I'm currently stationed at Camp Shelby, Mississippi for training -- or, this being the army, for a period of "standing by" prior to the emergence of hypothetical future training -- and will be allowed off post for the first time on Saturday. I'll be staying in a hotel near the USM campus, and have no idea at all what there is to do in Hattiesburg. Any Cliopatria readers in the area? What should I do with myself? Post suggestions below, or email me at chrisabray - at - yahoo - dot - com.

Thanks.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/3/2005

Atticus Finch was not, however, an old man. He was, I take it, the widowed father of small children. Earl Finch was indeed a young man in the early 1940s and died, after moving to Hawai'i, at 49. I really do think that seeing sexual motivation, subliminal or not, in all acts of kindness does an injustice to people.

Greg James Robinson - 8/3/2005

A nice thought, Ralph--perhaps Harper Lee wil emerge from her silence long enough to say. I rather doubt it, though, since unlike the kindly patriarch of Maycomb Earl Finch was a young man--in his late 20s during the war--who was aged by the media (A la Rosa Parks) to give him a more respectable "father image" and remove any whispers about possible sexual motives in his wining and dining soldiers and having them stay over.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/3/2005

Good catch, Greg. It makes me wonder whether the name of Harper Lee's hero in To Kill a Mockingbird is not a self-conscious compound of Atticus Haygood and Earl Finch.

Greg James Robinson - 8/2/2005

Congratulations, Chris, on being stationed at Camp Shelby. You are following in the footsteps of the legendary 442nd Regimantal Combat Team, whose Nisei soldiers trained there. They were entertained and "adopted" by a local Hattiesburg man, Earl Finch, who helped bring them to national attention. Perhaps you can tour the town in the guise of doing some oral history interviews on Earl Finch (whose biography would be quite an interesting piece of work), and see if you can find someone who will adopt you too!