Mr. B bags a friend

(TOM HAINES/GLOBE STAFF)

Mr. B eyed a customer standing at the window of his shiny, tiny cart parked between the road and the tracks in Clanton, Ala., a town at the center of the Heart of Dixie.

"Give him a big bag," he said to Lil' B, "to take up north."

Lil' B dipped into a hot pot of "green" peanuts boiled for a soft, salty taste known across the South.

Then Lil' B passed a tightly packed Ziploc bag of the peanuts out the window, and Mr. B waved off a 5-dollar bill.

"Nah," he said, "you just take those back home and enjoy 'em."