Bill: Part 1

Bill is an old(er) man who might as well be an employee at Hastings because he is there more than I am. I am fairly positive he comes in every day. He knows every employee and hangs out in the cafe a lot. He is almost always there when I am (in the evening); it is a rare day when I don't talk to Bill. Bill is a really big tall guy. He isn't fat, but he has gone slightly to seed. He has longish gray hair that's curly and he's balding slightly. He wears jeans and sweatshirts or t-shirts, and he is hilarious. I really wish I was brave enough to ask how old he is.

So I really don't know much of his back story or why he comes into Hastings every day. I think he is mostly lonely; he isn't married and I don't know if he has ever been or if he has children. He has never mentioned any. I don't know his whole story but I do know parts, and what I know is hilarious.

Bill used to be a jewelry courier and would travel up and down the northern half of Utah delivering jewelry to malls, jewelry stores, pawn shops, etc. As you can imagine, this was a very adventurous and slightly dangerous job. Apparently he carried up to three million dollars worth of jewelry at one time with his only precaution being a gun. A revolver in fact. This was in the eighties, but that still all blows my mind. It is entirely possible he is making this all up. I am inclined to believe him, but I am possibly very gullible. You can choose for yourself.

So Bill used to deliver to the same building where Mark Hofmann (if you don't know who that is look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hofmann) worked and used to see him all the time. He says he never really talked to him besides in passing, and he said he always seemed very crazy in the conversations that he had with him (that was paraphrased for our younger audiences). Bill saw Mark Hofmann the day the bombing happened, and he was driving away from the building when the bombs went off. In his words, he "was a knat's a** away from being blown up," when he heard the boom he floored it, and there was damage done to his car.

I wish I had a picture of Bill to post, but I don't. I won't take a stalker picture because if I was caught it would be the most awkward moment of my life. I even googled old men to see if I could find a picture of someone who resembles him, but I couldn't. My apologies.