If you have lived in the midcoast area for longer than 90 minutes, you must have met Willard “Swiss” Hardy. First of all, he has worked at Rankin’s Hardware, pointing out the tenpenny nails to yuppies for 35 years. Before that, he delivered fuel for the Camden Farmer’s Union, tried poultry farming, bus driving and landscaping, and even worked as a deputy sheriff.

In his spare time, he was a Lincolnville selectman for 20 years or so, plus a few terms on the planning board, when he wasn’t teaching just about every instrument to the school band. He was instrumental in getting the community building built.

Now at 80, he still pulls a regular shift at Rankin’s and attends at least two or three dances a week. He also will douse a well for you, if you need it.

He has told so many stories for so long and heard “You ought to write a book” so many times that he finally did, “Still Going Strong at 80.” He figures that it cost him about $1,700 for 500 books, now on sale for $5.50.

“I gave away a lot of them. I know a lot of people,” said Hardy of his chances of a financial success. A lot of books have been written by a lot of people with a lot less to say. The book offers a charming look back at simpler times, simpler places, and bread for 7 cents a loaf.

The family history dates back to the days when his father “Si” would actually run cattle drives from Youngtown Road in Lincolnville to Sagamore Farms, a model dairy farm, which is on the current site of the Camden Hills State Park. The family had a milk delivery route from horse-drawn carts.

His father moved into a farm in 1920, the house where Swiss Hardy lives today. You could say he has roots in the community. The family grew cucumbers, which were shipped to Boston by steamboat.

It was an idyllic childhood, although there was not a great deal of cash money. Hardy remembers weeding a corn patch from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for 25 cents. When he complained to his mother, she reminded him that she used to babysit for a penny a day. But there were plenty of children in the neighborhood and Lake Megunticook was about a mile away.

Swiss was a natural ham and took to the stage at age 10, singing at the Tranquility Grange and took tap dancing lessons at cousin Doris Rolerson’s house in Camden. The dance lessons were paid for by morning milk deliveries. He learned to drive on Uncle Clyde’s Model T.

There were no school buses and each family had to arrange for their own transportation. The Hardy children took a ride with a Camden office worker, which got them to school 21/2 hours early. There were few plows, so the children often skied to school. When Hardy finally got a car, he started driving 12 neighborhood children to school, much to the consternation of the local constabulary.

When he graduated, he decided to go to college and took a job at Hughes Mill on Gould Street in Camden from 7 a.m. to 4 a.m. for the whopping salary of $14.25 a week, a major upgrade from 25 cents a day at the corn patch.

He and a friend decided to get a cabin on Stillwater River when they enrolled at the University of Maine during the early 1940s. The unheated cabin became a problem when the temperature dipped to 35 degrees below zero. Because of gas rationing, there was so little traffic that Hardy once walked from Orono to Stockton Springs, trying to hitchhike. That was his first and last attempt at hitchhiking. He either took the bus or arranged a ride.

His college career was ended by a draft notice from Uncle Sam. As a cook, Hardy cooked and mashed potatoes for 10,000 troops at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey. When he was sent overseas as part of the Battle of the Bulge, he rode in style aboard the Queen Mary. Later in the war, he escorted German prisoners to the Nuremberg trials.

Hardy returned to Lincolnville when bread cost 7 cents a loaf and coffee was 25 cents a pound. He married Virginia Hardy on Easter Sunday 1946. The plan to return to UMaine was dashed when his uncle, Clyde Packard, offered to sell him his dairy herd.

One of Hardy’s few regrets was that purchase.

“Instead of a free education [on the GI Bill] I ended up at the school of hard knocks. That doesn’t offer a great deal of education,” he said.

Hardy had some hard times but got a pretty good book out of it. If you want to hear the rest, drop by Rankin’s. Or buy a copy of his book, “Still Going Strong at 80.” Good title. Hardy is still going strong at 80.

The books are also available at Crossroads at Lincolnville Center, Owl and Turtle Book Store and several other stores in the area.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.