By Sarah Kuper
Fred Norrell said he wasn’t looking to pen a bestseller when he began writing his book, “A Boy’s Adventures on Lake Martin.”
Rather, his goal was to put in writing for the next generation stories of a bygone era, of a childhood spent outdoors.
“I really wrote it for my son,” Norrell said. “He didn’t have the childhood adventures I did – he wasn’t as interested in the outdoors. It’s also dedicated to my two grandchildren.”
In a way, Norrell said, the 50-page book also was written to and for his late father, who, he said, is to thank for action-packed summers on the lake.
Norrell, a retired economist who lives in Homewood, began to spend summers at Lake Martin with his sisters and parents when he was 6 years old.
The family had a modest cabin in the area before large-scale developments began cropping up on the lakeshore.
Norrell’s book is a first-person narrative that tells stories of him and his father building a raft and exploring the lake, tromping through the woods, catching fish and cooking them over a campfire.
“I had an old single shot .22 rifle,” he said. “I rarely shot much of anything but I would
walk through the woods with it.”
Norrell said he has some native American heritage in his family, so he would use his imagination while walking through the woods and rafting down
the lake to pretend he was one of the wood’s earliest inhabitants.
Norrell likens his experiences to one of literature’s most famous characters.
“I used to raft around the lake and explore like Huck Finn. In my mind, I was him,” Norrell said.
As he grew older, Norrell continued to build boats and have all-day adventures with his father, but he also began to invite friends to the lake to water ski and enjoy the outdoor life.
Today, Norrell and his family rarely go to the lake.
“I bet it has been five years since I’ve been there,” he said. “It has changed so much. A lot of large ‘McMansions’ and it is loud with all the speed boats.”
But, he said, there are several Alabama lakes that still have that wilderness feel, at least for now.
After a long career as an economist, Norrell never fancied himself a world-class writer. All the same, he said, the words came easily to him.
“My writing process – well, I didn’t have one specifically. It was fairly easy because it is all things that happened to me, I didn’t have to invent anything,” he said.
The book is published by Cahaba Press and is for sale on Amazon for $6.
So far, Norrell’s work has received all five-star reviews on Amazon. One reviewer said the writing style was suitable for elementary schoolers but the book would be “appreciated as much, if not more, by adults.”
Reviewers agree the book is a way for adults to remember what it was like to be adventurous children and an inspiration for children to get out and explore.
