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 But up there, they are the most independent thinkers that you have ever

 seen. As we developed the Republican party in Alabama, I was what we

 called a regional coordinator. I had five counties. Winston County was

 one of my counties. Everybody in the Republican party said, "Oh, Tommy

 is really lucky, he's got a Republican county." But I had more damn

 trouble with those people, even thought the court house was controlled

 by: the Republicans. But they were very, very odd people. A very poor

 county, very low per capital income. But as independent as hell. You

 know, they refused cotton allotments, cotton subsidies and when they

 came along with the Soil Bank, they said, "Screw the federal government, "

 you know. I liked their thinking, they were as independent as hell, but

 they were also a little bit backward and they didn't keep up with the

 times. And still, I asked the state chairman in Alabama a month or so

 ago and it is still the same way. It's up on the Tennessee border, in

 the TVA area, very unusual. But during the Civil War, they didn't let

 the Confederate soldiers or the Yankee soldiers spend the night in the

 county. They took up arms and ran their ass off, both of them.

 W.D.V.: So, how did you get involved in Florida politics?

 Thomas: Well, I had been active all those years, I mean in Alabama, so

 in 1964, I lived in Bllnt County, which is the county bordering Birmingham.

 I was a ehevrolet dealer and I had been a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in

 Birmingham for nine years and had been real active in the party. And

 the Ford dealer in Antiana, the little town I moved to with Chevrolet,

 told me, I had been letting him have Mercuries and a Lincoln once in

 awhile when he needed them and he told me when I moved to this small town,

 he said, "When they find out that you are a Republican, nobody will trade

 with you." And I said, "Well, I hope that it's not that way, but it's

 too late for me to change, I've been a Republican all my life." And it


From the Southern Oral History Program, #4007, Interview 60 in the Southern Historical Collection,
University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill. FOR REFERENCE ONLY: PERMISSION TO
PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED. WARNING: MOST MANUSCRIPTS ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT.