Not too far from here is the
Whistle - Stop Café. If you've ever been in a small town
you've been here. It's a comfortable place: a familiar place
where bacon and eggs is always served with a side order of news
and a large helping of gossip.
I was just a kid when I first
walked through that door with the shiny brass handle. It was
so big, my hand barely fit around it. But the Whistle - Stop,
well it was here a long time before I arrived on the scene. As
a matter of fact, it has been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner
for more than a century, and it never fails that when I push
open that door and step on the wooden planks of its old squeaky
floor that the place makes me feel right at home. It always invites
me to sit down and listen - it has a story to tell.
Why don't you come with me today?
Pull up a chair and have a cup of that hot black coffee in a
mug with a picture of "Old 47" on it, that old steamer
that was the first train to bring customers to the depot next
door.
It all began when Tommy and Mimi
Diamond took the train as far as it went back in 1859: got off
and proceeded to build the Whistle - Stop Café among a
beautiful grove of elm trees right next door to the depot.
They left Philadelphia with $280
that Tommy inherited and decided to make a dream come true. Folks
did that sort of thing in those days. I guess you'd call him
a dreamer but he just wanted to run his own café.
Mimi sewed the red and white
curtains for the windows and even fixed curtains for the doors.
Because it was such a plain door with an old black knob that
was pretty loose from wear, she wanted to doll it up a bit. They
got it from a nearby farmhouse that was being torn down. Mimi
was secretly embarrassed by such a crude door for their place,
but she never mentioned it to Tommy.
When they were ready, they opened
the door and waited for four days. Not a soul came to eat. They
thought they had done everything right. They met people and each
one seemed genuinely glad to have a restaurant in town. The Whistle
- Stop was the only real café for miles around. Yet, there
it sat, with a big sign that proclaimed its grand opening and
American flags everywhere. But it lay silent as a tomb, with
just the hot summer wind as its only visitor.
Even folk's gettn' off the train
didn't stop in. Twice a week the train stopped at the depot,
but not a customer was among them. They were all just too busy
to get where they were going to stop for something to eat.
I don't have to tell you that
Tommy and Mimi were mighty discouraged. But fate was on their
side after all. You see, they opened the café during August,
the hottest and muggiest time of the year. That one fact was
enough to assure the success of the Whistle - Stop. In those
days, the train had the practice of serving cold beer to men
patrons. It seems that two of the gentlemen passengers had become
quite thirsty as the hot air blasted through the open windows
of "Old 47".
They began their conversation
in a civilized manner on the big topic of the day-secession from
the Union. Wouldn't you know it; those two had different opinions
on the subject. Well, after a few cold ones got into the conversation
things got a little hotter between them and they decided to conclude
their discussion when the train stopped at the depot.
Word spread throughout the train that these two gentlemen were
going to resolve their differences with fisticuffs.
Tommy and Mimi were outside the
Whistle - Stop as the train steamed to a squealing stop. They
were just about ready to do what they did every time the train
stopped, that is, they were going to invite people to come in
and relax. The passengers piled out of "Old 47" like
there was a fire on board and they moved to the front of the
Whistle - Stop like they were all tied together, all of them
talkin' at the same time about the fight that was about to commence.
Tommy and Mimi looked at each other in amazement. They couldn't
understand a word but Mimi decided that it was a miracle and
was about ready to start talking orders.
But then, everybody hushed and
all eyes turned back to the train as the two small, but wiry
antagonists stepped off the Old 47 one right after the other
into that hot afternoon sun. They straightened their jackets
and their ties, flaunting there newly gained fame as much as
drunken men could. They doffed their hats to the crowed which
came forth with cheer and boos with the same collective breath,
they gave their hats to a very confused Mimi, they then informed
Tommy that he was the designed referee.
Tommy protested, although he
didn't really know what he was protesting until the first punch
was thrown. The crowd of about fifty divided itself into sides
with those for and those against secession on opposite sides,
although the children that had climbed those elm trees didn't
know what sides they were suppose to root for so they yelled
for and against both of the men.
There was Tommy in the middle
with the two men who had consumed far too much to drink and by
now were swinging wildly at each other but coming closer to slugging
Tommy than each other.
Tommy made the mistake of trying
to be peacemaker instead of referee. Not only did people boo
him, but both of the fighters
took swings at him.
Now, you have to know that Tommy
was no small man. He was a good three inches taller then the
two men and outweighed them considerably. He could have stopped
them anytime and almost did, when Mimi understanding the business
opportunity when she saw one, whispered to Tommy that he should
let them fight unless someone was going to get hurt.
The two men did a lot more rolling
around in the dirt and hugging each other than throwing punches
and before long they were exhausted and as dusty as hogs. Just
when Tommy thought they were finished, they started up again
and wouldn't you know they flung themselves at the door to the
Whistle - Stop and broke down that door and ended up on the floor
amid pieces of wood.
A very angry Tommy had had enough.
He picked those rascals off his shiny new oak floor and sat them
down at a table. Everybody came rushing in to see what was going
to happen next.
Tommy didn't miss a beat. He
looked those characters right in the eyes and said: "Congratulations
Gents, you two just became my first customers!"
Somebody in the crowd laughed,
and forced his way to a table, then somebody else did, and before
you know it, the place was packed with customers. For the next
two hours, Tommy and Mimi were busy as they could be, cookin'
and servin' and cleanin' up. And last I forgot, they were makin'
money, too.
There was some pretty lively
talk about secession that day, but there weren't anymore fights,
ever, in the Whistle - Stop Café.
After a while the two men that
had broken the door sobered up enough to realize what they had
done and promised to get a new door. It turned out that one of
those gentlemen was a carpenter and the other was a hardware
salesman. By noon the next day the Whistle - Stop had the fanciest
door within a hundred miles and a huge brass door handle and
lock that put the one on the governor's mansion to shame. That
door with its big handle is on the Whistle - Stop even today.
Every morning that Mimi walked
through that door to open the Whistle - Stop, she smiled and
thanked God for beer.
Of course, now it's a tradition
for people to stop in for a little while everyday to hear the
latest, but you might say that the Whistle - Stop had to earn
that tradition the hard way.
Unfortunately, talk of secession
would, two years later, become all too real. Young men would
choose up sides again and leave the depot and Whistle - Stop
for the last time to fight in this country's greatest internal
struggle, the so-called "Civil" War. But that's another
story the Whistle - Stop Café tells, and if you have the
time maybe you can come again and give a listen. As always, the
Whistle - Stop is eager to tell a good story.
