Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Online
Authors: Fannie Flagg
More praise for
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“Fannie Flagg is a first-class writer. This book is so much fun it makes me sick I missed the Depression.”
—Erma Bombeck
“A thoroughly entertaining comic novel.”
—Newsday
“Try to stop laughing.”
—Liz Smith
“Funny, high-spirited, and unabashedly sentimental.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Also by Fannie Flagg:
COMING ATTRACTIONS
FANNIE FLAGG’S ORIGINAL WHISTLE
STOP CAFE COOKBOOK
WELCOME TO THE WORLD, BABY GIRL!
STANDING IN THE RAINBOW
A REDBIRD CHRISTMAS
A Fawcett Book
lished by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1987 by Fannie Flagg
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Fawcett Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Fawcett is a registered trademark and the Fawcett colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Lewis Music Publishing Co., Inc.: Excerpts from the lyrics to “Tuxedo Junction” by Erskine Hawkins, William Johnson and Julian Dash. Lyrics by Buddy Feyne. Copyright 1939 by Lewis Music Publishing Co., Inc. Copyright renewed. All rights reserved.
Music Sales Corporation: Excerpt from the lyrics to “Smoke Rings,” lyrics by Ned Washington, music by H. E. Gifford. Copyright © 1932 (Renewed) by Dorsey Bros. Music, a division of Music Sales Corporation (ASCAP) and American Academy of Music. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Salvation Army: Excerpt from
The Salvation Army Songbook
. Copyright by the Salvation Army, New York, USA. Used by permission.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-97066
eISBN: 978-0-307-77665-5
This edition published by arrangement with Random House, Inc.
v3.1
FOR TOMMY THOMPSON
I would like to acknowledge the following people, whose encouragement and support have been invaluable to me in the writing of this book: First and foremost, my agent, Wendy Weil, who never lost faith; my editor, Sam Vaughan, for the care and attention he has given me, and who kept me laughing, even through rewrites; and Martha Levin, my first friend at Random House. Thanks to Gloria Safier, Liz Hock, Margaret Cafarelli, Anne Howard Baily, Julie Florence, James “Daddy” Hatcher, Dr. John Nixon, Gerry Hannah, Jay Sawyer, and Frank Self. Thanks to DeThomas/Bobo & Associates, for sticking with me during the lean times. Thanks to Barnaby and Mary Conrad and the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference, Jo Roy and the Birmingham Public Library, Jeff Norell, Birmingham Southern College, Ann Harvey and John Loque, Oxmoor House Publishing. A grateful thank you to my typist and right hand, Lisa McDonald, and to her daughter, Jessaiah, for being quiet and watching
Sesame Street
while her mother and I were working. And my special thanks go to all the sweet people of Alabama, past and present. My Heart. My Home.
I may be sitting here at the Rose Terrace Nursing Home, but in my mind I’m over at the Whistle Stop Cafe having a plate of fried green tomatoes
.
—MRS. CLEO THREADGOODE
JUNE 1986
JUNE 12, 1929Cafe Opens
The Whistle Stop Cafe opened up last week, right next door to me at the post office, and owners Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison said business has been good ever since. Idgie says that for people who know her not to worry about getting poisoned, she is not cooking. All the cooking is being done by two colored women, Sipsey and Onzell, and the barbecue is being cooked by Big George, who is Onzell’s husband.
If there is anybody that has not been there yet, Idgie says that the breakfast hours are from 5:30–7:30, and you can get eggs, grits, biscuits, bacon, sausage, ham and red-eye gravy, and coffee for 25¢.
For lunch and supper you can have: fried chicken; pork chops and gravy; catfish; chicken and dumplings; or a barbecue plate; and your choice of three
vegetables, biscuits or cornbread, and your drink and dessert—for 35¢.
She said the vegetables are: creamed corn; fried green tomatoes; fried okra; collard or turnip greens; black-eyed peas; candied yams; butter beans or lima beans.
And pie for dessert.
My other half, Wilbur, and I ate there the other night, and it was so good he says he might not ever eat at home again. Ha. Ha. I wish this were true. I spend all my time cooking for the big lug, and still can’t keep him filled up.
By the way, Idgie says that one of her hens laid an egg with a ten-dollar bill in it.
… Dot Weems …
