Thom Hilliard's Biography

I wuz born in the winter of 1951, well over 50 years ago, in Butler, PA....the third child of four. Seems that things were a bit hectic that particular winter, as the western part of Pennsylvania had a "rough" one.....Between mid-November 1950 and the end of December, 82 inches of snow hit the ground -and stayed! ! ! Dad Hilliard (otherwise known as Thomas Richard) drove the "route" between our R.D. #4 home (out in the boonies) and the local hospital about a dozen times! (Started to make my Mom - Marilyn Betty - more than a bit nervous, know whut I mean, Vern?) In any event, all went well and I was born on January 17, 1951 - exactly five years after my older brother Robert Alden, slightly less than four years after my sisty-ugler, Leona Marie.....Oh, I did beat one person in our family into this world - baby brudder Daphit (pronounced "DAY" - "FIT"!) (O.k., his name isn't really DAPHIT - it's DAVID) Allen....he didn't show up to join the group until October 1953....slow poke, eh???

Suffice it to say, my older brother and my sister were delighted beyond words at my arrival!! (Yeah, right!)

My younger brother looked up to me with hero worship - or maybe just because I was a little bit taller...

I wandered off to attend Jefferson Elementary in 1959 (Oops! I prolly shoulda left that out!) and then "matriculated" (Now don't that sound nasty???) at Knoch Jr/Sr High School from 1964 until they FORCED me to leave in 1969. Knoch is located in a scenic little town called Saxonburg, PA......(Pretty famous place too....John Roebling, the guy who BUILT the Brooklyn Bridge, settled in Saxonburg....way back in 1870....)

One of my favorite memories of high school was making the basketball team....especially considering that I am "vertically challenged," to say the least! Oh, and here's a real stunner - I was voted "Most Talkative in my graduating class! (Go figure...I mean, after all...I have no idea how that coulda happened....hehehehe) Shall we move on to the next portion of the "program?"