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Tom Robbins
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==Early life== Robbins was born on July 22, 1932,<ref>See ''Library of Congress records'' (2012) and ''Oxford companion to American literature'' (1995). The discrepancy between Robbins's year of birth appearing in the [[Library of Congress]] [[Cataloging in Publication|Cataloging-in-Publication Data]] results from previous inaccurate reporting and the LoC rule prohibiting correction of CIP data. Robbins claimed he was born in 1932 (see ''Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life, 2014'' or ''Conversations With Tom Robbins'', 2011). See [[:File:Thomas Eugene Robbins in the 1940 US census living in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.jpg|Thomas Robbins in the 1940 US census living in Blowing Rock, North Carolina]].</ref> in [[Blowing Rock, North Carolina]], to George Thomas Robbins and Katherine Belle Robinson. Both of his grandfathers were [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptist]] preachers. The Robbins family lived in Blowing Rock before moving to [[Warsaw, Virginia|Warsaw]], [[Virginia]], when the author was still a young boy.<ref name="Tracy">{{cite news|title=A look at author Tom Robbins|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2000/books/news/03/10/tom.robbins/|access-date=April 27, 2013|newspaper=CNN|date=March 10, 2000|author=Tracy Johnson}}</ref> In adulthood, Robbins described his young self as being a "[[hillbilly]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=Tom Robbins|url=http://januarymagazine.com/profiles/robbins.html|work=January Magazine|access-date=April 27, 2013|author=Linda L. Richards}}</ref> Robbins attended Warsaw High School (class of 1949) and [[Hargrave Military Academy]] in [[Chatham, Virginia]], where he won the Senior Essay Medal. The next year he enrolled at [[Washington and Lee University]] in [[Lexington, Virginia]], to major in journalism, leaving at the end of his sophomore year after being disciplined by his fraternity for bad behavior and failing to earn a letter in basketball.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ringtumphi.net/6785/opinion/tom-robbins-i-may-or-may-not-be-hip-but-i-aint-no-hippie/|title=Tom Robbins: "I may or may not be hip, but I ain't no hippie." - The Ring-tum Phi|first1=Georgia|last1=Bernbaum|date=March 15, 2022}}</ref> In 1953, he enlisted in the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]] after receiving his draft notice, spending a year as a [[meteorologist]] in [[Korea]], followed by two years in the Special Weather Intelligence unit of the [[Strategic Air Command]] in [[Nebraska]]. He was discharged in 1957 and returned to [[Richmond, Virginia]], where his poetry readings at the Rhinoceros Coffee House led to his gaining a reputation on the local bohemian scene.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://northwestprimetime.com/news/2016/apr/30/tom-robbins/|title=Tom Robbins|website=Northwest Prime Time}}</ref>
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