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Books and CD's  Sweet
Tea, Fried Chicken and Lazy Dogs is Bill Thompson’s first book. After many years of
writing his column “Front Porch Stories” for Our State Magazine, Bill
compiled a new collection of delightful and folksy essays that further explores his down home roots and the people who shaped
him into the character he is today. More than 55 stories touch on his observations and treasured memories,
including food, farming, music, family, and neighbors. These hilarious, insightful commentaries celebrate
the essence of rural and small-town life in North Carolina.
Pearl’s
Pork Palace and Other Stories from Flynn’s Crossing Flynns Crossing is a make-believe community
where “people care about you whether you want them to or not.” Meet Marie, proprietor of the
local beauty salon who has a brush with Elvis; Ervin, who runs for mayor even though the town doesn’t
have one; Lester, a young boy who experiences the harmony and discord of race relations;
and many others each told in the first person by the town’s residents. Of course, there’s Pearl,
a widow whose barbecue café burns down but the loving support of friends and her own insatiable appetite for North
Carolina’s greatest culinary gift (plus slaw and hush puppies) persuade her to rebuild. Quintessentially Southern, uniquely North Carolinian, this short-story collection
brings to life the amusements, tragedies, friendships, and antics found only in a small Tar Heel town and reacquaints readers
with folks many of us already know well—our families, neighbors, friends, and ourselves.
Backyards, Bow
Ties and Beauty Queens is a sequel to Sweet Tea, Fried Chicken and Lazy Dogs. Bill
offers another collection of more than 50 essays that explore his reflections on North Carolina and its people.
His warm commentaries – sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant – capture the essence of rural and small-town
life in North Carolina. Admittedly sometimes “semi-autobiographical”, Bill looks
back on his nearly forty years of being a part of hundreds of community celebrations and the people he has met along the way.
He occasionally even resorts to poetry to capture the feelings that are at once individual and collective: funerals,
festivals, church services and hunting expeditions. |
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The Eli McCorkadale
Sales Company is an audio recording of a one-man play Bill produced. (“You’d be surprised how many people
it takes to put on a one-man show!”) Eli is a “notions”
salesman who travels the back roads of North Carolina during the 1950s. At each little country store he tells stories that
he has collected, often assuming the role of the characters whose stories he tells. Among the stories are tales of the young
man who buys snuff as a Valentine gift, the recalcitrant mule who sets his wagon on fire, and Eli’s Irish grandfather
who urges his son to immigrate to America. Eli tells his story and even sings a song or two while entertaining
his customers as he casually sells his wares. |
