 2017 Isuzu chassis. That’s the base of it. And then they built the nut on top of it.
And then 2017 … and Class 10…[Five year old Nutmobile vs ten years of Peanutters-What’s missing?]
Yes.
What happened?
Planters used to be owned by Kraft Heinz before this.
When it was owned by Kraft Heinz there were three Nutmobiles on the road. So, there were more Peanutters than three when Hormel adopted the program and we stuck with this one. So, if you ever come across the Nutmobile, this is the only one.
What did you study at school?
I did journalism with a concentration in Marketing, a minor in Business Marketing and the second degree in Spanish.
Wow.
If anybody’s interested in driving the Nutmobile and applications open back up, I say go for it. Honestly, it’s an experience of a lifetime. You’ll get to save this for the rest of your life. You get to drive a giant peanut across the United States and you get to visit so many places in so many communities. There’s definitely a great opportunity.
So all the 48 continental states?
We’re trying to get to 48.
Do you collect anything from all these states?
I do! I collect magnets. So, growing up, my grandma always had her magnets on her fridge. My uncle traveled a lot when he was younger, so he would bring her magnets back. Everywhere that I go, I buy a magnet.
That’s really cool.
Thank you.
Yeah, so I do magnets. Katie does stickers and Mason is trying to do hats. So, we’re trying to see how many hats he can collect on the road.
We were talking about it earlier today and he has about 20 so far. We’ll see how many he ends up with.
I think about a couple times a week, how crazy it is that if I didn’t leave work that day to get lunch…so I am very grateful.
OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Katie Chesebro from the Planters Nutmobile at Hollywood Candy in the Old Market
Katie Chesebro in front of the Planters Nutmobile at Hy-Vee
They call me Cashew Katie.
That’s a good one.
Yeah, love it.
What’s your favorite nut?
I love the honey roasted peanuts. They’re probably my favorite, but if you have not tried [them] our dill pickle cashews are delicious. They’re so yummy. So, I like it a lot. We have some trail mixes out there. We have new cashew flavor coming out. So, lots of delicious exciting things, for sure.
What brings you to Omaha?
So I guess a little background of the automobile… Me, Tanya and Mason, we travel the United States from June to June. We’re class 10 of the Planters Peanutters. We hopefully will travel 48 out of 50 states. And so, Nebraska, we were looking at where to stop in Nebraska and Omaha seems pretty attractive to us. We stopped here and Hormel (owns Planters) has a plant here too. We were at Papillion Foods a couple days ago. Check out there, and yeah, now we’re just hanging out in Omaha. So, I guess the people [and the] big city life brought us here.
We really enjoy Omaha and glad we are here too. How did you come to work at the Nutmobile and what did you do before?
Good question! So, I actually went to school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison before this, and I was kind of hitting a point senior year where everyone was asking me what I’m doing next year, and I honestly had no idea. And so, an ad came across my Facebook. My mom was friends with someone who works at Hormel in promoting this job opportunity. And I just got so excited. So that became my Plan A and my dream job that I really wanted to strive for. So, applications opened in January. From there I submit a cover letter, resume, a minute long video of why I would be better, which was my favorite part of the application, and a basic application. And from there I went through an interview process and here we are.
What did you say that made you the perfect Peanutter?
So in college, I had the opportunity to put on a couple of bigger campus events as well as I worked at a radio station and was on the road with them quite a bit, talking to people going to various events, connecting with people getting people to smile, which is exactly what the job is, as well. I actually worked at a car dealership for five years throughout college. And so, I think the driving experience really helped me to handle such a big vehicle. 26 feet long and 11 and a half tall. It’s a pretty big vehicle which I think oddly enough of my experience lined up and I was excited about it, which I think made me the perfect candidate to be the next Peanutter.
That’s pretty cool.
It’s nutty for sure…
Gotta have a lot of puns.
Oh, yeah. My favorite I think is every time people leave, I always say ,“Cashew you later.” Oh, yeah, you know, and so it takes a minute for people to get it sometimes, but when they do I get lots of smiles.
We go we try to go to sporting events, minor league baseball games and stuff like that because what more of perfect a combo is peanuts in sports, you know? They’re a good snack. They’re healthy. So I love that kind of stuff.
Maybe gaming and programming competitions, because snacks are really big… What is in your Nutmobile?
