He lived through war just to get another scare

Normand Chabot lived through combat as a young Marine in North Vietnam only to arrive back in Lewiston to get a scary ride back home to Livermore Falls.

After his 13-month tour of duty, Chabot who was 20 then and is 57 now, said he flew into a Boston airport in 1969 but the next flight to Portland was canceled.

“I wanted to get home so I took a bus to Lewiston,” Chabot said Friday, “and then a taxi to Livermore Falls.”

The driver of the taxi was all over the road as it traveled up Route 4, he said.

It was 1 a.m. on a fall morning, Chabot said. He didn’t know what was wrong with the driver but figured he was tired more than anything else.

“We almost went off the road several times. The roads were not too straight then,” Chabot said. “I couldn’t sleep, I could tell you that.”

The driver was going right along, a little bit over the speed limit and the taxi tires screeched a couple times along the way.

Chabot said he was glad when he finally arrived safely.

“I wasn’t going to pay him, but I made it home alive so I paid him.”

Chabot then walked into the house and announced, “I’m home.’ My mother didn’t even know I was coming home.”

– Donna M. Perry