(dave e)

maycomb was a tired old town

"don't say 'nigger,' scout."

when i was a boy, and my family got our first vcr, to kill a mockingbird was one of the first movies we managed to tape. and we watched it often.

i haven't seen it in a while, but i'm pretty sure i'd still cry during the scene when, immediately after atticus finch has so desperately tried to save tom robinson's life, reverend sykes, standing at the front of the courtroom gallery's black population, tells scout, "stand up. your father's passing."

the subtle understatement of harper lee's atticus finch always seemed so profound, such a local and just response to what strangeness and unfamiliarity means in the south. mindful of the tricky distinction between eccentricity (dill's aunt stephanie) and cruel outsiderness (tragic boo radley), peck's atticus was one of my childhood's greatest educators.

that's the gregory peck i'll remember.