Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg Page B
Authors: Fannie Flagg
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snarled over at Big George.
"Look, there's another nigger that's got hisself all cut up in a knife fight." The other called out, "Hey! You better get yourself over to the nigger hospital, boy."
His friend with the missing front tooth and the crossed eye spit, hitched up his pants, and swaggered on down the street.
JUNE 24, 1936
Tragedy Strikes in Front of Cafe
I am sorry to report that Idgie's and Ruth's little boy lost his arm last week while playing on the tracks in front of the cafe. He was running alongside of the train when he slipped and fell on the tracks. The train was traveling about forty miles an hour, Conductor Barney Cross said.
He is still over at the hospital in Birmingham, and although he lost a lot of blood, he is fine and will be home soon.
That makes a foot, an arm, and an index finger we have lost right here in Whistle Stop this year. And also, the colored man that was killed, which just says one thing to us, and that is that we need to be more careful in the future. We are tired of our loved ones losing limbs and other things.
And I, for one, am tired of writing about it.
. . . Dot Weems . . .
FEBRUARY 23, 1986
Mrs. Threadgoode was enjoying the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that Evelyn had brought and reflecting back to what seemed to be her favorite period, the time when all the trains were running past her house.
But something she had said the week before interested Evelyn, and her curiosity got the best of her.
"Mrs. Threadgoode, did you say that Idgie and Ruth had a little boy?"
"Oh yes, Stump, and you never saw a more manly little fella. Even when he lost his arm."
"Good Lord, what happened?"
"He fell off one of the trains and had his arm cut off, right above the elbow. His real name was Buddy Threadgoode, Jr., but they called him Stump 'cause all he had left was a little stump of an arm. Cleo and I went to see him in the hospital, and he was just as brave, didn't cry, didn't feel sorry for himself. But then Idgie raised him that way, to be tough and take hard knocks.
“She went over to see her friend who owned the tombstone place and had him make up a baby tombstone that had carved on it:
HERE LIES BUDDY JR’S ARM
1929-1936
SO LONG OLD PAL
She put it out in the field behind the cafe, and when he got home, she took him out there and they made a big to-do about having this funeral for his arm. Everybody came. Onzell and Big George's children, Artis and Jasper, little Willie Boy and Naughty Bird, and all the neighborhood kids. Idgie had some Eagle Scout come out there and play 'Taps' on the bugle.
"Idgie was the first one to start calling him Stump, and Ruth near had a fit, said it was a mean thing to do. But Idgie said it was the best thing, so nobody would call him anything about it behind his back. She thought he might as well face up to the fact that he had an arm missing and not be sensitive about it. And she turned out to be right, because you never saw anybody that could do more with one arm . . . why, he could shoot marbles, hunt and fish, anything he wanted to. He was the best shot in Whistle Stop.
"When he was little and there was somebody new in the cafe, Idgie would bring him in and have him tell this long, tall tale about going fishing for catfish down on the Warrior River, and he'd get them all caught up in the story and then Idgie would say, 'How big was the catfish, Stump?'
"And he'd put out his arm, like the grown fisherman used to do to show how long the fish was, and he'd say, 'Oh, about that big.' And Idgie and Stump would laugh over the expressions on the people's faces, trying to figure out how long that fish was.
"Of course, now, I'm not saying he was a saint, he had his little temper fits, just like the other little boys. But in his whole life, the only time I ever knew him to complain or be upset is that one Christmas afternoon when we were all sitting around the cafe, drinking coffee and having fruitcake, when all of a sudden he started carrying on like
"Look, there's another nigger that's got hisself all cut up in a knife fight." The other called out, "Hey! You better get yourself over to the nigger hospital, boy."
His friend with the missing front tooth and the crossed eye spit, hitched up his pants, and swaggered on down the street.
JUNE 24, 1936
Tragedy Strikes in Front of Cafe
I am sorry to report that Idgie's and Ruth's little boy lost his arm last week while playing on the tracks in front of the cafe. He was running alongside of the train when he slipped and fell on the tracks. The train was traveling about forty miles an hour, Conductor Barney Cross said.
He is still over at the hospital in Birmingham, and although he lost a lot of blood, he is fine and will be home soon.
That makes a foot, an arm, and an index finger we have lost right here in Whistle Stop this year. And also, the colored man that was killed, which just says one thing to us, and that is that we need to be more careful in the future. We are tired of our loved ones losing limbs and other things.
And I, for one, am tired of writing about it.
. . . Dot Weems . . .
FEBRUARY 23, 1986
Mrs. Threadgoode was enjoying the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that Evelyn had brought and reflecting back to what seemed to be her favorite period, the time when all the trains were running past her house.
But something she had said the week before interested Evelyn, and her curiosity got the best of her.
"Mrs. Threadgoode, did you say that Idgie and Ruth had a little boy?"
"Oh yes, Stump, and you never saw a more manly little fella. Even when he lost his arm."
"Good Lord, what happened?"
"He fell off one of the trains and had his arm cut off, right above the elbow. His real name was Buddy Threadgoode, Jr., but they called him Stump 'cause all he had left was a little stump of an arm. Cleo and I went to see him in the hospital, and he was just as brave, didn't cry, didn't feel sorry for himself. But then Idgie raised him that way, to be tough and take hard knocks.
“She went over to see her friend who owned the tombstone place and had him make up a baby tombstone that had carved on it:
HERE LIES BUDDY JR’S ARM
1929-1936
SO LONG OLD PAL
She put it out in the field behind the cafe, and when he got home, she took him out there and they made a big to-do about having this funeral for his arm. Everybody came. Onzell and Big George's children, Artis and Jasper, little Willie Boy and Naughty Bird, and all the neighborhood kids. Idgie had some Eagle Scout come out there and play 'Taps' on the bugle.
"Idgie was the first one to start calling him Stump, and Ruth near had a fit, said it was a mean thing to do. But Idgie said it was the best thing, so nobody would call him anything about it behind his back. She thought he might as well face up to the fact that he had an arm missing and not be sensitive about it. And she turned out to be right, because you never saw anybody that could do more with one arm . . . why, he could shoot marbles, hunt and fish, anything he wanted to. He was the best shot in Whistle Stop.
"When he was little and there was somebody new in the cafe, Idgie would bring him in and have him tell this long, tall tale about going fishing for catfish down on the Warrior River, and he'd get them all caught up in the story and then Idgie would say, 'How big was the catfish, Stump?'
"And he'd put out his arm, like the grown fisherman used to do to show how long the fish was, and he'd say, 'Oh, about that big.' And Idgie and Stump would laugh over the expressions on the people's faces, trying to figure out how long that fish was.
"Of course, now, I'm not saying he was a saint, he had his little temper fits, just like the other little boys. But in his whole life, the only time I ever knew him to complain or be upset is that one Christmas afternoon when we were all sitting around the cafe, drinking coffee and having fruitcake, when all of a sudden he started carrying on like
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