Folks Were Doin' A Lot Of Runnin'

Maycomb Was A Tired Old Town, Even In 1932 When I First Knew It. Somehow, It Was Hotter Then. Men's Stiff Collars Wilted By Nine In The Morning. Ladies Bathed Before Noon After Their Three O'clock Naps, And By Nightfall Were Like Soft Teacakes With Frosting From Sweating And Sweet Talcum. The Day Was Twenty-four Hours Long, But It Seemed Longer. There's No Hurry, For There's Nowhere To Go And Nothing To Buy... And No Money To Buy It With.

Jen And I Were Accustomed To Our Father's Last-will-and-testament Diction, And Were At Times Free To Interrupt Atticus For A Translation When It Was Beyond Our Understanding.

Now, 75 Years Later In An Abundant Society Where People Have Laptops, Cell Phones, Ipods, And Minds Like Empty Rooms, I Still Plod Along With Books. Instant Information Is Not For Me. I Prefer To Search Library Stacks Because When I Work To Learn Something, I Remember It. And, Oprah, Can You Imagine Curling Up In Bed To Read A Computer? Weeping For Anna Karenina And Being Terrified By Hannibal Lecter, Entering The Heart Of Darkness With Mistah Kurtz, Having Holden Caulfield Ring You Up — Some Things Should Happen On Soft Pages, Not Cold Metal.

I Think I'll Be A Clown When I Get Grown,' Said Dill. Jem And I Stopped In Our Tracks. Yes Sir, A Clown,' He Said. 'there Ain't One Thing In This World I Can Do About Folks Except Laugh, So I'm Gonna Join The Circus And Laugh My Head Off.' You Got It Backwards, Dill,' Said Jem. 'clowns Are Sad, It's Folks That Laugh At Them.' Well I'm Gonna Be A New Kind Of Clown. I'm Gonna Stand In The Middle Of The Ring And Laugh At The Folks.

You Can Choose Your Friends But You Sho' Can't Choose Your Family, An' They're Still Kin To You No Matter Whether You Acknowledge 'em Or Not, And It Makes You Look Right Silly When You Don't.