My Dad, by Lee K. Hancock

I remember it used to make me really mad at dad, when I would go and ask him how to do something and he'd tell me to "go figure it out."  I guess I figured that in the long run I would remember how to do things when he had me figure it out myself.  Sometimes he would give me a few hints, but he still wouldn't tell me everything.

I remember when I was about eight years of age, I wanted to go-cart really bad.  Dad told me I had to save up some money.  So I started saving up a lot of money, maybe almost a whole two dollars.  So dad got me the motor and I remember carrying it into or out of the old Blue Bell store (it was all I could do to carry it).

When I was about 11 years old I remember dad finally getting us the go-cart.  It was kind of a throw together go-cart.  It had a really tall, close together set of tires in the back and really wide set, small tires in the front.  I remember we had to pull a string over our shoulder for the gas to keep it going.  I remember waiting a really long time (probably not quite a week)  to finally get a centrifugal force clutch to get it going.  It was pretty neat.  We have an 8mm movie of it.

I remember when my dad made the neatest burglar alarm you can ever imagine.  He would take a regular piece of string and tie it to the door of the office, and with a little paper clip tied to the other end, he would dial the phone and leave it at the last number to the house and put the paper clip in to block it.  When someone would walk through the door it would pull that paperclip off and let the phone finish dialing the home number.  When dad would get on the phone and say hello and nobody answered, he knew exactly what had happened and he'd hop in the truck and head down to the shop.  I think it was a 55 Chevy truck.  On one occasion, when he walked through the place and couldn't find anybody there, he decided to go in and hang up some coveralls.  The door didn't quite open up like it normally would, and so dad swung the door closed and saw this face looking right at him.  It was this kid, standing up on his toes so he could stay way back from the door and not be noticed.  But this made the kid appear taller, so dad started being the tar out of him until he realized it was a kid and stopped and called the cops.

There was another time when he ran down there because someone had tripped the burglar alarm.  He took his rifle, which had only one bullet in it,  and started chasing the guy with his rifle.  He lined the bead on the sites of the rifle at him but he just couldn't bring himself to shoot him and so he just lifted it up over his head and shot.  But it just made the guy run faster and he got away.  But the cops did find him later on.

There was one time when a guy busted out one of the back windows. He climbed through it and when he let himself down on the inside of the building, he stepped into a bucket of oil.  And so we knew everywhere he walked with the oil footprint.  Good times...

I remember one time when I was about 11 years old, my dad was breaking down a split rim wheel and tire.  While he had hold of a pry bar stuck between the tire and the rim, he asked me to hit it right beside it with the big rubber tipped hammer. I didn't want to do it, it was too close to him and I was afraid I'd miss.  But he kept insisting that I hit it and I kept telling him “No”!  Finally, I did what he asked.  I stepped forward and smacked it down as hard as I could and it ricocheting smacking him right in the forehead.  I watched his eyes roll back into his head as he passed out.  It broke the skin and he was bleeding.  I thought I killed my dad!  This is probably why he couldn't remember much.

Once while Don was helping dad build the cabin for several days, She Lee and I came out to help.  When we got there, Don came running out saying “Have you got anything besides beans?  That's all dad has up here is beans!  We've had beans morning, noon and night!”  Dad loved beans.

We built a little stainless steel water tank tower, up by the little cabin.  You could stand under it and have a running hot water shower.  But there was no curtain around it.  When all the men left and went down to Fruitland to pick up some things at the grocery store, She Lee decided to take a shower.  When we got back, dad noticed that her hair was wet and asked her what she did.  She told him that she'd taken a shower and couldn't have one with all the men there.  The next thing we saw was dad had built a shower curtain around it. 

I remember when I was little; Mom, Don and I took dad to the airport.  I think Mom was pregnant with John.  Dad went to New York to receive an award that he earned in the Salt Lake community college. We walked onto the tarmac and stood behind a chain-link fence to watch dad walked to the airplane and up the steps.  We waved goodbye and then the prop jet airplane started up, it was loud!  It started to taxi and turned.  It about blew us away!  Of course we were little kids then but to us that was the coolest, biggest blast of wind we'd ever felt.

Dad was also a barber.  Way back before he knew Mom.  When he was still living in Blue Bell, he learned on his own how to cut hair.  For as long as I can remember growing up, dad has always cut my hair and all my Brothers too.

Lee K. Hancock