My Small 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Story

When I was a very young child, I saw To Kill a Mockingbird.  I can't have been more than five years old because the first time it was re-released after its original theater showing was in 1968, and had its first TV airing as an NBC Movie of the Week.

I already knew the story of Peter Rabbit and his adventure in Mr. McGregor's yard.  Then I saw Mockingbird and specifically the scene where Jem, Scout, and Dill have their own adventure running up through the back yard to touch the Radley house and peek in the windows.  At that point, the two stories had to have merged. While I have no specific recollection of the two stories conflating into a single one, I can say that, as far back as I can remember, the Peter Rabbit story included elements of Mockingbird.

In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Peter snuck into Mr. McGregor's garden to snack on vegetables.  He had his fill, then was spotted by Mr. McGregor.  He lost his jacket and shoes trying to escape, but eventually got out by squirming under the garden gate.  When he went back to find his lost clothing, he found them on a new scarecrow in Mr. McGregor’s garden.

In Mockingbird, the three children snuck into the Radley yard, wanting to show their own courage and get some initial glimpses of Boo Radley and his parents.  They managed to make it up to the porch and Dill at least got to peek in the windows for a glimpse of the Radleys.  Suddenly, a man with a shotgun appeared from the dark and fired a warning shot into the sky and they took off running.  Scout and Dill made it out, crawling under the fence, with Jem right behind them.  They took off down the alley, then quickly realized that Jem wasn’t with them.  They turned back to find him with his pants hooked on the fence.  He squirmed out of his pants and left them still snagged there.  Later, he went back to get his pants, fearing Atticus more than Mr. Radley, and saying “Atticus ain't ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way.”  He returned to the house shortly, but Scout didn’t find out for several days what he found regarding his pants.  He later confided to Scout that when he retrieved his pants, they were not only neatly folded over the fence, but also mended, the rip he got from the fence now crudely stitched back together.

Because I didn't read Mockingbird until high school and didn't consciously watch the movie until some time in college, the two stories stayed fused in my mind for years.  Any time I was reminded of Peter Rabbit, I pictured Mr. McGregor driving Peter off with a shotgun, and Peter later retrieving his pants from the garden fence, nicely folded and mended.

It’s not a big thing, but I still felt foolish when I watched Mockingbird (I don’t recall noticing it when reading the book) and thought “Waaaaiiiiit … doesn’t all that happen to Peter Rabbit?” when I got to that scene. Sort of, yes, but not quite.

There were a lot of things that I subliminally absorbed on my first viewing of Mockingbird at age five, like the showdown with the lynch mob in front of the jail, but those are different and longer stories for a different time.  Suffice it to say at this moment that Mockingbird was informing my worldview even back before I clearly remember experiencing it.