Gilford's Post Cane to be awarded to David Bickford

GILFORD — David Bickford is intimately familiar with the Boston Post Cane Award.

Not only did he present Boston Post Canes to three of Gilmanton's eldest residents while he was a selectman, his late wife Lizzie Bickford was Gilmanton's recipient in 2003.

"I might be the only family with two Boston Cane Awards," said the 99-year-old Bickford who will receive his cane — symbol of being the town's oldest resident — on Wednesday night from Gilford selectman.e

Until he sold his family home to move to Gilford after Lizzie died, Bickford, who was born April 18, 1913 spent all of his life in Gilmanton.

And as a Gilmanton resident he has just about done it all, serving as selectman for 18 years, serving on the budget committee for nine years, being the town treasurer for 22 years and employed as cemetery director for Pine Grove Cemetery in Gilmanton Iron Works for 40 years.

He was a firefighter for 28 years and served part of that time as chief, saying he finally retired for good at 83.

He keeps a picture of himself, Belknap County Sheriff Rodney Crockett, Deputy Sheriff Don Alden standing in front of some marijuana plants during the what he said was the first bust of a marijuana grower in the county in 1971.

"The guy who owned the property told me he thought something illegal was happening," Bickford said, noting at the time the Belknap County provided police coverage for Gilmanton.

"And I did all of that while working somewhere else for a living," Bickford said.

Professionally, Bickford said as a young man he "followed in the family footsteps" and became a carpenter, working in Concord.

With gas rationing during the war, he could not get enough gas to make the commute so at the age of 30 he started working for an man who had converted his Chevrolet garage in Alton Bay into a machine shop.

When the war ended and Chevy's were being made again, he became an auto mechanic rising to foreman.

"I wasn't white collar," he said. "I worked in the garage. I was the only one who could rebuilt an automatic transmission or do a front-end alignment."

Bickford said he met and married his wife in 1933.

"It was 1933 — the middle of the depression — and we both worked at an apple farm on Frisky Hill," he began.

Bickford said he was one of the higher paid people who worked there. He got paid 45 cents an hour for making 30 apple boxes each hour.

He said he was kind of shy but the two got to know each other and one day Lizzie asked him if he would like to go to the movies.

"I told her I didn't have a car," he said. He said Lizzie suggested he borrow his older brother's car.

He said his brother agreed to lend him the car if he put five gallons of gas, worth about a dollar, in it.

Bickford said his brother got to drive back and forth to work for a week for free and he ended up marrying Lizzie, the woman he stayed married to for nearly 72 years.

The Bickford's had one daughter, Evelyn, who he said was born in his grandfather's bedroom with the assistance of a nurse.

After Evelyn, who lives in the area and visits her father every day, left the nest he said Lizzie "got the hunting bug" and the two of them either hunted and fished during their spare time.

"We got four deer between the two of us," he said.

A lover of the outdoors, Bickford said he often adopted wild baby animals as pets including a woodchuck named "Chuck" and a crow named "Blackie."

Bickford still lives alone and independently. He mows his own lawn, drives and cooks Sunday dinner for the family, including baking a fresh pie.

Although he said yesterday he didn't copy any of Lizzie's pie recipes, he usually bakes a different pie each Sunday unless the weather is too hot.

If all goes as planned, Bickford said five generations of his family will be at the selectman's meeting Wednesday to see him get his Boston Post Cane. The presentation will be a 7 p.m.

CAPTION - Boston Post Cane nominee David Bickford of Gilford shows off a picture of his pet woodchuck "Chuck" posing with his dog "Jeff." He said the dog, who was a rabbit hunter, never chased his pet woodchuck although the woodchuck followed the dog everywhere he went. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Gail Ober)