all right, then, i'm going to hell

hannibal, mo

friday morning mum and i explored the town of hannibal, missouri, which produced sam clemens, aka mark twain. just about everything in the old downtown pays homage to its most famous son. the block on which he lived is almost perfectly maintained, down to the brick street, all of it lovingly restored by a vigorous community of retired folk. it was neat to see all of these sites because there is a direct correlation between his life in hannibal and his works--for example, next to his childhood home (at left) is the fence which inspired the story of tom sawyer convincing other boys in town to pay him to paint his own fence. today you can write your name on the fence for $10 to help pay for preservation. across the street is the home of the girl who was the model for becky thatcher, the girl on whom tom sawyer had a crush.

in addition, there are two museums, bookstores, antique shops, and restaurants all named after twain (the title of this post is a quote of his). even this coke machine had his face on it, though the glare makes it a little hard to see. while twain is most well-known for the characters of tom sawyer and huck finn, he wrote many many other books besides. i bought a copy of 'roughing it' at one of the museum shops--it is his memoirs of his travels in the west, including his time spent in various occupations out there, filled with just as many tall tales as actual facts. i hope that i get to it by the time i make it that far west.

perhaps what twain loved most was the mississippi river. not only do several of his novels involve the great american river, but he wrote a travelogue about his time on the river called 'life on the mississippi.' of the river at hannibal he said 'the extensive view up and down the river is ... one of the most beautiful on the mississippi,' and it is easy to see why. twain, perhaps correctly, bemoaned all the attention paid to the lower part of the river--the lower mississippi, while giant, sprawls, and does not even normally have real banks. the upper river, while not as wide, is equally impressive. the picture below was taken by the bank at hannibal, facing south.my personal favorite of all of twain's quotes about the mississippi is as follows, from a letter he wrote to will bowen in 1866: 'the only real, independent & genuine gentlemen in the world go quietly up and down the mississippi river, asking no homage of any one, seeking no popularity, no notoriety, & not caring a damn whether school keeps or not.' maybe this is true--there are few things as american as the mississippi. it has a gigantic effect on the entire country and its imagination. as twain also noted, the lower mississippi alone shortens itself each year--on average, over a mile per year. this is something which we cannot control, no matter how hard we try--something like how so many view americans, stubborn and determined to get their way (are they wrong?).

after wandering around the town a little more, we left hannibal, and shortly thereafter, missouri. it was a nice state: wilder than illinois to the east or iowa to the north, as you can kind of see below.