(film reel rolling) - [Jim] It's our summer of "Living St. Louis" favorites.

- [Pat] Good afternoon, folks, welcome to the Hannibal trolley.

We got your Tom and Becky's with us.

- [Jim] From 2008, Hannibal eighth graders vie to become the town's official Tom and Becky and the role "Channel 9" played in getting started what has become much more than just a summer job.

- Once a Becky, always a Becky, or, once a Tom, always a Tom.

(film reel rolling) - [Jim] Anne-Marie Berger visits with folks whose passion can get them caught between a rock and a hard place, and gets some good advice from a legendary Missouri caver.

- No, why should I be scared?

(film reel rolling) - [Jim] And we pull in for a burger and fries, backed by Bob Kuban's band, because we will be cruising North County.

It's all next from the "Living St. Louis" archives.

(upbeat funky music) I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we thought we would spend this summer sharing some of our favorite stories from our archives, going back now almost 20 years.

And I'm gonna start with one of my personal favorites.

It was the 4th of July that I spent in Hannibal, Missouri, to see two of Mark Twain's most famous characters come to life.

(firetruck siren wailing) It is a traditional 4th of July celebration.

There's a parade and a carnival.

But in Hannibal, Missouri, everybody knows this isn't just Independence Day.

- I'd like to welcome all of you all also to the 53rd annual Tom and Becky official announcement.

It's what we're all here for today.

(crowd applauding) - [Becky] I'm excited to pass this fun on to the new kids in town.

- Yeah, I hope they get to have as much fun adventures as we did.

- [Jim] This is it for this Tom and Becky, they'll be hanging up their straw hat and bonnet and go back to being Christian and McKayla.

Their job is done but now they join a very special group of alumni.

This is the sort of thing that may very well be mentioned in their obituaries.

It's that big of a deal.

- I didn't mean to hit you.

It was just me and Huck.

- Once a Becky, always a Becky, or once a Tom, always a Tom.

- Being Becky, I got to be an ambassador for Hannibal and travel to California and New York.

- Really made a lot of things easier and it's just a great experience overall.

- I'm probably the only person, and maybe one of the last people in the United States, to have walked through the White House barefoot.

- [Jim] Now these kids are waiting to find out which one of them will serve as the next official Tom and Becky.

They may not go to the White House this year but they'd better be ready, if invited.

This isn't just an honor, it's a responsibility, especially since Hannibal needs Tom and Becky as much as ever.

Hannibal, of course, is a Mississippi River town world famous as the home of Mark Twain.

The man who grew up as Sam Clemens drew on his boyhood experiences here to write "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".

And while Hannibal is not the bustling riverboat town or even the bustling railroad town it once was, it is still a bustling tourist center, with the Clemens home one if its treasures and main attractions.

The house across the street is the Becky Thatcher House, named for the fictional character, not for the real little girl who lived here.

(twangy country music) Local kids have been portraying Tom and Becky since 1956 and "Channel 9" actually played a key but unintended role in getting this tradition started.

It was just a few years after the station went on the air and the host of KETC's children's show, "The Finder", was leading a field trip to Hannibal, bringing hundreds of kids up by train.

The folks in Hannibal thought they should be greeted by Tom and Becky, so they chose a local boy and girl to play the parts.

And they've been picking new Tom's and Becky's every year since.

- [Pat] Good afternoon, folks, welcome to the Hannibal trolley.

My name's Pat and I'll be your driver and narrator.

We got your Tom and Becky's with us, which is really nice.

- [Jim] It is a rainy day in June, a month before the big announcement.

These kids signed up back in February and after interviews, speeches and tests the judges have narrowed it down to the five finalists for each role.

And now the training begins in earnest, and for the first time in costume.

Many of these kids have long dreamed of being here dressed like this.

- Seeing the Becky's downtown kind of drew me into it.

- I think partially the dress, of course.

- I've been preparing for it for a while, since I was a little girl.

- So, it's like the littlest kids will know everything about this program.

- [Guide] The temperature in our cave is a little bit unusual - - [Jim] But this is about so much more than just looking the part.

These kids have to know their characters and their town inside out.

- Now, Tom Sawer thought this formation on the right hand side was the prettiest in the cave.

- [Jim] Know the Tom and Becky cave story and be able to give visitors directions to get here.

Tell them how long the tour is.

If it's the dress up that first attracts a lot of kids, it's the hard work that may well drive many of them away.

- There are 110 questions on that test.

It can be over Hannibal, Mark Twain, anything.

I only missed four, luckily.

- I'm pretty sure that the real Tom wouldn't do this contest.

There's way too much memorization.

He would've cheated somehow like he did on the Bible verses, or somewhere like that.

- [Jim] Curtis Burton was a Tom and now his son Louis is a finalist.

