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Maine's Aging Boomers: A profile of Tim Bolton
From staff reports Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 02/20/2008

Tim Bolton said his generation's fearlessness in the face of tear gas and defiance of authority is its legacy to date.

But don't finish the chapter in the history books yet.

"We're not going to go quietly into the night," said Bolton, who shares his birthday with Hillary Clinton. "We're a very vocal generation. Maybe sometimes a little too self-absorbed."

Bolton, a Manhattan native who finished college in California, made his western pilgrimmage at a very interesting time in history.

"I was there during the People's Park Eldridge Cleaver period," he said. "I saw Eldridge Cleaver speak the day before he disappeared and went to Algeria."

Cleaver, a civil rights activist and writer, fled the country while facing attempted murder charges following a confrontation with police.

Bolton opposed the Vietnam War and described himself as more observer than activist.

"I saw some pretty hairy things," Bolton said. "Police actions against students, arresting everybody in sight on the street. The power of the state.

There was more education going on in the streets than there in the classrooms. Also getting tear-gassed from helicopters."

He eventually landed in Maine and has worked for the state Department of Transportation for more than 20 years.

He loves to travel, goes to the opera and has bookcases crammed full, with titles by James Joyce, Frank McCourt and Orson Welles.

He calls himself a liberal Democrat.

When it comes to younger generations, Bolton said he is worried that most of the people he sees at cultural events are older.

"I go to the opera and symphony and I look at the audience and there's very few people under 50," he said. "I wonder what moves younger people because it doesn't seem to be the things that interest me."

Bolton has been active in the West Side Neighbors group, the city historic preservation commission, and was recently elected to the city charter commission. Whether for pay or as a volunteer, Bolton and others of his generation want to be involved.

"I think we'll have a lot to say about how the Social Security thing is going to be handled," he said. "That is going to be a problem as time goes on. I think it's going to be a more activist generation for much longer than would have been true before."

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