Jean Louise Finch

is a fictiional character based on the childhood of her creator.  Watching this 6-year-old this evening in a splendid evergreen movie stirred memories of my growing-up in the years of the “Great Depression”.   Her’s were in Mississippi.  Mine were in East Tennessee.  Jean Louise’s father was a lawyer.  Mine was in the automobile business.   In the movie, she asks her father if they are poor.   He answers, “yes.”       I don’t recall asking my father or mother if we were poor, but on reflection, there were indicators.   We wore our clothes and our shoes until there was no more “wearin'” in them.   We gratefully accepted fruits, vegetables and meats from our paternal grandparents farm.    Soup beans were one of our mainstays.   Sunday afternoon dinner was a special treat.   That meant chicken…usally fried chicken.   What many now call “lunch” was “dinner”.   Today’s “dinner” was “supper”.    “Breakfast” has had the same name all these years.  The writer of the novel on which the movie is based created other memorable characters in telling  her story.  Jean Louise”s father was Atticus.    The title of the book came from a silent character played by Robert Duval.   His movie name was  Arthur “Boo” Radley.    In one of the closing scenes,  Jean Louise “Scout” Finch was talking with her father, Atticus Finch, played by Oscar-Winning Gregory Peck.    Boo Radley had just saved Scout and her brother, Jem, by killing their attacker.   “Scout”  said to her father that even to consider prosecuting Boo would be like killing a mocking bird…to kill someone who’d never harmed anyone except their attacker.  “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is the only novel she ever published.