
DATE: Tuesday, November 11, 1997            TAG: 9711110234

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   70 lines

MR. PEANUT TURNS HEADS AS HE VISITS BIRTHPLACEPLANTERS' ICON, NOW 81, IS PEDALING HIS WAY TO MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE.

Most people his age are settled into retirement.

But not Mr. Peanut.

After 81 years of promoting Planters Peanuts, he's embarked on a whole new career.

The monacled man in top hat and white gloves is promoting the health benefits of eating peanuts. If he talked, he'd likely say he owes his youthful vigor to the product.

Through a spokesman, as he pedals along on a cross-country biking tour, Mr. Peanut is telling America that peanuts are cholesterol- and sodium-free, that the fat they do contain delivers high performance energy and that peanuts are packed with essential vitamins and minerals.

And the dapper fellow is still turning heads.

``I just can't see anything right today,'' a woman walking down Suffolk's Main Street said Monday morning, chuckling as she took off her glasses to make sure they were clean.

The pedestrian's gaze followed Mr. Peanut. On the back of a tandem road bike, he and his companion, U.S. National biking champion Ken Souza, made their way to a small city park to meet with Suffolk Mayor Thomas G. Underwood and other officials.

On Tour de Planters, Mr. Peanut and Souza left Manhattan Beach Pier, Calif., in early September. They are to arrive in Manhattan, N.Y., on Nov. 25, just in time for Mr. Peanut to appear for the first time in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The 12-week tour will cover 5,232 miles and pass through 23 states and 74 cities.

Mr. Peanut has been a Planters icon since he was first inspired in 1916 by a 14-year-old boy's sketch. Since the beginning, he's retained celebrity status. But only recently has Planters put him to promoting peanuts' nutrition.

His road companion, though, refused to bike through Virginia without stopping in the city of Mr. Peanut's birth, Souza said Monday.

``He is the main man; that's where all the gears are,'' Souza said, pointing toward the back seat of the bicycle, as a small crowd of admirers gathered around the celebrities.

The duo has averaged from 60 to 100 miles a day since beginning the trip, with a record of 155 miles in a single day, between Dodge City and Wichita, Kan. They have avoided interstate highways, staying on two- or four-lane roads. A 32-foot Mr. Peanut mobile travel trailer has followed along.

Everywhere they've gone, they've met with local officials, schoolchildren and fans, promoting bike safety and touting the benefits of eating peanuts.

``We've been eating peanuts the whole way,'' Souza said. And they've handed out nearly 34,000 pounds of them.

``All the nutritional facts about peanuts are coming to the forefront,'' said Ann Smith, spokeswoman for Nabisco, which owns Planters. ``This tour has been a grass-roots effort to spread the good news about nuts.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo above: GARY KNAPP; below: MICHAEL KESTNER/The

Virginian-Pilot

Mr. Peanut, wearing a crash helmet instead of his usual top hat, is

given an explanation of pre-processed peanuts, above, by Ken Thomas,

manager of operation at Planters' Suffolk plant. Below, 3-year-old

Courtney Lowers gets a hug and a Mr. Peanut doll from the big peanut

himself.

MICHAEL KESTNER/The Virginian-Pilot

Mr. Peanut and his cycling companion, Ken Souza, pedal past the new

courthouse construction on North Main Street in downtown Suffolk on

Monday morning. They expect to reach New York on Nov. 25, in time

for Mr. Peanut to appear for the first time in Macy's famed holiday

parade on Thanksgiving Day.