Really, what mother wouldn’t drop a plate of shrimp on someone if she happened to catch sight of an archer shooting at a balloon held in her young daughter’s teeth?

That’s one of the vivid images shared by Alabama author Fannie Flagg, who recently wrote about her family’s years running a beachfront malt shop in the days when Gulf Shores was largely undeveloped. In a nostalgic article published by Southern Living, Flagg makes it easy to see how life with one of the area’s “pioneer families” left an impression.

It’s certainly a novel-worthy premise: A Birmingham man wins ownership of a coastal café in a poker game. Without ever taking a look at the place, he pulls up stakes and moves his young family to the mostly wild Alabama coast, where they find they have a lot of work to do before their new home will be ready for habitation, let alone for business.

“I will never forget the moment when we finally arrived,” Flagg writes of their 1952 arrival. “As we drove to the very end of State 59 where Daddy said the shop was located, suddenly everything turned blinding white and there was nothing but miles and miles of powdery sand as far as the eye could see. To my shock, no more than 200 yards from the malt shop was the vast, crystal clear green Gulf of Mexico gleaming and sparkling in the sun.”

Flagg has a deft touch, making it easy to imagine the hardships her parents, William and Marion Neal, endured during the rural beach’s merciless business cycle, with every summer boom followed by a winter bust. But what stands out are the things that would stand out for a kid: the arrival of a new jukebox, the family-run carnival that set up across the street, being one of just three kids catching the school bus to Foley. And of course the archery champion who rented space beside the shop, and the occasional William Tell-style promotion for his shooting gallery.

Eventually the family moved back to Birmingham, long before Gulf Shores was hit by the building boom that Flagg’s father had anticipated. Though she doesn’t mention the book by name in the Southern Living piece, Flagg went on to use some of her Gulf Shores memories in her debut novel “Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man,” first published in 1981 as “Coming Attractions.”

More from Southern Living:

Which Alabama towns and cities did Southern Living name ‘South’s Best?’

Southern Living ranks 2 Alabama restaurants among the ‘South’s Best’

Historic Alabama hotel picked as one of the South’s best

Alabama state park (with a beach!) picked as one of the South’s best