I’ve told the story, well past the point of boredom, as to how I became a reader. Not how I learned to read, that was from Marvel comics, but an actual reader. In 1962, I was a second grader in Miss Hale’s class at BC Swinney Elementary in Lawton, Oklahoma. During story hour, Miss Hale read chapters from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and I was enthralled. Tom’s antics, running around with Huck, ‘First pipes, I’ve lost my Knife,’ oh, man, I couldn’t get enough. That was the life I wanted, carefree and riverbound and filled with adventure and I asked her, when she had finished, if I could read it. She was unsure because it’s a bit advanced for second grade but I was already a decent reader, thanks to Marvel, so she gave me her copy. Just gave it to me, like that, which was even more thrilling and I swear I read that volume twenty times at least.
So about a month ago, I happened to be in Quincy, IL for an Indies United Publishing House conference, and Quincy is a mere 20 miles away from Hannibal, MO, Samuel Clemens’ hometown and the place Tom Sawyer is situated. So I went. And I saw Tom’s house.
The most infamous episode of Tom Sawyer’s con artist life is, of course, the whitewashed fence. And here it is. Not much to an adult but condemnation at hard labor for a ten-year-old and I can see Tom’s scheme forming the moment he arrived at the first board.
Tom’s room. You can see him sneaking out the window.
Look at this, Becky Thatcher’s house:
And look at this, Huck Finn’s house:
And the river, on which I took a ride on a faux steamboat. Hey, everything today is a simulation.
That lighthouse is where the Widow Douglas’ house stood.
This is Lover’s Leap, which is where star crossed Indian maidens/Indian braves leaped to their death, just like from every other Lover’s Leap in America. And maybe Canada. The Captain even told us that old Watch Out for Falling Rock joke which I first heard in 2nd grade.
The pylon marks the location of the treasure cave, the one Tom and Becky got lost in. With the murderous Injun Joe on their trail. Didn’t happen, of course; the model for Injun Joe lived well into his nineties. But it’s a cool story that made my second grade heart pound with terror.
I have no idea what happened to that book. Sometime during the numerous events of my life, it got lost. But, Miss Hale, I never lost my love for reading.
