Author shares stories of the wild outdoors with LPMS students

Watt Key, author of Alabama Moon, visited Liberty Park Middle School recently to share his experiences.

Key, a native of Point Clear, Ala., spoke to students about growing up by the bay with a swamp across the street. The oldest of seven children, he told many stories about his interesting childhood.

He attended a school where there were only nine boys in his class. He also used a boat to get around, didn’t watch a lot of television and had a pet grey squirrel named Smokey.

As a child, Key was very interested in trapping animals. He explained that he ate, skinned or kept animals he caught. With one of the hides, he once made a squirrel purse for his mother with the tail hanging down. Key told students his mother knew he was proud of his accomplishment, so she took the purse to church.

Key attended Birmingham-Southern College but was discouraged in his writing classes. He said that his grammar skills were not the best and that he hadn’t read a lot of the books that the other students had read. He did decide to write on his own.

“It is kinda of like playing a guitar; if you enjoy it you are going to do it anyway,” he said.

He said he completed his first novel as a freshman in college but did not get a book deal until he was 34 years old. In the meantime, he worked as a computer programmer.

His book, Alabama Moon, came from an experience he and his friends had as college students. During interim term, Key, 19 at the time, decided to design his own course. The topic was “Surviving in the Woods.” He and two friends spent two weeks in the swamp trying to survive. They bought bows and arrows from yard sales and only took ponchos, sleeping bags, a hatchet, candles, matches and a skillet into the wild. They did not take a tent and only had the clothes on their backs. The nearest store was five miles away.

Key described to students how for food they used the bow and arrows and shot a water moccasin and five little pigs. He also killed an armadillo and cut off its shell. Their other food consisted of pine needle tea, pine bark and toasted acorns. By the last day Key said he was so weak he could barely stand and had lost 15 pounds.

Key’s visit was coordinated by LPMS Librarian Jean Deal.

- Submitted by Liberty Park Middle School.