My real name is Tom Blankenship, It has been a tradition in our family over generations to name a boy Tom.
I was christened in memory of my great grandfather Tom Blankenship better known to the world as Huckleberry Finn.
As a boy growing up in Hannibal, Missouri, one of my great grandfathers mates was Samuel Clemens better known to the world as Mark Twain.
For many years Mark Twain denied that old Tom was his inspiration for the character of Huckleberry Finn, that was until he penned the follwing words in his Autobiography.
"In 'Huckleberry Finn' I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was. He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had. His liberties were totally unrestricted. He was the only really independent person--boy or man--in the community, and by consequence he was tranquilly and continuously happy and envied by the rest of us. And as his society was forbidden us by our parents the prohibition trebled and quadrupled its value, and therefore we sought and got more of his society than any other boy's."
Mark Twain painted Tom Blankenship in adult life as a pillar of the community, a hard worker who lived a good steady christian life. Some Twain scholars have even gone so far to to say that Tom went on to become a judge in Oklahoma. But as they say truth is often stranger than fiction. Like so many of his generation Tom had difficulty coming to grips with life after "The Wild West" was over. The answer to his dilema was to go on the road with circus troupes and wild west shows. He had good hands with horses and adapted himself well to the multitude of exotic animals that a circus carried in those days. He toured Europe and Australia and legend has it that for a time he even joined up with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
I am interested in the history of frontier culture in America and Australia.
Lover of Folk, Blues and Country music in its many forms.
Collector of all things rustick and rural.
Horse Rider, Fisherman and all round Mark Twain Nut.