Inside the Nutmobile we have six seats. The seats are embroidered with Mr. Peanut on them and a lot of people describe them as like they’re plane seats, but pretty comfy, so we have six of those on the inside. We also have a timeline of Mr. Peanut on the ceiling, so that’s pretty cool. Starts at 1919 when Mr. Peanut first arrived on packaging today with all the different Mr. Peanuts which is pretty fun. I think there’s like 20 on the ceiling.
Wow.
Obviously, cupholders. We have a TV. We call it our peanut bar with what’s underneath the TV as well as we have a cashew closet in the back and that’s where Mr. Peanut sleeps. He stays back there. Yeah, we get to travel with the one and only Mr. P. But that’s about a third of the vehicle. His bedroom.
Why did you pick here? Did you talk to Hollywood [Candy] ahead?
It’s, I mean when we’re in new cities, we just kind of asked people for recommendations. Honesty, the last class came here and they were like you have to check out candy store. It’s pretty cool…We love seeing cool things. And also, if you stop, you’re going [to] stop and eat candy too. I think we’re trying to help out the local businesses as well.
Nothing like being in the right place at the right time for some unexpected fun.
You never know what you will see in Omaha and this was definitely nutty-the Planters Nutmobile.
Thank you to “Cashew Katie” for the interview which will be posted later. Please come back later to read it.
For now the #Nutmobile!!!
Planters Nutmobile turns the corner and a scooter has fainted (lies sideways on the ground) from Nutmobile awesomness!Planters Nutmobile parked at its destination-Hollywood Candy in the Old Market
The outside is fun but what is the inside like?
Planters name and logo are embroidered on the gray seat backs in the interior of the NutmobileThe history of Planters’ logos adorn the ceiling of the interior of the NutmobileInterior of the Nutmobile with an outstretched hand holding a sticker that has the logo, a heart and the name Planters
Omaha Street Percussion is coming back middle of the day. They’ve been performing for us for several years. They’re a great performer and are very much interactive with the crowd. They generate a lot of excitement and energy. We’re excited about that. The pancake breakfast is back this year. New this year, one of the local Boy Scout troops is going to be running the pancake breakfast.
Are they volunteering or making the pancakes?
They’re making the pancakes. It’s a fundraiser for them. St. Cecilia is taking over our Kids Village. They do a fall carnival every year. And so, we’ve asked them to kind of do a mini carnival for the day. We’re excited about that. We are really excited about going from just having a collection of bounce houses to actually having something really interactive and growing that part of it. Music kicks off at four o’clock. Like we’ve been doing for the last few years, there’s no charge to come in. It’s family friendly, all ages.
What we do is, if you want to buy alcohol, you have to have a wristband. You get the wristband by doing an ID check which is $10. You pay $10 for the ID check to get your wristband. That’s basically a cover charge, if you want to drink, and covers our expenses. And that allows us to create a very family friendly, no gated admission, come and go as you please, great event. Music will go till midnight. It is nonstop from four to midnight, eight solid hours. While the main scheduled bands on the stage are changing out their equipment between sets, we have acoustic groups perform in between. So, like I said, it was nonstop. During the day we’ve got some poets from All Rights Reserved, which is the spoken word, high school teenage spoken word competition. They’re going to perform some of their work during the day. We get a little bit of everything. Really excited, about it.
We’ve got a phenomenal production team. We couldn’t do it without the production team. They’re a bunch of aces and they are always looking for new stuff to do and [the attitude is] “I can do that and I can do that.” It’s a lot of fun working with them. It makes my job very, very easy.
It’s very easy to see and from meeting you before and being around here, that Dundee is a wonderful neighborhood and that you have a great love for it as well. Tell me a little bit through your eyes about the neighborhood.
I was born in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and I spent most of my adult life in Atlanta. So, you know growing up as a kid, as a young adult, the idea of a small town was foreign to me. There is an area of Atlanta called Virginia Highlands. That is the Atlanta version. It is to Atlanta what Dundee is [to Omaha]. My wife and I always loved going into Virginia Highlands’ small shops and restaurants, but wasn’t necessarily you know, we didn’t live there. When we were first looking at moving to Omaha years ago, our first thought was [Dundee] was just like the Virginia Highlands. It’s a small town in a big town. All relative, right? What I have grown to love about Dundee is that- not that it doesn’t happen in other parts of Omaha -but for me, it happens here where I know a lot of the people on my street. I have great conversations. And through Dundee day, I’ve gotten to know merchants and have great interactions with them when I get a cup of coffee, go to the dentist, get my hair cut. You know, it’s all merchants that I interact with and treat me like and make me feel like a local. On Dundee Day, I see so many people that I know between my neighbors and my friends and my coworkers and the merchants and it just becomes one big friendly neighborhood party. So, the quality-of-life element there is unmatched.
