section_path: Early life and education
section_name: Early life and education
paragraph_text: Early life and education
  
  My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle America as it's supposed to be. But on the cherry tree there's this pitch oozing out – some black, some yellow, and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. Because I grew up in a perfect world, other things were a contrast.
  
  David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, on January 20, 1946.: 1 The first film he saw was Henry King 's Wait till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952). His father, Donald Walton Lynch (1915–2007), was a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and his mother, Edwina "Sunny" Lynch (née Sundholm; 1919–2004), was an English-language tutor. Two of Lynch's maternal great-grandparents were Finnish-Swedish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 19th century. He recalled that his father "would drive me through the woods in his green Forest Service truck, over dirt roads, through the most beautiful forests where the trees are very tall and shafts of sunlight come down and in the mountain streams the rainbow trout leap out and their little trout sides catch glimpses of light. Then my father would drop me in the woods and go off. It was a weird, comforting feeling being in the woods." He was raised as a Presbyterian. The Lynch family often moved around according to where the USDA assigned Donald: Lynch moved with his parents to Sandpoint, Idaho, when he was two months old; two years later, after his brother John was born, the family moved to Spokane, Washington. Lynch's sister Martha was born there. The family then moved to Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia.: 1 Lynch adjusted to this transitory early life with relative ease, noting that he usually had no difficulty making new friends when he attended a new school.: 2–3 Of his early life, he remarked:
  
  I found the world completely and totally fantastic as a child. Of course, I had the usual fears, like going to school... for me, back then, school was a crime against young people. It destroyed the seeds of liberty. The teachers didn't encourage knowledge or a positive attitude.: 14
  
  Alongside his schooling, Lynch joined the Boy Scouts. Later, he said he "became so I could quit and put it behind me", and rose to the highest rank of Eagle Scout. Lynch befriended Toby Keeler, whose father, Bushnell, was a painter. Bushnell gave Lynch The Art Spirit by Robert Henri. It was a revelation, and Lynch decided to dedicate himself to "the art life".: 1
  
  At Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Lynch did not excel academically, having little interest in schoolwork, but he was popular with other students, and after leaving he decided that he wanted to study painting at college. He began his studies at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., before transferring in 1964 to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with roommate musician Peter Wolf. He left after only a year, saying, "I was not inspired at all in that place." He instead decided that he wanted to travel around Europe for three years with his friend Jack Fisk, who was similarly unhappy with his studies at Cooper Union. They had some hopes that they could train in Europe with Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka at his school. Upon reaching Salzburg, however, they found that Kokoschka was not available. Disillusioned, they returned to the United States after spending only two weeks in Europe.: 31–34
  
  My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle America as it's supposed to be. But on the cherry tree there's this pitch oozing out – some black, some yellow, and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. Because I grew up in a perfect world, other things were a contrast.
  
  David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, on January 20, 1946.: 1 The first film he saw was Henry King 's Wait till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952). His father, Donald Walton Lynch (1915–2007), was a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and his mother, Edwina "Sunny" Lynch (née Sundholm; 1919–2004), was an English-language tutor. Two of Lynch's maternal great-grandparents were Finnish-Swedish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 19th century. He recalled that his father "would drive me through the woods in his green Forest Service truck, over dirt roads, through the most beautiful forests where the trees are very tall and shafts of sunlight come down and in the mountain streams the rainbow trout leap out and their little trout sides catch glimpses of light. Then my father would drop me in the woods and go off. It was a weird, comforting feeling being in the woods." He was raised as a Presbyterian. The Lynch family often moved around according to where the USDA assigned Donald: Lynch moved with his parents to Sandpoint, Idaho, when he was two months old; two years later, after his brother John was born, the family moved to Spokane, Washington. Lynch's sister Martha was born there. The family then moved to Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia.: 1 Lynch adjusted to this transitory early life with relative ease, noting that he usually had no difficulty making new friends when he attended a new school.: 2–3 Of his early life, he remarked:
  
  I found the world completely and totally fantastic as a child. Of course, I had the usual fears, like going to school... for me, back then, school was a crime against young people. It destroyed the seeds of liberty. The teachers didn't encourage knowledge or a positive attitude.: 14
  
  Alongside his schooling, Lynch joined the Boy Scouts. Later, he said he "became so I could quit and put it behind me", and rose to the highest rank of Eagle Scout. Lynch befriended Toby Keeler, whose father, Bushnell, was a painter. Bushnell gave Lynch The Art Spirit by Robert Henri. It was a revelation, and Lynch decided to dedicate himself to "the art life".: 1
  
  At Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Lynch did not excel academically, having little interest in schoolwork, but he was popular with other students, and after leaving he decided that he wanted to study painting at college. He began his studies at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., before transferring in 1964 to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with roommate musician Peter Wolf. He left after only a year, saying, "I was not inspired at all in that place." He instead decided that he wanted to travel around Europe for three years with his friend Jack Fisk, who was similarly unhappy with his studies at Cooper Union. They had some hopes that they could train in Europe with Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka at his school. Upon reaching Salzburg, however, they found that Kokoschka was not available. Disillusioned, they returned to the United States after spending only two weeks in Europe.: 31–34