Jim and Bill Howe left Hannibal in 1965, when their father, who was plant manager of Western Printing & Lithographing Company, was transferred to Racine, Wis. This weekend, the 58-year-old twin brothers are revisiting the town of their childhood. Since leaving Hannibal as teens, they have idolized Hannibal as Andy Griffith’s “Mayberry.” While in Hannibal they lived at 3333 West Ely Road, the first farm house on the left, with stable and pastures. They house and outbuildings were torn down to make way for the Steamboat Bend Shopping Center. Jim is in real estate and lives in Sherborn, Mass. Bill is president of Growth Engine Group, and makes his home in Springfield, Va.
While in town, they talked with classmates Mary Lou Montgomery and Terry Sampson about the town they left 44 years ago, the memories they took with them, and their mutual longing to revisit the town of their dreams.
Bill: People who have gone away - there’s something about Hannibal that pulls them back. There’s something here that’s like a magnet. It’s taken us a lot of years, but there’s always been a pull for us. I look at it a little bit like this idyllic place, for me, Hannibal is like watching the old Walton’s TV show, this wonderful charming show, and a little bit like Andy of Mayberry, this wonderful little town. All these stories and all these real people.
Jim: It’s easy if you’ve stayed in one place, to take everything for granted. This is how it is. You know, in some ways, maybe it’s boring, it’s old hat, ‘I wish I could see the world.’ Kinder, gentler. That’s how we remember Hannibal. It was a kinder and gentler place in time. Maybe the reality through the years [in Hannibal] hasn’t matched that kinder and gentler description day in and day out, but certainly for us, it fits that mark. In the rest of the world, the pace is faster, the people are more driven and tougher, stressed, superficial. It’s a fast-paced and not necessarily totally appealing world out there in many ways. You go to the big cities, or you go east especially, the pace quickens up, people’s goals and aspirations are, you know, money, success, fame and fortune, and a lot of the regular things as well, but there’s a whole pace of life that you get caught up with that is not totally healthy.
Bill: It’s very grounding here.
Jim: It’s almost when you go to the islands like Hawaii or Jamaica, and they talk about island time. When I came to Hannibal yesterday [Thursday], I was thinking that this is like island time. Things slow down. Things have their own pace and own rhythm. It’s a healthier and happier pace for people.
Bill: It was painful for us to leave. In the places that followed, there was an open wound there, that never, never healed. Never came even close. It was just very special, and we knew it. Sometimes you’re in a place and you just kinda take it for granted. We thought we were in heaven in Hannibal, Missouri. I swear. We had such an amazing life.
Jim: The funny thing is, we moved away from here probably because my mother wasn’t totally happy here; her family was all back east. So after awhile she said to my father, ‘Let’s make our way back east if we can.’ But ever since we moved away from Hannibal, we’ve lived in a number of places, but she still has all these wonderful stories about Hannibal. She tells the stories about having Marge and Wells Pettibone over, and the Meyerses, Scottie Meyers’ mother and father; and having dinner parties. Being out on our little patio and having cocktails, and having the pigs from the [nearby] sale barn get loose and run through the patio. And all the guys, my father and all these guys were dressed up in jackets and ties and suits, they tore them off and went tearing after the pigs to try to corral them. The women were screaming, the tables and chairs were knocked over.
Bill: Since I left Hannibal, I’ve probably lived in seven states, probably 10 cities, and almost none of them have the pull and allure and the pleasant memories of this idyllic little childhood we had here.
Jim: In many ways it really is America’s hometown. It captures that. It’s true to that idea.
