Every July a panel of Monroeville's citizens sit to tell their individual tales in the old courthouse--the one after which the interior design for Mockingbird of Gregory Peck fame was nearly identically designed. These citizens spend three hours reminiscing about Monroeville's history, which has a similar history to the Maycomb of Mockingbird, and about their knowledge of Harper Lee and Truman Capote in their youth. I can unconditionally recommend this teachers' workshop to anyone who has an interest in Lee and Capote, who were nextdoor neighbors for many years of their childhood and attended the same elementary school together, although Capote was in a slightly higher grade than Lee. It was entirely providential that the two knew each other as children: both were highly imaginative, both loved writing, the girls thought of Lee as a tomboy with fisticuff tendencies, and the boys thought of Capote as an easy target to knock down as long as Harper Lee wasn't around to defend him. Even after Capote permanently moved to the North, the friendship between the two remained firm, and Lee, of course, later moved to New York where she continues to live most of the year with the rest of the time spent in Monroeville with her sister. The likelihood of two such children growing up together in such a backwater area as Monroeville is amazing, and that's why I believe their being nextdoor neighbors was providential. Lee is now 78 years old, and the people on the panel are getting on in years. In the not-too-distant future, these people will pass on, so this opportunity of hearing people who knew the two authors firsthand as children will be no more. Additionaly, the panelists readily entertain questions from the courthouse audience. Among the many interesting stories I've heard about the two is the one told about their having an old typewriter on which they pounded out stories when they were quite young. It is how they spent a good deal of their time.
Monroeville casts its charm securely on any who would visit there. My heart rate slows down; a calm claims me for the time I'm there. And it is an immediate calm I sense whenever remembering it. Monroeville is now a yearly pilgrimmage for me.
#Note to Jackie: I intentionally used the plural verb with the word 'panel' in the first sentence.