Super Senior: Wally Hood

CABOT, Vt. (WCAX) - Above the village of Cabot is where Wally Hood spends most of his time, with his nose to a novel.

Reporter Joe Carroll: Reading is a big part of your life?

Wally Hood: Well, I average three to five books a week.

From Westerns to detective books, Hood is fascinated with fiction. “Last night I stayed up to 3 o’clock -- that one -- to finish it,” he said.

The 96-year-old grew up poor in Groton but his mother encouraged him to read. Hood’s basement is bursting with books. “I’ve read too many, I can’t keep track of them,” he said.

The paperbacks are works of someone’s imagination but the black and white pictures upstairs illustrate Wally’s world. “That’s the boat I went to Italy on,” he explained. Hood landed in Europe in December of 1944 when World War 2 was coming to a close. The Army soldier did see some action. “I went on a couple of raids with the 442nd Division that was the famous, all Japanese,” Hood said.

After the war, Hood was stationed both in Italy and Austria, finishing his tour in 1947.

Reporter Joe Carroll: You didn’t want to re-up?

Wally Hood: No, because I don’t like to be told what to do all the time, I did a lot of stupid things when I was younger.

The next chapter of his life was back in New England. He worked for Pratt and Whitney in Connecticut as a machinist. Every weekend though, he was back in his native Vermont to fish and hunt. “Some weekends I put 1,000 miles on the car,” he said. He also had a lead foot.

Reporter Joe Carroll: Were you a hellion?

Wally Hood: I think so. They took my license four or five times... seven, to be exact.

At 6-foot-1, with jet-black hair, Hood was also a ladies man.

Reporter Joe Carroll: How many girlfriends do you think you had?

Wally Hood: Twenty-three that I can remember.

It was Rachel who eventually tamed him down a bit. They were married for over six decades, traveling all over Canada and the U.S. Rachel passed away last year.

Now, by his side is his latest read, Louis L’Amour’s “Last of the Breed.” The author who chronicles the adventures of American men and women could write a book about Wally, and it would surely be a page-turner.

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