Did You Know? - Visitn’ with Hollis Squier

The VT Folklife Archive is full of amazing first-person accounts of everyday life in Vermont and New England–past and present. As a part of our efforts to increase the searchability of material in the archive, Associate Archivist Susan Creighton has taken on the task of reading through transcripts and identifying the topics discussed in them. As she does, she encounters some delightful stories–stories we share with you in “Did You Know?”

One of these interviews was with Hollis Squier of Tinmouth, VT. This interview with Hollis took place with VFC interviewer Greg Sharrow on August 6, 2003 for issue number 9 of our publication Visitin’.

Hollis's family moved to Vermont in the early 1950's from upstate New York and took up farming in Tinmouth. Hollis took to small-town life, and from a young age got involved in town government. One of Hollis's early town positions was as the road commissioner - a role he took on as a young man in his early twenties.

Greg: So what did you do when you were at a point when you were ready to go out?

Hollis: Well, I actually worked at the neighbor’s farm for a little while ‘cause he could pay a little more money and my father said, you know, go ahead. My other brothers had, too. After that I went to work for a paving company, {Wilton} Brothers Paving in Center Rutland for a few years. And I worked for a surveyor for a couple of years. And then I got elected Road Commissioner here, which I’ve been for the last twenty-five years now, so.

Greg: Gosh, so you were young when you were Commissioner.

Hollis: I started when I was twenty-three. Be forty-eight this summer, in another month or so. I mean, some of the people said, “Well, you’re too young to be Road Commissioner.” And I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but don’t tell me I can’t do something, ‘cause I can do it. The fella before me did it for thirty years and he says, “If you think you’re gonna keep everybody happy,” he says, “you’re gonna have to be a saint. And he says, “You and I both know you ain’t no saint. The best way you can do it, the best way you know how. They don’t like it, they vote you out of office.” And he says, “You’re not gonna keep everybody happy.” He said, “You keep half the people happy,” he said, “you’re doing a helluva good job.” He says, “What makes one person happy makes the other person very unhappy.” And he’s certainly right on that aspect. He says, “You gotta have a tough hide.” And that’s what it is. But a few years ago the selectmen told me they figured I was up around eighty-five percent keeping ‘em happy, so I must be doing something right.

Hollis has also been part of the local fire department as both the fire chief, and the assistant fire chief, as well as a number of other roles for which he was compensated in a variety of ways.

Greg: You know, looking down through here: road commissioner, planning commissioner, member of zoning board of adjustment, town agent. Working on the school addition, the fire house renovations, community center. Plowing driveways, digging water lines, fixing broken things.

Hollis: Well, the water lines, there was three old gals that lived up here, their water line was spring fed. Of course, way up on the side of the mountain. And the water line, about every year, would spring a hole in it and so they’d call me up and we’d go up and find the hole and I’d come over and dig it up and I’d charge ‘em a pie or two. They didn’t have much money. I’d, “Just make me a pie or something.” You know, if I was working on somebody’s car, I’d do the same thing. Fix their car up for them. “What do I owe you?” Well, I’d, “Make me a pie. Make me a pie or something along that idea.” Just to—it wasn’t about money, it was about helping people, you know?

Beyond his engagement in town government, Hollis also expresses love for his community through his involvement with the Tinmouth Land Trust.

Greg: So, you know, the president of the Tinmouth Land Trust and a founding member, you know, that seems like a pretty visionary kind of thing to do.

Hollis: Yeah, we’re really taking a lot of steps down that road. We’ve got a lot of land in Tinmouth that’s gone into the Tinmouth Land Trust or the Vermont Land Trust. They just had a meeting here last week. The whole Vermont Land Trust came up and had a big meeting here and there was a couple hundred of people up here. And they were really—they gave a couple awards out for people here in town that been doing so much to try to preserve Tinmouth the kind of the way that it is. We’re trying to look ahead, you know, ‘cause people say they want to try to keep Tinmouth like Tinmouth if they can.

But perhaps what is Hollis's most unusual and endearing position in the town—the official "Town Hugger"—came about in an unexpected way.

Greg: Well, where’d it come from? How did that come about?

Hollis: Well, back in the selectmen’s meeting one day and, of course, there’s a lot of appointed things. And this was after town meeting and they were finished appointing fence viewers and things along that line. And we’re not totally sure how it came about. My sister, Gail, and I and one of the selectmen had appointed all these things. They were must about done when I walked in to check with Gail on something and I think it was one of the selectmen said, “Well, we ought to have something different, something more fun, you know. Something like “town hugger,” something like that.” And Gail said, “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” And somebody said, “Do you want to be the town hugger?” And I said, “Of course, I do.” You know, I said, “I’ve always said there ought to be more, a million more hugs in the world instead of all the fighting and squabbling.” And I said, “Yes, I would love to be.” And, you know, I did it—you know, it wasn’t actually official then, they did it later on to be official, but I had done it for years that way...... A few people think it’s a little foolish, others think it’s the best thing that ever happened. And I say it’s a great thing in a crazy world. Where the world is upside down, it’s a great thing. And I tell people I have no boundaries. I says I’ll go anywhere at anytime that they want a hug. And sometimes, you know, somebody’s feeling down or sick, you know, their neighbor or something will call me up and say, “Well, can you go give ‘em a hug?” And I’m, “Sure.” I mean, what it’s basically all about is there was a lady on the back road over here who was getting divorced and I drove by her house going home one night and she gave me the saddest wave. She was out on the front lawn. Just the slowest, saddest wave. And I like, you know, I looked back as I was going by and I saw a U-Haul van in thedooryard, so I said, “Well, she’s moving.” So I backed back up and I got out and she was around the corner of the house and I said she looked like a gal could use a hug. And she says, “Boy, could I!” And she latched onto me for close to five minutes, hugging and crying. And we talked for fifteen, twenty minutes after that, and, you know, she didn’t want to leave Tinmouth. She hated doing this and that and getting divorced, but had to. And, you know, liked the people here. And we hugged again for another couple of minutes and the kids all come out and we talked and I left. And she says, “You know, there’s happy tears here, too. I’m so glad you stopped. You have no idea how much that means to me.” You know. And that’s what it’s about.

This is just one of many stories of Vermont folks who participate in community life to help their towns run smoothly and to improve the lives of those around them. Thank you, Hollis, you make Vermont a better place.