HALLOWELL — Harold Booth planned for retirement, giving him the flexibility to leave the work force at age 46.

In this respect, he doesn’t feel like a typical baby boomer.

But in many ways, he is very much a product of his generation. Now 58, Booth lives in Hallowell — and convinced AARP to let him join even before he turned 50.

“We didn’t accept the world the way it was given to us,” he said. “We looked around and said, ‘No, let’s do it differently.’ In general, it’s that willingness to break the mold that will be our lasting legacy.”

As a retiree, Booth took an adult-education class in how to make stained glass, the evidence of which hangs in the windows of his home. He helps out at church, likes to sing and volunteers his time to Democratic causes.

Booth said his financial savvy will likely protect him from the anticipated troubles with the Social Security system. But he worries for other boomers.

“I don’t carry debt,” he said. “I don’t spend a lot of money. Looking around at my peers, I’m struck at how different I am in terms of the way I handle my money and other life decisions.”

Born in South Africa to missionary parents, Booth moved with his family to Maine at age 15, when they put down roots in Greenville. After high school, he got his degree at the University of Maine at Orono.

He went to work for the state in the public health lab, where he examined samples from drunken drivers and testified in court.

Booth said events that happened in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Stonewall riot, a New York City uprising considered a turning point in the gay rights movement, shaped his life.

“Back in ‘69 I was still severely closeted and up in Maine,” he said. “Which is not exactly leading edge, although we’re getting better.”

Booth loves his Hallowell home, and the funky, accepting city he chose when he put down roots here years ago. His free time is his own, some of which is spent working around the house and on his cars.

He strongly feels his generation is like no other — very different from those born just before and just after the boomer period.

“When the boomers hit, all hell broke loose,” he said. “The country has not been the same since. The rising edge of the boomers were the ones who protested the war. We did Woodstock, we changed society in many, many ways by breaking molds all over the place.”