There was this house......

212 was on the corner. When you faced the house, on the left was a smallish dirt road leading up to some small houses that were in back of 212 -- waaaay away in the back. On the right of the house was another dirt road (a different kind of dirt road, almost paved), larger than the one on the other side of the house and connecting to a street going into downtown Pratt City. 212 faced a rather large paved (but not busy) street. Across the dirt road on the left was my godmother's house. Across the dirt road on the right and up an incline were railroad tracks. The only other house within close proximity was at the end of the dirt road running along the right. If I had known of To Kill a Mockingbird at the time, I probably would have suspected that Boo Radley lived there.

That's how the cousins and I thought about that house. We were suspicious of it. I don't know why. It was not run-down, but it was almost hidden by shrubbery and small trees. Shrouded in mystery. I never remember coming in contact with anyone who lived there. But I do remember standing in MomP's side yard gazing at that house, imagining all sorts of unsettling things. When we walked to the small store right across the street from that house we'd always quicken our pace.

I remember a story one of the older cousins told. The theater in downtown Pratt was still open when she was growing up. One evening she and an older male cousin went to a movie. It must have been some kind of horror flick because, as she told the story, they were scared as they walked out of the theater. It was dark and they had to walk back to 212. She said they almost ran most of the way back, until they got close to that house. And, for some reason, as they approached that house they stopped, turned back to back, locked their arms together and (somehow) waddled walked by the house. I still smile at this part thinking how foolish they must have looked.

It's odd to me how there are some places and some people who just give me the willies. Often, as in To Kill a Mockingbird, those feelings have no basis. My grandmother had most likely just told us kids to keep away from that house so we wouldn't bother the people and in our quest for adventure we'd just let our imaginations run wild. As long as it worked, MomP probably never saw the need to say anything different.

And....speaking of To Kill a Mockingbird. I can't believe how long it was before I knew that Dill was modeled on Truman Capote. For the longest, I didn't even know Capote spent many childhood summers in Alabama. I didn't know of Harper Lee's importance in Capote's In Cold Blood. Kind of sad for a gal born and bred in Alabama.