Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Bay Boy: Stories of a Childhood in Point Clear, Alabama
    Bay Boy: Stories of a Childhood in Point Clear, Alabama
    Bay Boy: Stories of a Childhood in Point Clear, Alabama
    Ebook149 pages1 hour

    Bay Boy: Stories of a Childhood in Point Clear, Alabama

    By Watt Key, Murray Key and John S. Sledge

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A charming, humorous, and colorful coming-of-age memoir

    Bay Boy is a collection of essays by award-winning young adult author Watt Key, chronicling his boyhood in Point Clear, Alabama. During his childhood, Point Clear was not the tony enclave of today with  its spas, art galleries, and multimillion dollar waterfront properties.  Rather, it was a sleepy resort community, practically deserted in the winter, with a considerable population of working-class residents.
    As Key notes in his introduction, “Life in Point Clear is really about being  outside. . . . I have never found a place so perfectly suited to exercise  a young boy’s imagination.” Key and his brother filled their days  collecting driftwood to make forts, scooting around the bay in a sturdy  Stauter boat, and making art and writing stories when it rained.

    In a tone that is simple and direct, punctuated by truly hilarious  moments. Key writes about Gulf Coast traditions including Mardi Gras, shrimping, fishing, dove hunting, jubilees, camping out, and bracing for hurricanes. These stories are full of colorful characters— Nasty Bill Dickson, a curmudgeonly tow-truck driver; I’llNeeda, a middle-aged homeless woman encamped in a shack across the road; and the Ghost of Zundel’s Wharf, “the restless soul of a long-dead construction worker.” The stories are illustrated by charming and evocative artwork by the author’s brother Murray Key.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity Alabama Press
    Release dateOct 1, 2019
    ISBN9780817392635
    Bay Boy: Stories of a Childhood in Point Clear, Alabama
    Author

    Watt Key

    Albert Watkins Key, Jr., publishing under the name Watt Key, is an award-winning southern fiction author. He grew up and currently lives in southern Alabama with his wife and family. Watt spent much of his childhood hunting and fishing the forests of Alabama, which inspired his debut novel, Alabama Moon, published to national acclaim in 2006. Alabama Moon won the 2007 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award, was included on Time Magazine's list of the Best One Hundred YA Books of All Time, and has been translated in seven languages.

    Read more from Watt Key

    Related to Bay Boy

    Related ebooks

    Biography & Memoir For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Parting the Waters

      Dec 29, 2022

      Parting the Waters
      12 min read

    • Article

      Coasting Along The Icw

      Mar 21, 2023

      Coasting Along The Icw
      6 min read

    • Article

      Canyon Of Mystery

      Dec 4, 2021

      Black shiny ravens patrol the cliffs, swoop down and scold the approaching intruder—“Caw, caw, caw!” I try to communicate in ravenspeak that I’m here to visit, not to harm, as I descend into the ancient structure. The thick sandstone walls dampen all

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Southern Agenda

      May 17, 2021

      The Southern Agenda
      11 min read

    • Article

      Lessons From My Vanlife

      Aug 2, 2020

      Lessons From My Vanlife
      3 min read

    • Article

      Army of Volunteers

      Jan 1, 2022

      Army of Volunteers
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dream House

      Jan 25, 2022

      Dream House
      2 min read

    • Article

      Cruising Tips

      Mar 14, 2023

      CRUISING TIPS I’m not advocating that readers should rush out and sell their boats, but even for those who keep their boats for decades, the time comes to trade up or down. Searching for my current boat 10 years back, I was horrified at much of what

      2 min read

    • Article

      Minecraft Dungeons

      Jul 12, 2020

      Minecraft Dungeons
      1 min read

    • Article

      Winging It

      Jan 2, 2024

      As the 70-foot Sunseeker drifted down on us in the dark, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I lurched forward on deck in my bathrobe, screaming and clapping, trying to get their attention before they hit us. My mate was prone on the bow of the bucking k

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Railroad Dog

      Aug 3, 2021

      The Railroad Dog
      4 min read

    • Article

      Part Of The Scene

      Aug 3, 2021

      Part Of The Scene
      4 min read

    • Article

      Felix Francis

      Jan 13, 2022

      Felix Francis
      6 min read

    • Article

      Walks to Change Your Life

      May 12, 2023

      Walks to Change Your Life
      12 min read

    • Article

      Experimenting With COYOTE SETS

      Jul 25, 2023

      Experimenting With COYOTE SETS
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Vanlife Hacks

      Nov 29, 2020

      The Vanlife Hacks
      5 min read

    • Article

      Close-Hauled to Hawaii

      Aug 10, 2021

      Close-Hauled to Hawaii
      9 min read

    • Article

      Escapism In The Wild

      May 1, 2019

      Location. Location. Location. Even for books? Do thriller novels set in the Adirondacks use that setting to tell their stories? Thrillers are full of surprises and my first one came before I even turned a page. I found nine Adirondack thrillers publi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Tasty Tomes

      Sep 11, 2021

      Tasty Tomes
      2 min read

    • Article

      Props

      Apr 18, 2023

      Props
      3 min read

    • Article

      Practical Magic

      Mar 28, 2021

      Practical Magic
      8 min read

    • Article

      7 Deadly Cottage Sins

      Apr 1, 2021

      7 Deadly Cottage Sins
      18 min read

    • Article

      At The End Of The Highway

      Feb 20, 2020

      At The End Of The Highway
      11 min read

    • Article

      Where Will We Go Now?

      May 30, 2021

      Where Will We Go Now?
      2 min read

    • Article

      An Era In Fayetteville

      Aug 13, 2019

      An Era In Fayetteville
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Bay Boy

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Bay Boy - Watt Key

      reasons.

      THE NEW OLD POINT CLEAR

      I SUDDENLY FIND MYSELF AT the age where I’m telling my kids how it used to be when I was growing up. I remember when my father and grandfather told me these same kinds of stories. And they successfully convinced me that life in Point Clear, Alabama, was more interesting back in their day. It’s certainly true that my six siblings and I grew up with paved roads and we didn’t have to ride a ferry to get into the city. But, with hindsight, it seems every generation has some interesting stories to pass down.

      Scenic Highway 98 was asphalted by the time I was born in 1970, but there still weren’t many people living in Point Clear year-round.

      It used to be a dirt road! one of my kids exclaimed.

      That’s right, I said. When your great-grandfather built this house.

      Of course, the summers were still full of vacationers, and having grown up across the bay in Mobile, your grandmother knew most of them. Since we were always around, her friends would bring their kids by. Between me and all your aunts and uncles, there was always somebody the right age to play with. And there was plenty to do.

      Like what? my son asks.

      We’d swim in the bay and fish and build forts and rope swings. Ride in the boat. You know that little wooden boat I fixed up for you? That used to be mine. It had an old motor that would run most of the time. But sometimes we’d break down or run out of gas.

      You broke down out there?

      Sometimes. Part of the fun was getting home. It’s shallow enough to walk your boat in from just about anywhere.

      But you didn’t have video games, right, Dad?

      No, we didn’t have video games.

      Man, my son says.

      Did you have a pool? my daughter asks.

      The Grand Hotel had a pool, and we’d go up there sometimes, but we mostly swam in the bay.

      But it makes your underwear brown, my son says. "And there’s

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1