1917

Judson Crandall was born in the year 1900, the child conceived and delivered in the house his father built across the road from what would become the Creed home. He was born in Ludlow, Maine, and has lived there his entire life, a fact that grounds his identity and his authority as a storyteller of the town's history. His birth year places him as a man who came of age during the First World War, though his own service took him no farther than Bayonne, New Jersey, a place he found nasty even in 1917. This single year, 1917, marks the boundary of his youthful ambition and the beginning of his settled life in Ludlow, where he would marry Norma, work on the railroad, and become the keeper of the town's deepest secrets.

The Year of the Great War

1917 was the year the United States entered the Great War, and Jud Crandall, then seventeen, joined up. He was sent to Bayonne, New Jersey, a posting he later described as a "nasty place" even in 1917. He was just as glad to come back to Ludlow, and he did, marrying Norma and putting in his time on the railroad. The year 1917 thus represents the outer limit of Jud's experience beyond Ludlow; he returned and never left again, becoming a permanent fixture in the town.

A Life Anchored in Ludlow

Jud's birth in 1900 and his return from the war in 1917 set the stage for a life lived entirely within the boundaries of Ludlow. He saw a lot of life right there, as he told Louis Creed, and his stories about the town, its people, and its secrets—including the Pet Sematary and the Micmac burying ground—are the product of a lifetime of observation. The year 1917 is a fixed point in his personal chronology, the year he left and came back, confirming that his place was always in Ludlow.