As is Susan Voss's son Alec, and she's a former Becky.

Like a lot of kids activities, this can involve the whole family.

- He's really excited about it and I've loved working with him and kind of going over things.

- Yeah, and she told me just to smile all the time.

- [Jim] And smiling is important, but not just for pictures.

You're meeting people, talking to adults, and remember, these are 12 and 13 year old kids.

And they are now being followed around by judges with clipboards.

(twangy country music) - Personality, it's all about personality.

The way that they approach tourists, the way they interact with each other.

Whether or not they're able to stay in character.

- Their costumes, their testing.

But personality is the number one thing.

That's what makes the Tom and Becky.

- [Jim] They realized a while ago that this was really too big of a job for just one boy and one girl, so now all these finalists will be working in town as Tom's and Becky's.

But the two who are chosen as the official Tom and Becky will get the real perks, like the trip to California in the spring for the Calaveras County Jumping Frog Festival, based on Mark Twain's short story.

- I think it'll be fun if I don't get it, but I think it might be 10 times funner if I do get it, cuz I wanna be able to say I was the official Becky.

- You gotta just be out there and show all you got.

- A good attitude.

Don't hit your Becky with your pole and just have fun.

- [Jim] It is now July 3rd.

Everyone is in the Mark Twain Museum and the finalists are being observed and interviewed one more time, but now by three guest judges who know the Tom's and Becky's only by number.

And this is where "Channel 9" comes back into the story.

Since the station helped get all of this started, we were asked to send a judge.

So, I went to Hannibal and they gave me a clipboard.

We were supposed to chat and watch them interact with each other and with visitors, and we were supposed to ask them a lot of questions.

This is where all that studying would pay off.

So now, where's Mark Twain buried?

He's not buried here.

- He's buried in Elmira, New York.

- With his wife and some of his kids.

- [Jim] Not only can they tell you about Mark Twain and his family, they can help yours: advise you where to get a nice meal, or a cheap meal, where to stay, where to take the kids.

Every Tom has to be able to work with every Becky and vice versa, and they all have to be able to perform together the engagement scene from "Tom Sawyer".

- You ain't to ever marry anybody but me, either.

- Well, certainly, of course, that's part of it.

- It's so nice, I've never heard it before.

- It's ever so jolly, why me and Amy Lawrence.

- Oh, Tom Sawyer, the first you've ever been engaged to!

- [Tom] Won't you take it?

(ring clattering) - Oh, Tom.

- Come back, Tom.

- And that's how - - Tom and Becky became engaged.

- [Jim] They seem to enjoy the little performances and the strolling around and the being friendly.

What they couldn't have looked forward to was what was coming next.

After lunch, everyone went to a local Bed and Breakfast, then one by one, each Tom and each Becky had to face the three guest judges who were waiting to be impressed and charmed.

- Just sit down and relax.

- Should I carve this slingshot?

- [Becky] This is my Bible.

- Would you like some?

- [Jim] No.

- [Judge] Sure, okay, go ahead.

- [Jim] Our scores would now be combined with all of the previous tests and evaluations.

And for the kids, it was all over but the waiting.

Tomorrow, the 4th of July, they would know which one of them would be Hannibal's new reigning Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.

(kids chatting) (crowd chattering) (crowd applauding) They will each give a short speech to this crowd and then everyone will find out the winners.

The tradition is for the outgoing Tom and the outgoing Becky to reveal the winners with a kiss.

(crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) - Congratulations again to the 2008-2009 official Tom and Becky.

- [Jim] This is not the kind of contest that ends with the announcement of the winners.

Matt Carr and Candace Howe are just getting started on a full year serving as Hannibal's official Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.

In Hannibal, at age 13, it really doesn't get any better than this.

For them, and all the finalists, this will be a year they will remember.

And they won't be the only ones, because in Hannibal, Missouri... - [Faye] Once a Becky, always a Becky, or once a Tom, always a Tom.

- Thank you all for coming.

We look forward to seeing you next year for the 54th Annual Tom and Becky.

Thank you.

(crowd cheering) - Now another real Missouri story with a cave in it.

In fact, lots of caves.

Now, we do a lot of stories, but they're usually not about places, they're almost always about people.

And that's the case with this story from 2008 by Anne-Marie Berger.

(upbeat bright bluegrass music) - [Anne-Marie] Last Fall, the MVOR, the Mississippi Valley Ozark Region, held their 100th convention at the Riverview Ranch in Bourbon, Missouri.

Now, there weren't any meeting rooms, name tags, or obligations at this semi-annual get together.

The only requirement to attend was a sense of adventure, because if you are a member of the MVOR, you're a caver.

So, what's a caver?

