Martha Hawkins - Finding Marthas Place: My Journey Through Sin, Salvation, and Lots of Soul Food

My Journey Through Sin, Salvation, and Lots of Soul Food

MARTHA HAWKINS
with MARCUS BROTHERTON

Touchstone
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This work is a memoir. Certain names and characteristics have been changed, and some characters are composites.

Scripture quotations taken from: King James Version, The New International Version Colorado Springs: International Bible Society (19781984)

Copyright 2010 by Martha Hawkins and Marcus Brotherton

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Touchstone hardcover edition January 2010

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Designed by Ruth Lee-Mui

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hawkins, Martha.
Finding Marthas Place My journey through sin, salvation, and lots of soul food/by Martha Hawkins ; with Marcus Brotherton.
p. cm.
1. Hawkins, Martha. 2. Hawkins, MarthaPhilosophy. 3. Marthas Place. 4. African AmericansAlabamaMontgomeryBiography. 5. African American womenAlabamaMontgomeryBiography. 6. RestaurateursAlabamaMontgomeryBiography. 7. Divorced mothersAlabamaMontgomeryBiography. 8. Montgomery (Ala.)Biography. 9. Montgomery (Ala.)Race relations. I. Brotherton, Marcus. II. Title.
F334.M753 H394 2010 976.147063092 Bdc22 2009022945

ISBN 978-1-4391-3781-9
ISBN 978-1-4391-5590-5 (ebook)

To my mama and daddy,
Willie and Sallie Hawkins.

You never stopped believing in me.
Where would I be today without
your hope, prayers, and unending love?

SOME FOLKS HAVE TOLD ME they feel an actual tingle when they walk through the front door. Others simply say that when you step inside, someones apt to call you by name as like as not. Still others say theres some kinda magic around herebut I dont know nothing about that.

What I do know is that every day come late morning, maybe fifteen minutes before we open, I gather whoevers on shift in the kitchen with me, maybe Beryl and Rosalee, and we all hold hands family-style like were sitting around a lunch table at home, and we look upward. Thats what this restaurant is built on, cause thats all we know to do. We pray out loud, all at the same time, no shushing or uppityness when we talk to the good Lord. If another persons praying then the rest of us are pursing our lips and saying mmmmmm Amen and Thank you, Jesus and Yes, Lord let it be so. Every morning, thats how it goes.

I hope all this talk right up front about praying doesnt bother you. I know plenty of folks who aint praying folks, and if thats your story I aint here to convince you otherwise. I figure it takes plenty of courage to not be the praying kind, so the Lord bless you if thats the way you are. Still, I hope you dont mind getting prayed for beforehand if ever you come into my restaurant. Every morning were praying that these walls will bring peace to all inside. Were praying that our customers will know comfort and rest. And were praying for folks anywhere who might be feeling poorly or desperate or may be just in need of a smile. I dont think youll mind all that praying, if you think about it. In all my years yet, I aint heard nobody complain about getting prayed for, even if theyre not the praying kind.

So where do you find this restaurant? Well, if yall ever visit Montgomery, Alabama, be sure to head downtown to the old part of the city and hop aboard the Lunch Trolley Express. The ride is free and youll enjoy some good sights. The trolley takes you down Church Street past Troy University and the federal courthouse building; youll make a left jog onto Sayre Street, and youll stop right outside a restaurant where the sign in front reads MARTHAS PLACE RESTAURANT & CATERING SERVICE. When the weathers warm we keep an old wheelbarrow next to that sign with flowers blooming in it. Pinks and yellows and lavenders, and Im right proud of that sign, though its not getting any younger and I see it needs new paint again this year.

Truly, this old restaurant aint much to look at on the outside. But its got character, it rightly does. Its in the first house on a street of two-story, wood-sided houses. Weve got wood shutters on the windows and a big old wraparound porch out front. Across the street is a parking lot with a chain-link fence, and two down is a day care, and right next door youll see the Inner City Church of Christ, a tan brick building with six huge white-painted Greek columns out front. Those are our neighbors. Inside the restaurant is the main dining room that looks just like a living room with a fireplace and mantel and hardwood floors all weathered and worn. The artwork all shows rural Southern life, paintings of sharecroppers bringing in the cotton, of folks walking to church way out in the country, of folks having picnics in the fields.

Its a funny thing about this little old restaurant: it seems to have created quite a stir. I dont rightly understand it all myself. A newspaper recently described it like this: For dignitaries, movers and shakers, and people who simply want a great lunch, Marthas Place in Montgomery has become known as a mandatory place to eat.

Well, that sounds highfalutin to me, but its true that weve had our share of dignified folks walk through the door. In the entryway theres a picture of world heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield in a white shirt and tie placing an order here. Whoopi Goldberg, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Nell Carter, Macaulay Culkin, Angela Bassett T.D. Jakes, Kirk Franklintheyve all eaten the food from Marthas Place. Theres a picture of Ted Koppel and me arm in arm in the dining room. Lots of politicians have stopped by, even the governor of Alabama, and plenty of professional football players, business folk, artists, and musicians.

History is part of this place, too. Rosa Parks used to be a regular before she passed. Missus Parks was real soft-spoken, you never could imagine her being the cause of so much change. She always took corn bread muffins to go. CNN held the ceremonies for the fortieth anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott at Marthas Place.

Plenty of regular folks come here too. Everybodys welcome. They call what we serve up comfort food. If you walk through the front door at lunchtime youll smell turkey and dressing if its Wednesday, fried pork steak if its Thursday, barbecued pork if its Friday, and steak and gravy come Tuesdays. Mondays were closed because I usually cater Saturdays and often Sundays and then I need one day per week thats just a day for Martha. Any day of the week, youre also welcome to enjoy a big helping of Southern fried chicken, which aint no ordinary fried chicken neither. Its hot and juicy on the inside with tender, crisp outsides, and it aint never greasy. When you eat a piece of my fried chicken you can snap your fingers afterward. Then theres chicken and dumplings and collards and fried green tomatoes and pork chop casserole and baked ham and steamed rice and smothered cabbage and black-eyed peas. For dessert theres pound cake and apple cobbler and banana pudding and sweet potato pie and strawberry pie and more.