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At seven in the morning we reached Hannibal, Missouri, where my boyhood was spent. I had had a glimpse of it fifteen years ago, and another glimpse six years earlier, but both were so brief that they hardly counted. The only notion of the town that remained in my mind was the memory, as I had known it when I first quitted it twenty-nine years ago. That picture of it was still as clear and vivid to me as a photograph.
From this vantage ground the extensive view up and down the river, and wide over the wooded expanses of Illinois, is very beautiful—one of the most beautiful on the Mississippi, I think; which is a hazardous remark to make, for the eight hundred miles of river between St. Louis and St. Paul afford an unbroken succession of lovely pictures. (Slightly modified from Mark Twain’s The Life on the Mississippi)
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I spent 25 years of my youth in Illinois and like Mark Twain my affection for Illinois biases my judgment in its favor; I cannot say but every time I visit it especially the largest and most beautiful of its cities Chicago I feel coming home. The picture was taken on Chicago’s lakefront here I used to live. Nearby the Chicago River begins from Lake Michigan. Its waters eventually empty in the Illinois River a major tributary of the Mississippi. The Illinois River joins the Mississippi approximately 20 miles to the north of the Missouri River and the city of St Louis.
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On the terrace of my boyhood home, in Athens’ St Nicholas neighborhood, playing backgammon with my childhood friend Theodosis (on the left) while my little brother Nikos is watching the game. Mount Egaleo is noted in the background of the picture. (circa 1959)
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