HIL CO 73 page 4

 as he would a $1,000,000 case. That was just Red. Red and I had a discussion
 about it and I said, Red, I do not want to practice for the rest of my life just on
 this type [of] law. I would like to expand and get into banking and finance and
 other fields. So, I filed a charter with the state to get a bank approved out of
 Brandon and got it approved just before we broke up, before the termination of
 our partnership, which was on friendly terms. Red and I both agreed it was the
 best thing to do. [The bank] opened January 5, 1961. I was sworn in as a
 member of the State Road Board on January 4, flew home, opened a bank the
 next day, Brandon State Bank.

B: When did you first get interested in the banking business?

C: That is where the money is. That is what whoever robbed banks said. They
 asked, why do you rob banks? He said, that is where the money is. That is not
 really true. Obviously, I had a feeling all along. There was one bank in Plant City
 at that time. A couple of others had been there, and they had gone broke during
 the Depression. The people around the bank were, although we lived way out in
 the country and went to town on Saturday nights and Saturday afternoons, my
 mother had gone to high school in Plant City and lived in Plant City and knew all
 these people. I got to know Mr. Arthur Boring, and he [was] the gentleman who
 was friendly with Judge [Brooker]. But it just occurred to me in the very beginning
 that banking had to be a good business, and Brandon, where we lived at that
 time, was a growing community. I felt like Brandon needed a bank. The First
 National Bank of Tampa said, well, all they need out there is a place to cash
 checks. So, I went to the Exchange Bank, which I did business with, and they
 said, well, we think it is ready for banking, and we would be glad to assist you;
 we will be the correspondent bank (which you have to have when you first open
 a bank anyway. All through the banking time you are open, you have
 correspondent banks.) It was an era and an area. The era was there, and the
 area was great, just growing. Today, it is unbelievable what is out there. When I
 filed the application in 1959, we had a group of people. It was a civic venture,
 really, of people in Brandon who wanted a bank. I became involved with them. At
 the first meeting, when it looked like we were going to be successful in getting a
 charter, we had an election. Let me go back a little bit. In order to get the
 subscribers, at that time, you only had to have $300,000 to start a bank. Today,
 the regulators would not even talk to you at less than $5,000,000, and that is the
 way it should be. But back then, $300,000 was worth, probably, $1,500,000 now.
 So it was enough capital. Brandon was not a rich community. It was a group of
 old farmers, an old farming section. On Saturday night, I would take a card-table
 and go down to the local hardware store, and next door was a local grocery
 store, and I would take subscriptions from people who wanted to subscribe to
 stock. That is how we got our subscribers. We got to the point where we had the
 $300,000, so we had a meeting to elect the officers and the board of directors.
 Frankly, I would have said, I sure would like to be elected secretary. That way, as
 secretary, I could be representing the bank at the same time. Well, as it turned