stories

We used to drive around in a club cab pick up truck. There were eight of us, mom, dad and six kids. Mom and dad sat in the bucket seats, two kids sat on the tiny fold out seats in the back, one kid sat on a wood seat dad built for between the bucket seats in the front, and the rest of us just sort of crammed in wherever else we could.

Our favorite game at the cabin was when dad took a rope and tied a plastic orange sled behind the green monster station wagon. His job was to make us spill and land face down in the ditch. With two or three kids in the sled, it was pretty easy. The more snow down your coat, the more crumpled and upside down your body, the more dad laughed.

The first time my dad took my brother hunting, when Pete was about four, they were around a mile from home, and my brother turned to my dad and said, "maybe one of us oughta keep mom safe at home." So my dad pulled over and let Pete walk home.

In those days, dad had a pigeon coop. I guess he still does, anyways, when my brother was five years old my dad sent him in there to get what he thought was a crow that had gotten in there and was stuck and couldn't get out. Pete was in there for a really long time, but my dad figured he was OK. When he emerged, bloody and scratched to bits, holding an owl upside down by the leg, my dad felt kind of bad. Or maybe proud, that his little boy became a man after killing an owl with his bare (maybe mittened) hands. -And owls are nasty creatures.

kasey posinoski

Well, at least I was Dad's favorite.

This reminded me of something...

When Kady & Kasey were little - 3- to 5-ish, Mom decided to buy a wading pool. It was really cool. It was green and had a little built-in slide and either had a big turtle or frog design. It wasn't just a plain wading pool, but was molded and really neat. Anyway, when you buy your kids a pool, drive a stationwagon and have 6 children, including some tweens and teens, how would YOU get your pool home from K-Mart all the way to the South Falls Apartments??

Well, Mom put the pool upside down on the top of the station wagon and had Keri and I (and maybe Kelly?) stand in the back of the stationwagon (our feet inside the car) with our upper bodies outside through the back window and hold the pool in place on the roof.

I will never forget driving down main street International Falls, holding the pool for dear life and screaming at mom to slow down, because the force of the air on the front of the car was blowing the pool up and threatening to blow it along with us (since we would never have let go!) off and out of the car and onto the street. It did get home, and there are many pics of us all enjoying it in our backyard.

The Outhouse

When we were little, our cabin got a brand new outhouse. We drove it down the road on a trailer, and, judging by this photo, I was 6 (this is the haircut I had in 1st grade). I exclaimed, "this crazy house has windows in the seat!"

It was so exciting!





So in May, when all of us kids went up for a little reunion, we drove up to the old cabin and trespassed on the new owner's property and took this photo for nostalgia's sake:



I guess we really didn't want to go inside. GROSS!!!

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.