for his blessing and support for their
dream, and he said, “Bucky’s right.
Y’all are so nice you’re gonna give it all
away.” However, Hugh supported them
nonetheless.
Without a building, Trish and
Shirley decided to stick to catering.
McCord’s belonged to the new owners,
so they needed a new name. “We knew
we wanted to do something Southern,”
Trish said. “Everybody asks me if I’m
from Alabama, and I’m not sure if
that’s a compliment or not.” One day,
driving past the tobacco, cotton, and
onion fields of Vidalia, Trish’s daughter
Emily was thinking and said out loud,
“Southern Fields.” Trish asked, “What
are you talking about?” Emily replied,
“The name for you and Shirley—
Southern Fields,” and the dream
suddenly had a name.
Shirley, asleep in her bed at
midnight, got a phone call from Trish
saying, “Flo! There’s an empty building
in Lyons that already has equipment.
We could cater out of there.” By
the middle of July 2017, they found
themselves standing in a building and
saying, “This would be a cute little
sandwich shop.” Trish remembers, “We
just looked at each other and said, ‘You
want to?’ That’s how it happened. That
simple.”
It was six weeks of hard work,
cleaning, and remodeling by Trish and
her son Kyle before they hosted a soft
opening for a few of Trish’s friends from
21st Century. The quaint space with
three tables, a pendant-lit, four-stool
bar, and a large porch with outside
seating was the epitome of comfort and
cozy. Their friends loved it, but they
asked themselves, “Will our customers
feel the same way?”
For Trish and Shirley, Southern
Fields was a dream as old as their
friendship, but recently it had come
to serve a new purpose. Trish’s second
dream was for her and her husband
Johnny Mac to give Emily the best
senior year of high school they could
financially provide and to pay for
Emily’s associates degree at East
Georgia and then for pharmacy school
at South University in Savannah.
Trish says, “Emily has been blessed
to have been on the homecoming
court four years, but being her senior
year, it was different. As soon as I saw
Emily in her homecoming dress, I
broke down. I’ve cried more this year
than I probably have in my whole
life.” Between homecoming and
prom dresses, cheerleading fees, and
senior pictures, Trish joked, “Emily
is so expensive! Shirley and Emily’s
godmother, Mandy Varnadoe, made her
high maintenance, but at least they
help me pay for her.”
August 24th, 2017, was opening
day, or the day Trish and Shirley refer
to as “Test Run.” Shirley said, “It was a
test! We fed almost 200 people that day,
and we didn’t even do any advertising.”
With Shirley at the register and Trish
and her neighbor Kelly running the
kitchen in the back, they took on wave
after wave of customers and barely
stopped to breathe.
Already, Trish and Shirley have
“regulars” like Ronnie and Carol
Stewart, who eat at Southern Fields
least three times a week, and Shirley
and Gerald White, who come every
morning for breakfast. “If they aren’t
here, we worry about them,” Trish says.
With a consistent breakfast and lunch
crowd, there have been days so busy,
Shirley has said, “Ethel, I’m about to
throw the phone out the window. We
can’t do no more orders! No More,”
which they both laugh about. Teasing
one another and constantly quipping,
Trish and Shirley have earned another
nickname: “The Spicy Sisters.”
Serving everything from fried
green tomato BLTs to crispy chicken
fingers to ten layer chocolate cake,
they keep customers coming back. One
day, Trish’s brother Bucky stopped by
Southern Fields for a surprise visit.
Trish says, “It wasn’t until he had been
sitting there for five minutes that I
looked up from the kitchen and noticed
he was there.” Seeing Trish and Shirley
in their element, Bucky said, “Y’all are
doing what you are supposed to do. It’s
really humbling the way I felt watching
you, Shirley, and Emily, all being crazy
busy . . . but you’re still laughing.”
Trish’s mother “Mama Dot” has had
her hand in the restaurant business
too. Trish said, “She’s been supportive
in everything I’ve ever done, and she
still is.” Trish laughed saying, “She’ll
do anything we ask her to do, and she
gets mad because she wants to help
even more, but we won’t let her.” One
of Mama Dot’s famous recipes, her
Pimento Cheese, has a prominent spot
on the menu, but Mama Dot is still
the only one who can make it, so her
secret’s kept safe.
Trish and Shirley’s gift of hospitality
has flourished their whole lives and
stems from a long history of taking care
of others. They still are “mercy people.”
Trish and Shirley continue praying
and dreaming about what’s next, and
in the meantime, they are focused on
Emily, who Shirley considers to be just
as much her daughter as she is Trish’s.
“We have been very fortunate,” Trish
said. “The good Lord has provided for
us and has paid our bills. We couldn’t
ask for anything more, other than a
bigger building.” Trish and Shirley’s
dream is far from over, and it will
continue to grow as beautiful and farreaching
as Southern fields. TCM
84 Toombs County Magazine