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Tim Heffernan is the youngest child in the Heffernan family. After doing an interview with his brother, I was really excited to ask him some of the same questions and see what different responses would come up. In the interview, Tim was more reserved than Gerald in talking about his family, but I gathered important new insights by filling in stories and listening “between the lines”. There were many parallels: when I asked Tim about his religious views after having grown up in such a strict Catholic household, he told me that they put priests and father figures on pedestals. They did not question authority. However, since the recent priest scandals in the Catholic Church, he has stopped going to church. One of the things Tim stressed was what he learned from growing up with such a large family in Little Ireland: you don’t look for handouts and when you bought something, you took care of it. Like Gerald, Tim also talks about flatlanders and notes higher taxes, less community, and the common, sentimental desire of people moving in to “live the life we used to live”. Despite many similarities, there are differences between the brothers. As an auto mechanic and real estate broker, Tim has followed a very different line of work than Gerald, which I felt was a difference that drew them apart in many ways.

00:45 Tim Heffernan as the “baby of the family”

02:04 Started school in Bristol, then moved to Jerusalem SH with two other brothers

03:55 1 month old when the house burned down

05:50 “He was a strict father… but really no problems”, On Catholic household- “It was no problem growing up like that”

07:10 He doesn’t go to church since three years ago because of the priest scandals. “Putting them on the pedestal…”

09:25 Talks about the distance and distortion created by the media. “World War II meant something… when everyone came back they were respected”

12:35 Taught to do things on their own; good memories: “Up home in Starksboro… was a good memory”

12:50 Dairy farm

14:12 Grandparents. “We respected him”, his grandmother’s sweet rolls, maple sugaring

15:55 Sugaring in Starksboro, it has become easier to do, “we want more!”

17:15 Possessive land owners moving from cities in Starksboro “trying to live what we used to live” “they have the means to do with”

18:30 Predicts many more fires, people moving in don’t know the care that goes into using a woodstove.

20:00 Changes in the town- “You don’t know your neighbors”, higher taxes, less farms

21:00 On opportunities to work in Starksboro as a teenager, “I wish I had stayed there” Farmed at 13 to support himself and go to Bristol HS. “No problem at all!”

24:40 Punk- “Punk was a chip off the father… he was strictly Irish”.

25:45 Self-sufficiency: “You didn’t look for handouts…When you bought something, you took care of it”, combat boots for example

29:00 Started at Randolph VT Tech, “and I decided to like that”

29:30 California for a few months.

31:15 –chimes- Real estate in Bristol. People coming in say- “I’ll come here and make it my way”… it’s a “bedroom community”.

33:45 In 2020- Would like to see Starksboro slow down! The more people you get, the more demands. Suggestions on how to slow down? “Put a gate up!” –laughs-

37:30 His relationship to his brother Gerald- “We’re probably both educated… but his education is in history”

39:45 Auto mechanics… talking about his work.

43:20-53:00 Showing me some pictures

56:45 Talking about changes in the environment, expensive approaches to environmental problems, “Everyone took care of themselves… didn’t have landfills”

59:00 Losing skills- “Different strokes for different folks”. “Some folks say, ‘Teachers were taught to read and follow directions’… I never said that to Gerald”

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My interview with Max brought out many wonderful stories about the contrast of life in Phoenix, Arizona and Middlebury College. Max was the third baby to be born in a newly built hospital, he has lived in three different new houses, and went to school in a brand new high school. He described Phoenix as a “resort community” that was sprawled out and walled in. He didn’t know what most of his neighbors’ backyards looked like because everything was gated and walled off, and he remembers spending much of his time driving in cars on jammed freeways. One of the most striking descriptions he gave about his memories of Phoenix was: “My whole life to me has just been one big traffic jam, sitting on the freeway”. This eloquent description brings up a great image.
He spoke about his childhood fantasies of celebrating Halloween on a cold night with colorful fall leaves instead of rollerblading to houses with fake plastic decorations and fake pumpkins put up everywhere on a hot night. This made him feel like something was missing from his life, and when he visited Vermont at age ten, he knew that this was exactly the environment and community he wanted.
When Max came to Middlebury, he came as a Feb student. Like most Febs, he spent his fall semester traveling and working, but unlike many Febs he felt like this experience helped him appreciate what Middlebury offered. He worked in Chile with an after school program for school kids, and remembers being given huge responsibilities. However, instead of missing this incredibly real experience, he said that he realized “I need to go to college. I need to educate myself”. When he spoke about the experience he had in Chile he said, “I got to be a definite adult in a foreign country speaking a foreign language”. Because of this, he feels like he thinks differently about the future than many of his friends from home: he isn’t worried about what he will do when he graduates and instead is focused on being active here and appreciating his life at the moment. When asked what advice he would give new students at Middlebury he says he would tell them to keep an open mind, don’t assume the community to be something that it’s not, get involved, and don’t be judgmental about anything.
Interviewing Max was a great experience for me. I found it much easier to ask questions than to answer questions, and it was truly a wonderful feeling to listen to someone intently and be able to hear them tell me a story- a real gift. It makes me wish I could do this every week, just interview a different person every week. I felt like interviews help me draw connections between events in people’s lives; it is so interesting to see what factors come together to shape your journey in life, and Max was a great example of this. I was fascinated by the descriptions of growing up in the suburbs because it was so different from was I had experienced, and I was able to connect with the thoughts Max had about coming to Middlebury and becoming a part of the community here. I found it interesting that both new and familiar stories were equally important to me. Thank you!