Hannibal

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on a society.

~ Mark Twain

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I wonder what Mark Twain's community thought of him when he was writing books. I know he changed names of people and even his town when he wrote, but "The Widow Douglas" was probably easily recognizable as the widow something-else who ran the lighthouse on the hill overlooking the Mississippi in Hannibal - and other characters were similarly identified on some of the tours we took.

I think about it sometimes - about how if I wrote about my community that I don't think they'd find me as likable as it appears Hannibal found Sam Clemens.

Of course, I don't think my town had the same kind of characters -- or at least I was too distracted to notice them when we were growing up. I mean, besides Raspberry Ruby.