Tell me a couple of new things about Dundee Day. Anything else?
Dundee Draws is definitely our big thing, 150 vendors and the food truck park is definitely a new feature. And the rest of it is the classics we love. The pancakes are back. The used book sale is back. Some of our favorite vendors are back and [there are] a lot of great new vendors.
One of the things I came to notice last year that I am really proud of is the diversity of our booths, not just the subject matter, but so many of our booths are woman owned or the point of contacts are women. A lot of independent artists and crafters are women and minorities and it gives me personal satisfaction to know that our event is a comfortable place for those folks to come out and have their booths on display. So, that’s exciting. I mean Dundee and Omaha in general are definitely diverse and inviting compared to maybe to the rest of the state or the rest of the Midwest and so it’s neat that our festival mirrors our community.
As I understand that Dundee was its own city and then it became incorporated like many other things that we know on Omaha neighborhoods today, but you’ve definitely kept flavor of what you were saying earlier. How do you think that that’s been kept because a lot of places can’t always hold on to it?
I think for the longest time Dundee was one of the few neighborhoods that that had that history and that actively preserved it. There were the Dundee Memorial Park Association, the Neighborhood Association and the Dundee Merchants Association, and the Business Improvement District. Those were all established to make, create and maintain that sense of community within the neighborhood. So that we see things like the flower baskets in the neighborhood and we see things like the signs say welcome to historic Dundee. The hardscape and landscaping up and down Underwood, the improvements that have been made to the business district that all create a cohesiveness within the community. Now while other neighborhoods are doing that now, Dundee has been doing that for a long time. And I think [of] events like Dundee Days 30 years as an organized event. We’ve been doing this since the 90s. There are not that many other neighborhoods in Omaha that have an event that has gotten to that age, to that success.
So, I think that’s a big part of it. And then I just think it’s just the nature of it’s an environment that welcomes getting out and talking to your neighbors and walking from your house up to the ice cream parlor or walking to the gas station to get a soda and so that I know my neighbors when I’m doing yard work and they walk by we always hear or say hi to each other sometimes stop and chat. So, I just think it just builds that community, that small town feeling.
Thank you. Anything you want to add?
All the extended weather forecast signs all seem to be pointing towards a really nice day. Cross our fingers..
And toes…
We’re not going to wash our cars…We’re just going to hope for really good weather.
We have we have been very fortunate to have good weather, the last three or four years to every year more memorable than the previous and I think if weather holds out I think this is going to top it all.
Thank you.
Dundee Day could use additional volunteers to help set up and tear down the event.
Check out their website for more information and how to help.
Eric Kaplan sitting on a bench in Dundee with the Dundee clock in background
Please tell me about the upcoming Dundee Day.
This is our 30th event. It is technically our 31st year, but we skipped 2020, so we’re calling this our 30th event.
By all accounts, this is the largest Dundee Day that we’ve ever had. We have figured out how to put 150 booths in this two block stretch. So, folks are going to get cozy, but we’re going have 150 different vendors.
Wow.
That’s my goal. And we always have some no shows, but my goal – I’ve got people on wait list. Instead of having food trucks in line with all the vendor booths, we’re going to have the food trucks up in the KFAB parking lot. We’re going to create food court tables with umbrellas and … creating an actual destination. I’ve seen them called food truck parks and or pods, and so we’re going to create one like that for Dundee Day. We’ve got, you know, another great parade probably a good hour’s worth of participants in the parade. Fire trucks will be back. The vintage fire trucks will be here. 501st Legion is going to be here with some storm troopers. Central High marching band. New this year, we have an adult marching band that’s going to participate.
Dundee Dash is back this year. I think we’ve got over 50 applicants and entries.
Dundee Day started as basically sidewalk sales for the merchants, and it really became sort of an enhanced, a celebratory business promotion and from there it got more and more and more established and bigger. We added the parade.The event grew beyond just merchants, sidewalk sales and started including other vendors. And so, what we’ve been trying to do over the last three or four years is make it really an established part of the community, a community event. Something that a whole lot of people look forward to, not just the merchants with their sales. And we’ve been doing that consistently.
One of the things that we decided this year was we really wanted to really grow the art side and make it a more well-rounded festival and a real community. We initially were going to do a high school art exhibit, but with us being an early to mid-August festival, [it is] only a week or two after school starts. It really is a logistical challenge because we found that we would be telling high school students right before summer, and then telling them two weeks before the event right as they’re starting back to school, the whole class load and all that, we just weren’t getting traction.
