Tom Lyford

I was born in July, 1946, the second of four children, right here in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine some time before there were such things as computers, calulaters, cell phones, or ATMS. I didn't even see a TV until I was 8 or 9. And I'd say 95% of the movies at the cinema were black & white while I grew up, and about the same percentage of cars were just black.

I went to Pleasant Street Elementary school (that was scary-- wouldn't want to do THAT again!), Mayo Street Junior High (ditto!), and Foxcroft Academy, graduating in 1964. I lived in a magic neighborhood which, in retrospect, resembles the neighborhood of Scout and Jem in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

When I was about 7 years old, I saw Gregory Peck's MOBY DICK at the Center Theater down on Main Street, and that changed my life: I became a movie buff and simply lived to get into the movies (sneaking in at least 3 times a week). (Several times in my later life I toyed with the idea of signing on to a whaling vessel for 3 or more years at a time.) Center Theater became the cultural center of my universe, the temple in which I was tutored on such mysteries as how to hold a cigarette (or match) in your mouth while delivering sardonic one-liners. Oh, and S-E-X, of course.

My first real "job" was delivering the Bangor Daily News to 46 customers over in the Dover side of Dover-Foxcroft. Other early "careers" included a couple of part time stints as an incompetent custodian (Methodist Church, Prudential Insurance office), and being a "pump jockey" (gas station attendant) at the wonderful world of Huey Cole's Esso Station in Monument Square. My great memories there include dropping a customer's Oldsmobile half way down into the grease pit during a lube job, and putting a large milk truck up on the lift... right up through the glass window panels of the overhead automatic garage door. I did a couple of unpleasant stints at the Guilford woolen mill, as did everyone...

In '64 I began attending college at Farmington State College of the University of Maine (affectionately abbreviated by students back then as Farmington S.C.U.M.). There I majored in English, minored in History, and tried to will myself to become a beatnik a la Maynard G. Krebbs, the likable character of the pop TV show, THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS: