National Tom Sawyer Days

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You can be part of the National Tom Sawyer Days held in Hannibal, Missouri the town where the well-known author of a boy named Tom grew up. He was born Samuel Clemens and took the pen name of Mark Twain. He was four years old when his family settled in Hannibal, located on the bank of the Mississippi. Growing up Twain was fascinated with the life along the river and the steamboats passing by. One of his best-loved short stories is “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. His novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is about a boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story in the novel has been used in many different movies throughout the years. Both of the short story and the novel are celebrated during National Tom Sawyer Days that include a frog jumping contest and a fence-painting contest. The idea of fence-painting comes from a scene in Tom Sawyer when he was told to paint the fence in front of his house. When his friends come along he tells them that painting is fun and so they join in. By the time the fun ends the fence has three coats of paint. Tom Sawyer might be a fictional story but if you take a trip to Hannibal you can see the white fence that stands by the boyhood home of Mark Twain. Today the house is also a museum.