Bøker av Laurence H Christensen

AN INVENTION WORTH WAITING FOR From my days growing up in Indiana and Idaho, I learned that even the darkest clouds have silver linings. I learned that it is best to trust in the future. As a kid I wished for a crystal ball that would help me to look into the future. It was fun to think about coming up with an idea worth a million dollars. Then, in 1966, lightning struck! An idea that I had first come up with and recorded back in 1949 "went gold" for us. Crazy things, both good and bad, began to happen to Tilda and me--things no fiction writer could ever have imagined. I hope that the good things encourage you, and that the bad things won't put a "damper" on your outlook. I hope that you will learn to do lots of your own deep thinking, mystery solving, and trusting in the future during your turn on this wonderful Earth! -- Harold W. " Indiana" Hannebaum

GOOD-BYE TO OUR JOHN F. KENNEDYMy family came from Indiana and began to farm in Idaho in the early 1920's. I carried so many useful ideas from my Indiana years that people gave me the nickname of "Indiana Hannebaum." I dropped out of school in Idaho at a young age, not because I didn't want to learn anymore, but because I figured I could learn from my brothers and sister. I wanted to learn quicker and different things than what was being taught in the schoolhouse. After a high and mighty courtship, I married the Love of My Life, Tilda Brownlee. We continued to farm until we sold our Honeymoon Farm and moved into the small town of Gooding, Idaho. With money from selling our farm, plus our investments and seasonal jobs, we made a good and interesting living. The 1960's started off with people having more hope for the future than we had seen for a long time, but then came that terrible day when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. A cloud of gloom and doom descended on folks all over the U.S.A. and maybe the rest of the world, too. I felt it was necessary during the months and years that followed to try to lift our spirits and to try to help everyone around us to feel happier. A lot of other people seemed to feel the same way, and although we got "taken" a few times, the Sixties turned out to be quite a colorful time. During those ten years, I discovered one invention after another, and carefully recorded each one. By hard experience I was learning that coming up with a great innovation was just the beginning. We learned that our friends and neighbors held a dubious view of the future of inventing, and actually tried to discourage us from patenting my ideas, so Tilda and I had some big decisions to make all on our own. Meanwhile, we built a new mountain home. It has been said that a change is as good as a rest, and we loved the nice change and calm of being hidden away in the Wood River Valley--before the storm! -- Harold W. "Indiana" Hannebaum

My First InventionI had heard of inventors. My Uncle Harry invented a way to keep from losing a cork if it "blowed out" of a cider barrel. He took the cork and attached it to the barrel with a stout string. It seemed kind of simple, and I figured even I could invent something that easy.I loved our first automobile, a Maxwell. I decided that I would invent something to help me run fast and help me to see in the dark, like this car could.I spent hours in the tool shop working on my idea.Dad said, "We must keep it a very close secret, and we will do the trial run after dark. We will carry your invention up the road past the tobacco barn and stop at the top of the hill, and then you can try her out by running down the hill."I ran down the hill with a small headlight. I was thrilled as I picked up speed just like I had thought I would. Suddenly I was running in total darkness. I ran wildly off the road and collided with a "No Fishing" sign. The impact totaled my invention.Lying there in darkness on the ground, dazed and bleeding, I heard the sound of my Dad running down the hill toward me. The rolling hill country where we lived in southern Indiana was one of the best places on Earth for kids to grow up, if they survived. Days were beautiful in every season, and the moonlit nights were full of real fun and adventure. Everything around me suggested inventions, now or in the future, and later in my life one of them became my Million Dollar Invention. -- Harold W. "Indiana" Hannebaum

SPRING, AND CHANGE IS IN THE AIR With money we received from the sale of our honeymoon farm near Gooding, Idaho, and also from the sale of some investments, Tilda and I found ourselves loaded with a lot of idle cash. We decided to look for various ways to put our money back to work for us. It was late spring, the season when insects and snakes come out after their long winter naps. And with the melting of the snow, bands of high-pressure con men also crawl out of their holes to hit the back roads and small towns of America with illegal schemes to load their pockets with cash. We contacted a number of people, and just to see what would happen, we foolishly mailed a letter in response to a vague advertisement that appeared in the Twin Falls newspaper. The ad promised a good investment opportunity. Ten minutes later, we forgot all about it, and went on to other things. We didn't realize it then, but answering that ad was like flipping the detonator switch on a hydrogen bomb sitting right in the middle of our lives. -- Harold W. "Indiana" Hannebaum

MAGIC IN THE AIR "We have got to get off this train and go back--we have missed our stop somewhere," I shouted. The conductor smiled, put his arm around me and said, "Don't worry, young man. Our next stop is Eden, Idaho. Then the long trip for you and your Mom, all the way from Indiana to the Magic Valley, will be over." "How did you know that we are from Indiana?" I asked in surprise. "Well, Mrs. Hannebaum just told me," he replied. "And why did you call it the 'Magic Valley'?" I asked, with my mind now working overtime. "You'll find out if you stay here long enough," the conductor replied, with a mysterious look in his eyes. "Maybe we will be living in this Magic Valley from now on," I told him, adding, "if my Dad comes out here, too." He nodded and smiled. "Have a good time on your visit to Idaho, ma'am," he said to Mom, touching his hat. "And you enjoy yourself, too, Mr. Indiana Hannebaum!" he said to me, ruffling my hair. No one had ever called me that before, but I kind of liked the sound of it! I missed my comfortable life as a kid in Indiana, which you can read about in Early Lessons in Inventing, but I quickly adapted to being suddenly transplanted into the Magic Valley of Idaho. My Mom and most of her Jones side of the family loved Idaho with its wild Snake River and breathtaking Sawtooth Mountains. Deep down my Dad and I preferred our beautiful one-hundred-and-sixty-acre Hannebaum farm in the rolling hill country of southern Indiana. But Dad loved Mom more than any farm, so he sold our place near Metamora, Indiana, to his son, Addie, and our family of seven was finally all together again in Idaho. It was 1920, and I was ten years old. -- Harold W. "Indiana" Hannebaum