BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Being an outsider helped give Carol Fisher the fresh eye she wanted when she wrote a book celebrating the residents of Bay Minette.
Fisher’s book, “Outside Looking In: Celebrating the Centennial of the City of Bay Minette, Alabama”, tells the stories of people’s lives in the town.
Fisher said she knew that books already existed on some of the land and companies in the area.
“If I decided to write a book, it would be about the people,” she added.
Fisher — who is originally from Orlando — started interviewing people late in 2006 and created a story around the facts.
“It’s about people from Bay Minette — people born here, who moved here, have had a big impact here, it’s about everyone,” she said.
Fisher said she believes everybody has a story and
every story is important, which is why the stories appear in no certain order in her book, she said. “It’s a wide gamut of people,” she added.
Fisher didn’t know anyone that she called for an interview. She met them for
the first time when she did the actual interview, even though she has been living in Bay Minette for about the last 13 years, she said of her sources.
Mayor Sonny Dobbins and his wife, Kathy, gave Fisher the first few names for her interviews. Since then, everyone she has interviewed has given her a few more names, Fisher said.
When Fisher sat down for an interview, she only had five questions — the interviews and stories built from that, she said.
“Everyone relaxed and just started telling their stories,” Fisher said.
People walked back through memory lan,e and some stories were very emotional, she added.
One of her first interviews was with Eugene Overstreet,” Fisher said. The interview was very emotional because he told his story of how he was hurt in the Vietnam War, she added.
“I could see it just like a scene from a movie, and I knew that his story would be the first chapter in the book,” Fisher said.
Today, Eugene Overstreet is the owner of Street’s Restaurant.
Fisher has decided to write two more volumes, which she hopes to complete by the end of summer because of all the names she received, she said.
Talk of Fisher’s book has spread throughout Baldwin County. Her future projects may include writing similar books about residents in towns around the county.
Fisher’s book, which is a limited edition, can be found at the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, Dess Sangster Lavender Publishing and other locations around Bay Minette.
At one point in time, Fisher wrote a column for The Baldwin Times called “Heartbeat”. She also wrote the book, “A Refuge In The Storm” and continues her “Carol Fisher Ministries” as a Christian motivational speaker.
Fisher is the librarian at the Baldwin County Law Library. She and her husband, Harold “Butch” Fisher, have been married for over 40 years. They have four children.
