(Not Really) Roughing it on the Mark Twain Trail
From Hannibal, Missouri, to San Francisco, California
By: Johnny D. Boggs 11/01/2007
By jingo, does everybody in Hannibal, Missouri, think he’s Mark Twain—the driver on the tour bus, the guide at the Mark Twain Cave, even Mark Twain Himself?
You know Twain, the Homer of our country, America’s foremost writer, humorist, lecturer, storyteller, cigar-smoker, lover of Scotch, Confederate Army deserter, newspaper scribe, riverboat pilot and the fellow who helped open the West—sort of—when his classic Roughing It was first published in 1872.
Twain, a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri—home of the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site—but he moved to this charming Mississippi River town when he turned age four. Hannibal served as the inspiration for St. Petersburg, home to Twain’s best-loved characters, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.
Fact is, I’m having lunch with Tom and his sweetheart Becky Thatcher at the Jumping Frog Cafe.
For more than 50 years, seventh-graders at all Hannibal middle schools have been auditioning to become Tom and Becky for a year—roles a little more important than being chosen Homecoming king and queen. Indeed, Tom and Becky are Hannibal’s ambassadors, and Lainy Harrison (Becky) and Austin Carter (Tom) are great ambassadors—“a couple of the hardest-working kids we have in town,” the city brass informs me.
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