Editing Stompin' Tom Connors (section)

==Early life==
Charles Thomas Connors was born on February 9, 1936, at the [[Saint John Regional Hospital|General Hospital]] in [[Saint John, New Brunswick]], to Isabel Connors and Thomas Joseph Sullivan.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stompin' Tom Connors {{!}} NBLE |url=https://nble.lib.unb.ca/browse/c/stompin-tom-connors |website=nble.lib.unb.ca |access-date=28 September 2023}}</ref>

Isabel's family were [[Irish Protestants]], and his maternal grandfather, John Connors, was a sea captain from [[Boston]], Massachusetts, who had died before Charles was born. His father was a [[Catholic]] of Irish ancestry, and "may have been [[Métis]] or ... [[Mi'kmaq people|Micmac]]." Isabel Connors and Thomas Joseph Sullivan did not marry until 30 years later, as Sullivan's family were devout Catholics and did not want him marrying a Protestant; they later divorced.<ref>Tom Connors CBC radio 1973</ref> Sullivan's mother gave him $10, and he was told to leave home.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|pp=6–7}}</ref> Connors was also a cousin of New Brunswick [[fiddling]] sensation, Ned Landry.

Connors' first home was on St. Patrick Street, in the "poorest and most rundown part of Saint John". He lived there with his mother, his maternal grandmother Lucy Scribner, and his maternal stepgrandfather Joe Scribner<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=8}}</ref> When Connors was three, Lucy and Joe died within weeks of each other. This forced Isabel to move to a two-bedroom apartment.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=21}}</ref> Around this time Isabel got pregnant again by Tom's father when he briefly returned,<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=22}}</ref> and Tom got a taste of hitchhiking when he and Isabel went to visit relatives in [[Tusket Falls, Nova Scotia]]. This trip was the first time he saw his mother steal to feed them, when she stole food from a Chinese restaurant in [[Yarmouth, Nova Scotia]]. When they returned to Saint John, they moved in with friends of Isabel<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=24}}</ref> and she gave birth to Tom's sister Marie, who had to stay in hospital to have a birthmark removed. Later, Isabel and Tom moved in with her new boyfriend Terrence Messer at the corner of Clarence and Erin Streets. While they did not marry, the family would take on his surname. Terrence and Isabel did pretend to be married to find a place to live, due to the moral standards of the time.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=25}}</ref> The family was quite poor, and Terrence was a neglectful stepfather, who spent most of the family's money on wine. When they missed paying rent, the family was evicted and moved to a house on St. Patrick Street.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=26}}</ref> Marie finally came home from the hospital then,<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=27}}</ref> but she died when Tom was four, following more surgery to remove another birthmark.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=28}}</ref> To make ends meet, Isabel got a job scrubbing floors and Terrence did odd jobs.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|pp=26, 29}}</ref> The family was evicted again after a spat with the landlord when Tom started a fire in their apartment.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=31}}</ref> Their next home was a basement apartment on King Street.<ref>{{harvnb|Stompin' Tom|1995|p=32}}</ref>

Connors spent a short time living with his mother in a low-security women's penitentiary before he was seized by [[Children's Aid Society (Canada)|Children's Aid Society]] and later adopted by Cora and Russell Aylward<ref name = "MartinObit">{{cite news|title = Canada's troubadour sang of everyday lives|author = Sandra Martin|url = http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20130309.OBCONNORS0308ATL/BDAStory/BDA/deaths/?pageRequested=all|newspaper = [[The Globe and Mail]]|date = March 9, 2013|access-date = March 9, 2013|location=Toronto}}</ref> in [[Skinners Pond, Prince Edward Island|Skinners Pond]], Prince Edward Island.

At 13 he ran away from his adoptive family to hitchhike across Canada. He got his first guitar at 14, and at 15 he wrote his first song called "Reversing Falls Darling". His hitchhiking journey consumed the next 13 years of his life as he travelled among various part-time jobs while writing songs on his guitar, singing for his supper. He worked in mines and rode in boxcars,<ref name = "Bidini">{{cite news|author = Dave Bidini|author-link = Dave Bidini|title = The legend of Stompin' Tom: Dave Bidini bids farewell to a Canadian icon|url = https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/music/the-legend-of-stompin-tom-dave-bidini-bids-farewell-to-a-canadian-icon|newspaper = [[National Post]]|date = March 7, 2013|access-date = November 11, 2017}}</ref> and in the coldest part of winter he welcomed vagrancy arrests for the warm place to sleep.<ref name = "NYTobit" /> At his last stop in [[Timmins, Ontario|Timmins]], Ontario, he found himself a nickel short of a 35-cent beer at the city's Maple Leaf Hotel. Connors told the bartender to put the cap back on the bottle and he'd head for the [[Salvation army|Sally Ann]], but the bartender, Gaëtan Lepine, accepted the 30 cents and offered him a second beer if he would open his guitar case and play a few songs.<ref>{{cite interview |last= Lepine|first= Gaëtan|interviewer=  [[Brent Bambury]]|title= The bartender who discovered Stompin' Tom Connors|date= March 7, 2013|work= [[Day 6]]|url=http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2014/01/03/day-6-encore-gaet-lepine-on-stompin-tom-connors/}}</ref> These few songs turned into a 14-month run at the hotel, a weekly spot on [[CKGB-FM|CKGB]] in Timmins, eight 45-RPM recordings, and the end of the beginning for Tom Connors.