Publisher's Synopsis
GOOD-BYE TO OUR JOHN F. KENNEDY
My 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
