By Hannah Lester
hlester@opelikaobserver.com
Sid Mickle wanted to share his stories of life in a small town, as a southerner and an athlete. This Opelika resident grew up in Lafayette and turned his memories into a book, “A Backwards Glance.”
Over the course of 15 years, Mickle wrote down thoughts, finished chapters and worked toward the completion of this project: his own book.
“I remember things and I told these stories because I remember the vivid detail,” he said. “Everyone’s always kidding me about, you can’t remember what you did yesterday but you can remember all these stories.”
Readers can dive into stories about living in Chambers County as a child, Mickle’s struggles with his parents, the ups and downs of football in a small town and more.
“There were just these places that I wanted to go to remember my folks and my uncles and aunts and my friends and my high school days,” he said.
The book has only been out a couple of weeks but Mickle has been able to share his hard work with friends and family. His son even helped him throughout the writing process.
“[He] was a lot of sounding board for my writing, let me just tell you,” he said. “He was there all the time. He told me once, he goes, ‘you know dad, I think, just because of where you are in your life, the book is coming across really negative.’”
Mickle said he reviewed what he’d written and realized his son was right. The book was a dark piece and that’s not what he wanted. So after a lot of rewriting, the project sits now before him.
The author hopes to continue his writing and has four more books in the work.
Many may be able to relate to Mickle’s life and his stories and can relive memories in his book, ‘A Backwards Glance’ available on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D8QVTNN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5mdgFbC1T9R4D).