Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993                   TAG: 9306150237
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

A NUTTY THEME FOR SUFFOLK COULD BRING IN THE TOURISTS

He envisions peanut-shaped street lights, peanut flags and possibly a museum along Suffolk's main street, all honoring the crop that first put the city on the map.

The city is home to Planter's peanuts and a host of other peanut growers, processors and distributors.

"We have that something that is needed," Watson said. "We're just not using it . . . to reap the harvest that Suffolk deserves."

Watson, who founded the Peanut Society Association, believes tourists and new businesses will be attracted to the struggling downtown if the city uses the peanut as a marketing tool.

"He thinks Suffolk has gotten too far removed from what made us famous in the first place," said Robert Chisom, executive director of the Downtown Suffolk Association.

Watson favors a meeting hall downtown, a revolving restaurant and anything with a peanut theme, in the vein of the Hershey's Kisses street lights in Hershey, Pa., the home of Hershey's chocolate.