Hal Hexum

At the convention, while waiting in line to save seats, right after the man gives the pep talk about how there are more than enough chairs for everybody, and there's no reason to run, my dad cupped his hands and yelled out: "He's lying, there's not enough chairs, RUN!"

Hexum kids now

The Hexum Kids

This is one of the last pictures taken where Kim is the tallest and not the shortest.

mr hexum

Dad

He's afraid because he's going to be sent to New York City for Elder School and I was chatting with him on the phone about it. I said, there's nothing to worry about! You'll be completely taken care of, and your whole day will be spent at School. You don't have to worry about the big City. Some of the other guys will probably want to go explore, but you can just say, "No Thanks, I'm going to bed at 8:30."

He goes,

"Well I ain't goin' clubbing with them."

Doggie Saga

Here is one of my many dog stories. I can’t really call them fond memories……

We always have outside dogs. The biggest reason is me. I am too lazy to clean up after dogs. The hair, the pee, poop and vomit are way too much for me. And you all know how volatile I can be. I don’t like myself, so I choose not to have dogs.

So one day, I am feeling bad about it and thinking that with no kids, what is wrong with me? I can handle a dog now. So I say to Hal, when he is bringing home a new puppy, “Let’s try it in the house”. It ends up going pretty good. It is a German Wirehair, a medium sized dog with short hair. At night, when Hal is at work I let it sleep on the floor by my bed. The bedroom door is closed. Wonderful company. Hal though, gets home at 6AM and when he opens the front door, the dog begins to bark. I tell the dog to shush, but of course Hal hears the dog and is so proud he has a protective dog, he decides to test him out. So he scratches on the wall all the way down the steps. The dog starts to really bark. I am yelling, “Stop it!” Hal scratches on the door of the bedroom. The dog starts to REALLY bark, and jump around. I am yelling, “Stop it, stop it!!” Hal starts doing a low growl, and now the dog is insane. Now it is on my bed jumping and barking. I am SCREAMING, STOP IT!!! Now Hal is really excited and having SO much fun, the dog is REALLY JUMPING and REALLY BARKING. Now the dog is jumping and barking on my head and I am getting WET. It is peeing and jumping and peeing and jumping ON MY HEAD and barking, barking and I am screaming mad, and Hal will not stop.
I think I will quit the story here, you get the picture. That day the dog went back outside. No more dogs in the house….., that is until….,to be continued.

AAAAaaaaahhhhhh........

Ok, so my dad was a prankster. He thought it was funny to scare us, like when we were on the roof of the apartment buildings we managed, checking out the roof for leaks or whatever, he would hold us by the ankles over the edge of the roof. Ha Ha. What was really stupid, is we'd ask to accompany him to the roof. Apparently we were slow learners.

I guess he got this quality from his mom, maybe? My aunt, dad's sister Julie, told us a story of how she would go out to the outhouse and my dad would lie in wait and scare her in the dark. So my grandma, Julie & Dad's mom, decided to teach him a lesson. She waited outside in the dark, and when he went by, she scared the dickens out of him.

Anyway, one year the apartment complex owners decided to add a pitched roof over the flat roof of the big building - 2 1/2 stories high (the first floor was half-buried). Dad made Pete go up on the roof to help him check the vents. Dad is on his hands and knees checking a vent, backing up, checking the next vent, etc. Pete discovered a tiny little shelf below the edge of the roof, and thought it would be really funny to get down on that, hide, and holler AAAAAaaaaaaa....... like he was falling off the roof. Dad just about died, but he deserved it.