2005 Howe grad opens new restaurant in Sherman

After his dreams of professional football and acting fell through, Nelson went to work.

"I've worked everywhere I've had a ton of jobs and mostly as a waiter" said Nelson "I went in to broadcasting and tried to get in to radio I've probably been to six different colleges and I've always been working as a waiter or a cook to make it through college because I don't come from a background of money"

One of the first customers of Texas Real Burger was none other than Dale Rideout.

TJ Nelson once had big goals as a Howe Bulldog football and basketball player, but now his biggest goal is making Texoma's best burger.

"Being a hometown boy, it's my goal is to win Texoma's Best Burger" said Nelson "I've got some backers that are supporting me financially and anything I need, they are jumping at the ideas."

One of those ideas is for his business called Texas Real Burger is to have a state fair style of food menue items He is looking at installing a kids funnel cake bar Nelson says that the cost of the funnel cake bar is $8,000 but wants the kids to have an experience of making their own funnel cakes.

Nelson, a 2005 graduate of Howe High School says that he had promise in high school and was involved in nearly every sport as well as drama, one act play and band He says that he went through some hard times late in high school because of a split between his parents.

"I got in some trouble my senior year and got kicked out of everything " said Nelson "God does everything for a reason "

Nelson says that he always wanted to be famous, and in the circle of Chilis Grill and Bar, he achieved that status by winning "Margarita Madness" twice in seven years which was a world-wide competition within the organization to sell the most margaritas Nelson, a constant talker, salesman and pitchman easily found success in the company

After his Chilis career took him to locations in Hollywood, Lubbock, Austin, Bosier City, Shreveport as well as North Texas, Nelson says that his first break came in Anna, Texas when Daddy Rex's Twisted BBQ offered him the position to head up marketing and sales continued on Page #9 continued from Page #1

It was determined that the event should return to its normal May time of year and will once again be held on the second Saturday in May.

In 2014, the vendors said that they wanted to make the day longer and had hoped that Founders Day could be extended beyond noon Keep Howe Beautiful granted their wish and held the 2015 version to 6pm and even added two live music shows, but neither seemed to gather much attention from the community as neither were well attended

The Keep Howe Beautiful 5K Mud Run was postponed until May 23 due to heavy rain that made even the mud run too muddy

The organizations decided to keep it a family friendly event with more events suited for children. The ideas of bounce houses and dunking booths as well as the successful new events, such as horse shoes and lawnmower races

While the name Founders Day is a growing trend in communities, it is hard to market outside of the community and therefore the organizations have added the word festival to the end of it and will promote the 2016 version as "The 30th Annual Howe Founders Day Festival "

Live music will also be featured in next year's festival but will be moved up much earlier in the day. The approximate ending in 2016 will be 3pm at the latest.

Both organizations, which are either relatively new or brand new, will have larger budgets next year and will be able to advertise more throughout the region instead of just in the city Also discussed were making two large banners that hang over Haning Street One would be located in front of Quick Check and one upon entering downtown

Car show enthusiasts have offered help to make the Howe Fire Department's annual event run at top speed, so to speak With the help of Roger Brown and others, the scheduling issue will not happen in the future and the event will return to being a large fundraiser for the department.

The Howe Area Chamber of Commerce announced that they will have their first evening mixer in the new downtown office The event will be held at 6:30 on Thursday, May 28 They also discussed various other events coming up such as the "Back to School Blues Downtown Block Party" and a masquerade ball around Halloween

More information can be found on each of the organizations Facebook pages as well as howechambercom