Reread The Adventures of Tom Sawyer To Turn Your Childhood Strikeouts into Home Runs

Mark Twain offers the reader such an eclectic variety of Tom Sawyer’s hilarious experiences from the time that first scent of crisp pages enters your aura. Young Tom’s profound ability to torture Aunt Polly will surely remind you of a childhood caretaker of your own that you also may have caused a raucous or two with. His cunning ability to get all the neighbor kids to whitewash the fence that was supposed to be his punishment is another fine example of Mr. Twain’s ability to dish out an over-abundance of tickets down Memory Lane. I’m sure you will remember a friend hoaxing you into doing some of their school or household work for you.

Any adult reader with a remaining soul will find it difficult to not be transporting themselves back into those magical times. I would contest that even those with a tarnished soul, and wretched childhood, will still be looking at some strikeouts of childhood as some of the most powerful home runs.  

As women, it would be a great injustice for me to serve as advocate for the memories that they will certainly indulge in if they choose to re-read this masterpiece. The truth of the matter is that I don’t have the faintest clue of what a woman looks back on when thinking about childhood.

To my female readers, if there are any, consider this an invitation to enlighten us. Do you look back and think that you won over every boy in Elementary School? Is that too sexist?

 If I never would have been a teacher, I would not have any clue that more often than not the girls are just as willing as Tom Sawyer to throw down over a game of Tag. Are winning these games of Tag your homerun stories?

The intention of soliciting what memories this drives female readers to is out of curiosity, and not to further solidify societal stereotypes. What are some of your most favorite and least favorite childhood memories of childhood that this books reminds you of?

Tom Sawyer’s love affairs with Becky Thatcher and Amy Lawrence took me back a special time in my own life; when The Wonder Years came on TV every Wednesday night at 8:00. My first flashback in this novel took me back to a summer vacation in Ocean City, MD. I stood in front of the ice cream stand she was as working at. The goal had two parts. I was to buy a vanilla ice cream cone, From there, I was to quickly wow her with a smile, or maybe complain about something (as young children can relate to this),  and then from there I was to swoop in for physical mailing address. I had seen Kevin Arnold do this on an Episode of The Wonder Years, and was certain it should work for me. 

Instead, I stood with locked knees in front of AJ’s Ice Cream Stand for thirty minutes under strong urging from my parents to go talk to her. The ferriss wheel made a faster approach to this girl than I did. In the end, I bought the ice cream from her, without ever offering her more than the money in my pocket to spark a conversation.

On this occasion, I was no Tom Sawyer. I hope you have a better story to share than this one once you finish re-reading this joy of a book.