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Mr Wonderful and I are frequent visitors to The Florabama, which is known as the Refneck Riviera. We have spent many wonderful hours drinking Bushwackers and Bloody Mary’s, alone and with friends, watching the waves roll in. Every year they have one of the world’s largest beach parties, the Mullet Toss, where people come from all over the world.
One day I walked in and immediately stopped at Chris Warner’s table…books…
Saved at the Alabama Florida Line jumped right off the table and into my hands. I loved signed copies and bought two books, hoping to see him again some time and buy more.
Have you every visited The Florabama on the Gulf Coast?
MY REVIEW
I love books that take place in a familiar location and Saved at the Alabama Florida Line by Chris Warner describes the place perfectly. I have visited The Florabama many times and we always take any visitors we have to share a cocktail and enjoy the view.
I walked into Florabama one day, me and Mr Wonderful were there for our Florabama fix and a delicious Bushwacker. I walked in the door and saw Chris Warner with his books and I immediately snatched a couple, getting them both autographed. With Covid going on, my hope to see him again and grab some more books from him went out the window.
All that being said, Saved at the Alabama Florida Line brought back memories of when I first moved to Alabama. I packed my dog and everything that would fit in my car and I drove to….Alabama.
I have visited the Redneck Riviera many times, I worked at Trinity’s and have the T shirts and sweat shirts to prove it, bought my first Mardi Gras ball gown at a small specialty shop in Fairhope, went to a party for the Kenny Stable Golf Tourney at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, spent a Mullet Toss weekend on Ono Island, have traveled 65 to 59 into Bay Minette and on to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, had a cocktail at Pink Pony Pub and bought the sweat shirt (it was chilly that day), went to a Jimmy Buffet concert on the Gulf Coast to raise awareness of the BP oil spill.
I remember my first glimpse of the white, sugary sands of Florida and thought, oh man, that looks so much like snow. It’s hard to describe unless you see it and walk through it yourself.
We travel from Point Clear to Seville Quarter here in Pensacola, with many stops along the way, enjoying cocktails, music and fun. After a little bit of partying, the Waffle House is a must stop to soak up the alcohol. Luckily, there is one right across the street from The Florabama.
Saved at the Alabama Florida Line has so many factual truths with a love story on the side. Who knows how many people have met there and gone on to have a love story of their own. I personally know of one couple, a good friend of ours and a woman we met at the Mullet Toss are still going strong years later. Ya just never know.
I loved traveling down memory lane, especially because I cannot be there due to Covid. I miss those moments of relaxation, with no cares, now worries. I long for those times and maybe a reread is in order because it will be a long time before I step through the doors again.
GOODREADS
Johnny Glass has had it with Nashville. Its many posers, pimps and politicians preyed on him for four difficult years, leaving him disheartened. A talented, struggling singer-songwriter, he still yearns to make a living doing what he loves, writing and singing songs. A former band mate lives in a broken down Airstream camper on the Florida-Alabama State line near the sparkling Gulf of Mexico—for free. Playing music and singing songs at the world-famous Flora-Bama Lounge and Package Store on the beach is his everyday gig. Johnny has a standing offer to join his buddy anytime, as the owner of the place is a lover of singer-songwriters, and could certainly use someone with his skills.
Lucy Whitman is a sophomore debutante at the University of South Alabama and the privileged daughter of an Alabama State Senator. Uninterested in her life as a university student and sorority girl, Lucy tilts to the wild side on the weekends where she sings, unbeknownst to her overbearing parents, in a bona fide honky-tonk band at America’s Last Great American Roadhouse, the Flora-Bama. Instead of planned summer school, she has decided to spend the entire tourist season singing; and if it goes well, she likely won’t go back to South.
For Johnny and Lucy, it’s love at first sight. Through joined artistry their relationship grows, and they become a popular on-stage duo. They enjoy each other and the creative fulfillment the partnership brings. However, Lucy’s mother and powerful father want nothing of their daughter playing a honky-tonk joint in Orange Beach. After gently trying to win her favor, they make their strongest, connected attempt toward altering her brazen life path; and it has devastating consequences—not only for Lucy’s music, but for everyone living on Pleasure Island: The beloved Flora-Bama may be shuttered—for good.
Lucy’s father uses his political connections to deploy an army of state government agents against the beach bar, trumping up dozens of unfounded charges resulting in its indefinite closure. Already in financial trouble stemming from bad outside investments, a great recession and an unprecedented manmade environmental disaster, the bar cannot afford to be closed during the lucrative tourist season.
Johnny and Lucy, the locals and the rest of the musicians join forces with the Flora-Bama’s loveable owner and come up with a plan to save the quintessential beach bar, and the community it faithfully supports. In doing so, Johnny and Lucy realize the grand futility of commercial success, and the bountiful wealth they already possess—from living and enjoying life, making music and many friends, in a beautiful, unforgettable place like no other.
Saved at the Alabama-Florida Line is a romantic, satirical tale of forbidden love that seeks to draw semblance to Southern living, art, failed politics and pop culture.
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