- Well, over the years, it has evolved that cavers are people who scientifically explore caves and spelunkers are the people that go in with tennis shoes and flashlights.

They're the ones that get lost and we have to go in and rescue 'em.

- [Anne-Marie] There are 12 geographical areas in the United States that represent the National Speleological Society and the MVOR is one of them.

The encompass parts of 10 states, but mostly Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.

The MVOR holds two conventions a year, hosting anywhere between 300 and 500 caving enthusiasts.

They camp, socialize, cave a little, and even the inexperienced, like myself, got a little taste of what it's like to try and slither through a cave.

Oh, it's really small up here.

(Anne-Marie panting) What's up?

Okay.

Head first?

- Well, we have a vast variety of interests in caves and in our organization that varies all the way from recreational and sporting to the extreme scientific.

- [Anne-Marie] They study cave life and environment, they map and survey.

And as you can see in this video shot by cavers in a cave that had never been explored before, the spaces can be small, slick, sharp, and vertical.

Is it dangerous?

- Well, only if you're not prepared.

Yes, it can be every dangerous if you don't know what you're doing and you go in with a flashlight and tennis shoes, you're gonna get lost or you're gonna get hurt.

But if you go in with at least three other people and you take proper lighting and proper clothing it's not as dangerous as getting in your car and driving to the cave.

- [Anne-Marie] Members of the MVOR say that caving is for anybody of any age and background.

- I was once caving with a nuclear physicist.

Another time I was caving with a dissolute bum, but that was all right.

- Jane Fisher knows more about caving than anyone.

This is not regulation?

- Not regulation, but then, I'm not all that regulation either.

(Jane laughing) Ask anybody that knows me.

- [Anne-Marie] And that's the truth.

Fisher is 92 years old and she was at the first MVOR 50 years ago.

And while it's been a few years since she's gone caving, Fisher is an icon in this community.

- [Man] Thank you, Jane.

- You're welcome.

- Thanks very much, Jane.

(Jane laughing) - [Anne-Marie] She even has a cave named for her in Meramec State Park.

And let me tell you, you don't get a cave named after you for just being a nice person.

Jane Fisher is one tough caver who's guaranteed to leave you speechless.

What's your most memorable caving experience?

- Being trapped underground in Bromore with nine people.

And we had gone up the underground river, which was about two feet deep for about, oh, maybe a mile, more or less.

And I heard water coming in where there had been no water, out of the walls.

And that two foot river had gone to 12 feet.

And it's the only way we could get back to where the camp was and the entrance to the cave was.

So, we put a gauge in the river, waited several hours till it went down.

And we kept warm by sitting on a rock with our bodies close together because we were all wet.

- Mmhmm.

- We sat with our bodies close together or wiggling a little bit, and that's how we kept our warmth.

We sat around in a circle.

- Were you scared?

- No, why should I be scared?

You can only die.

- Huh.

(Anne-Marie chuckling) - I've known this guy how many years?

A long time.

Long time, right.

- [Anne-Marie] Jane Fisher has been in caves all over the world and she has the patches to prove it.

- I have been many, many places where there are, of course, no patches.

They're wild caves.

- [Anne-Marie] Uh-huh.

- They don't have names.

But these are some of the places, I've climbed mountains in Canada, I've scuba dived in Jamaica here.

And in China in '93 and in Africa in '97.

- [Anne-Marie] If you think caving is only for the young, take a lesson from Jane.

She had lived half her life before she picked up the hobby of crawling through mud and discovering places no one had ever seen.

And just a few years ago, was invited to become a member of the Explorers Club, an organization whose members have included Charles Lindbergh and Jacques Cousteau.

We were talking about the Explorers Club.

- These later years, since I was 60, I've crowded in the lifetime of living.

The wonderful thing that I've enjoyed learning about being alive is the fact that bodies get old, they age, they die, but the spirit is timeless.

The spirit doesn't have to get old and mine hasn't.

- No, it sure hasn't.

- I've still got that, I've still got that happy little kid inside of me.

(upbeat bright bluegrass music) - [Anne-Marie] Why do you do it?

- I've been asked that question a thousand times and I don't really have an answer.

All I can say is why do people climb the highest mountains or why do they explore the oceans?

The answer I always give is because it's there.

- Finally, this next story won't need any updating because when Patrick Murphy did it it was already about things in the past.

And it is unapologetically nostalgic.

- [Patrick] The Baby Boomers have finally racked up enough mileage to wax nostalgic about the good old days.

Two former North County kids, Craig Kaintz and Bill Kasalko, have written a book about their days growing up there in postwar suburbia.

They took me on a tour of their old stomping grounds to show me the sites and share some memories.

- I think the charm of it was really very reminiscent of the old TV show, "Happy Days".

