Read Online Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg - Free Book Online Page B

her, “And in the meantime, you get yourself some Stresstabs Number Ten!”
    “Number Ten!”
    “Yes! Number Ten!”

JUNE 8, 1935
Drama Club Has Hit
    The Whistle Stop Drama Club put on their annual play Friday night, and I want to say, Good work, girls. The name of the play was
Hamlet
, by the English playwright Mr. William Shakespeare, who is no stranger to Whistle Stop because he also wrote last year’s play.
    Hamlet was played by Earl Adcock, Jr., and his sweetheart was played by Dr. Hadley’s niece, Mary Bess, who is visiting us from out of town. In case you missed the play, she ends up killing herself in the end. I am sorry to report that I had trouble hearing her, but then, I think the child is too young to travel, anyway.
    The roles of Hamlet’s mother and daddy were played by Reverend Scroggins and Vesta Adcock, who is president of the Drama Club and, as we all know, Earl Jr.’s real mother.
    Music for the production was provided by our own Essie Rue Limeway, who made the sword fighting scene all the more exciting.
    By the way, Vesta says that next year’s show will be a pageant that she is writing, entitled,
The History of Whistle Stop
, so if anyone has any, send it to her.
     … Dot Weems …

JANUARY 26, 1986
    Evelyn stopped just long enough to say a polite hello to her mother-in-law and headed on back to the lounge, where her friend was waiting.
    “Well, how are you today, honey?”
    “Fine, Mrs. Threadgoode. How are you?”
    “Well, I’m fine. Did you ever get yourself some of those Stresstabs like I told you?”
    “I sure did.”
    “Did they help?”
    “You know, Mrs. Threadgoode, I think they have.”
    “Well, I’m glad to hear it.”
    Evelyn started digging in her purse.
    “Well, what you got in there today?”
    “Three boxes of Raisinettes for us, if I can find them.”
    “Raisinettes? Well, that ought to be good.”
    She watched Evelyn as she searched. “Honey, aren’t you afraid you’ll get ants in your purse, carrying all those sugary, sweet things in there?”
    “Well, I never really thought about it,” Evelyn said, and found what she was looking for, plus a box of Junior Mints.
    “Thank you, honey, I just love candy. I used to love Tootsie Rolls, but, you know, those things can pull your teeth out if you’re not careful—a Bit-O-Honey will do the same thing!”
    A black nurse named Geneene came in, looking for Mr. Dunaway to give him his tranquilizers, but there were only the two women sitting in the room, as usual.
    After she left, Mrs. Threadgoode made the observation of how peculiar it seemed to her that colored people came in so many different shades.
    “Now, you take Onzell, Big George’s wife … she was a pecan-colored woman, with red hair and freckles. She said it nearly broke her momma’s heart when she married George, because he was so black. But she couldn’t help it, said she loved a big black man and George was sure the biggest and blackest man you ever saw. Then Onzell had the twin boys and Jasper was light like her, and Artis was so black he had blue gums. Onzell said she couldn’t believe that something that black had come out of her.”
    “Blue gums?”
    “Oh yes, honey, and you cain’t get any blacker than that! And then next, here comes Willie Boy, as light as she was, with green eyes. Of course, his real name was Wonderful Counselor, named right out of the Bible, but we called him Willie Boy.”
    “Wonderful Counselor? I don’t remember that. Are you sure that’s from the Bible?”
    “Oh yes … it’s in there. Onzell showed us the very quote: ‘And he shall be called wonderful counselor.’ Onzell was a very religious person. She always said if anything was starting to get her down, all she had to do was to think of her sweet Jesus, and her spirit would rise, just like those buttermilk biscuits she baked. And then came Naughty Bird, as black as her daddy, with that funny nappy hair, but she didn’t have blue gums …”
    “Don’t