So, I saw an event in Atlanta, called the Art Throwdown. It’s a competition. I call it interactive. So, we’re going do our version of the Art Throwdown called Dundee Draws.
An alliteration…
I love alliterations, and we have the Dundee Dash and Dundee Day and Dundee Draws. So, … there’s going to be two segments. There’s going to be a youth part and then an adult part/segment. Each segment will feature 12 artists. They will sit in a circle at 50th and Underwood, right in the heart of Dundee Day, and they will have a subject. They will have 30 minutes using the medium of their choice to draw that subject in any way they see fit. And at the end of that 30 minutes, we have a professional artist who’s going to judge and then somebody, either the subject themselves or somebody related to the subject will then have the opportunity to choose their favorite. Whether it’s the first place or not, they’ll choose their favorite. So, the subject for the segment is TJ Weiss, who works over here at Abe’s and is a very well-established member of our community of Dundee. He’s always helping people out. He’s always taking time out of his schedule to help merchants or to help residents and we kind of feel like this is sort of like a grand marshal kind of thing. It’s a way to celebrate him as a member of our community. And he’ll get a piece of art – custom drawn art.
The subject of the adult segment is going to be a custom-creative-floral piece by a company called Fresh Floral, which is brand new. They’re up on Dodge and 50th, next to Dundee Theater. They are actually a retail outlet of a North Omaha community partnership. They are a new company. They bought Voila which was a for profit company and they are still going to do floral creations. They’re going to have florists on staff. Residents who go through their program can then work at Fresh Floral, learning from professional florists and learning a trade and learning alongside professional florists learning a skill and being able then to either continue working there or go work at another floral shop around town.
This reminds me of how No More Empty Pots does things. Is that the same group?
It’s not same group but it’s very similar. They’re a member of the Merchants Association. They’re a brand new nonprofit here in Omaha and they’re going to donate a piece in the center. And then their manager will have the opportunity to pick something that then they’ll take it have on display at their store. What’s really unique about it as I said, you’ve got 12 different artists, we will provide drawing boards and the paper they’re going to provide whether they want to do it in pencil or chalk or acrylic or oil or whatever, wherever their media of choice is they will provide that. So, you’ll have different media. You have 12 different artists. You’re going have different styles. And because they’re sitting in a circle around the subject, you’re going to have 12 different physical perspectives.
Somebody might be drawing the back of TJ said somebody’s going draw left profile and right profiles. Somebody’s going to have the Dundee clock in the background. Somebody’s going to have the Abe’s gas station in the background. So, they’re all going to have something different. And it’s a really neat as a spectator. It’s really neat experience to walk around the outside of the circle and look over their shoulder and see what their what they’re drawing. And, you know, different artists pick up different things. Some artists think that you know, a person’s eyes are the most valuable trait. And so, the image will be very much focused on your eyes. Some people think that [it’s] the facial hair or the beard or chin or something. So everybody has a different style and it’s a really neat experience to see that happening within 30 minutes. Right in front of you and we’re really excited about that. I think this is going to be something that will become a fixture, again and again. It’s a great way to grow the art part of what we do.
How did you come up with the idea to have it sort of live instead of submission?
It’s based on this Art Throwdown event that I’ve watched down in Atlanta. The Art Throwdown actually is so popular that they have, I think it’s four to six categories. And they actually say okay, this is going to be, you know, pencil drawn or this is going to be modern art style. So, they separate by style. So, you get a little bit of similarities to it. We’re not quite that big ,yet. Yeah, the live drawing event; it makes it again, an interactive part of the event.
Yes, that’s something that could be just very static and people just walked by, but now it is an event itself.
Up this week are Dundee Days (Saturday), Opening of the Heartland of America Park (Friday) Omaha’s Original Greek Festival (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and the Polish Festival(Sunday)!
Visit back later for more details and stories.
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If you have an event you would like us to cover, please email us at info@omahanebraska.com
A huge crowd came out to support Terence Crawford and welcome him back to Omaha.
Add to that great parade and celebration, Mayor Stothert announced the Omaha City Council to vote on “selling” property near the B&B Gym to Terence Crawford for $1 to expand his gym!
Here are some photographs from the event:
Announcement by MayorTerence Crawford receiving the large poster that says, ” Bill of Sale”Terence Crawford Making a Speech