It was great being out here, from the standpoint that there was less traffic, it was wide open spaces.

You could go to shopping centers with your bike.

You could run down to a restaurant.

Meet friends at a field to play.

It was very accessible.

- [Patrick] Today, there are still remnants of North County's early history, like: Fort Bellefontaine, the first US military post in the Louisiana territory, the General Daniel Bissell house built in 1812, the old Mississippi River Castles pulling in water for the city, and this blacksmith shop, shaky but still standing along Bellefontaine Road since 1875.

But when Bill and Craig grew up here, cornfield and farmhouses were giving way to subdivisions, malls and fast food restaurants.

Teenage memories tend to revolve around food, and there was plenty of it.

Burgers at Circle's Steak N' Shake, onion rings at Ponticello's, sliders and belly bombers at White Castle.

Hotspots included: Ed's Bar-B-Q, the Goody Goody diner on Natural Bridge, and A&W root beer on Halls Ferry.

Or, a slice of cool and delicious from Sam the watermelon man.

♪ Haven't you heard about the guy ♪ ♪ Known as the cheater - [Pat] Those were the days when you could catch Bob Kuban in the In-men at a teen town or CYC dance, ♪ Mistreat her and Ike and Tina Turner at Club Imperial.

You could play put putt and ride the magic carpet slide in North Lindbergh, bowl and play pinball at Suburban Lanes, watch "The Blob" or "Rodan" at The Rio, or hide your buddies in the trunk and slip into the Olympic Drive-In for a racy movie.

- And I have to add drag racing to the discussion because if you look at this bridge, and the width of this bridge, people look at and say, "How did two cars ever get by on a bridge like this?"

But there was quite a bit of drag racing on this bridge, as well as on Hull Street.

And this bridge has, as most people know, a pretty sharp bend in it called Dead Man's Curve.

And there's been several stories over the years of people who didn't quite navigate the curve, going at, shall we say, a high rate of speed, but this was, again, a popular place to hang out.

- [Patrick] Or you could get your thrills on a summer day on the bluffs above the Chain of Rocks Bridge, at one of the region's biggest amusement parks.

So, no park here now, mostly houses, but this was the Chain of Rock Amusement Park?

- Right, this was the site of the Chain of Rocks Amusement Park, or the Chain of Rocks Funfair Park was the other name it had.

And in its heyday, this was the Six Flags of the day.

- [Patrick] Great roller coaster?

- Yeah, great roller coaster.

They used to have a big wooden roller coaster and that, eventually I think, either they tore it down ...

I don't believe it burnt down.

But then they built the Mad Mouse.

It wasn't all that big, but when you got on the Mad Mouse, the first thing it did was turn right and headed really what looked like to go over the cliff to the river, down to Riverview Drive.

And then it made a sharp right turn.

And then kind of took you on some twist and turns, but that was the popular rollercoaster at Chain of Rocks, the Mad Mouse.

- A lot of lunches lost on that curve.

- I would guess, yeah, that was a pretty, pretty wicked curve.

And then, there was Holiday Hill over by the airport, little smaller scale, but another popular place.

- [Patrick] I've heard stories this was a great place to go parking too.

- Yeah, well my partner Bill can tell those stories, I can't relate to that, but yeah, there's some - (Patrick laughing) There's some rumors about young men and young ladies coming up here, cause it was kind of dark around here, and parking on some of these side streets.

Personally, can't relate to it, but - - [Patrick] I'm sure, of course not.

(Craig chuckling) But if any activity defined 50s and 60s teenage suburbia it would have to be the fine art of cruisin'.

And Chuck-A-Burger on the Rock Road was one of the prime stops to spend your allowance and show off your ride.

- [Craig] Chuck-A-Burger was built in 1957 and this is one of the original cruising restaurants in North County.

- If you come to North County, it's Chuck-A-Burger.

You mention the word and everybody, you're gonna go for a burger, they gotta go for Chuck.

- Cruising was a culture of a sort, back at that point in time.

You kinda had to define what was the best time of the evening to drive through, what your car had to look like to really pick up girls, and how long you wanted to stay at one particular place, cause you really didn't wanna grow moss on one particular restaurant for very long.

- And if you pulled in and you didn't order anything, then sooner or later the car hop would come up saying, "You gonna order something, or you just gonna sit here?

And if not, you better move on."

And so then it was time to maybe go to another place to cruise through there.

(upbeat jazzy rock music) - [Patrick] And even if the photos are a little blurry, and our memory is selective, a look back brings some clarity and simplicity to that crazy time of life we called growing up.

- And that's "Living St. Louis".

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we'll see you next week with more of our favorites.

- [Spokesperson] "Living St. Louis" is made possible by the support of the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation, the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan Charitable Trust, and the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat rock music)