In the opening credits of the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird, a child hums as she opens an old cardboard box to reveal trinkets, an old watch on a chain, marbles, crayons and various knickknacks and keepsakes. A melody emerges, grows, lilts and lifts haunting and nostalgic. The child lovingly touches and retrieves the prized possessions and then proceeds to draw and etch.
One can imagine how, as the years elapse and the past gets murkier, every subsequent opening of the box would cause memories to rush back at the sight of each beloved object. How it would retrieve from the recesses of the mind not just impressions of an idyllic childhood, but also an entire era, with its charm as well as its rampant cruelties.