Transcription
[Music] My children, we're now growing up, and my son wanted a Corvette, which he got—incidentally, he got it on his own. But one thing that I had never—well, it was like I said when I, before I won the house, we lived in a very comfortable place, and I continually wanted to redecorate. Like, I wanted a stove, and I projected for a stove, and all of a sudden my contest was over with, and I went $1,000. Given—win $1,000. I didn't register, and I went to the contest club, and everybody had won in this particular contest, and I had such good entries, and I couldn't understand why I didn't win. My studies—and so everybody won televisions and everything, and I was perplexed on this. But two days later, I won $1,000 in another contest. And so I rationalized, and I told the children, "Well, this is for my stove." I had a $4,000—I thought it was coming—by stove; this is my private prize. I went out and bought a stove at Sears. Three days later, I have a phone call from this General Electric, and said, "We overlooked telling you, Mrs. Hansal, the prize, and it'll come in the mail. Anything you want—a stove." But he stole—and I said, "Oh, my, I already bought one." And he said, "Well, if you bought a TV, we would have given you your money back." But see, I got premature and already—so this was something I learned later on: always—I mean, there can be a delay in results.
And yes, I taught the children; they were on their own and did their own coloring, and they had their own projects. We were all very, very supportive of that. Later on, there were always people that we'd call or come, and that's when I was prompted to write the book. I wrote the book simply because there was a demand for another, and maybe they'll leave me alone. I'm not a witch—and I'm the book that put "wish" for—and in order to tell them that I was not using anything—but you still had people that would call and say, "Hey, you already won only 1/3 of a man's organs. This is a church, and can you donate one?" Yes, I donated to different areas. There were things that my younger son—the one—this is my teenager—he was a teenager, and he's getting ready to go to college, and there were lots of things that he wanted. In this contest sponsored for teenagers—right in 50 words or less—this was another one. My older son—50 words or less—why he would like to represent the United States in Europe, and he wrote the most fabulous essay; it was really, really—and we—very touching; it was very good, and he won his trip to Europe—toward Europe. The other son—it was a little more materialistic—and this was an opportunity—he was just getting out of going to high school; this was an opportunity to go to New York and to get to design a piece of jewelry. You had to be a teenager, 12 to 14. The prize would be this diamond ring, a trip to New York; you would go to this fabulous place—I'm not interested in names of people, you know, houses that have a clothing manufacturer—I don't even remember they called the name—but he did—and where you would pick out your wardrobe. He could pick out his wardrobe; he would get a Lindy Star sapphire, you get a gold wristwatch—three of these—and I think it was $2,000 in cash, plus the mother could come with him. Oh, can he wanted that. Okay, so he goes—"I said, 'What you gonna do?'" He said, "Well, the first thing you think of is—it's a kid, and everybody that was having a guitar and imitating always country westerns, and he says the first thing they did—they think of a guitar, and they've, you know, make it as a guitar." And I said, "Well, what's another thing?" He said, "Well," and he thought, and he thought; he says, "I think I've got it," and he—he just picked up a piece of sheet music, and there's a stamp there, and there's notes. And so he went out into the garage and got the little wire—made this—bend the wire—the kind of wire that you use for soldering stuff—and made the stand, and then he took two of my beads and sprayed them, and he called it the Lindy Stock Mogul, and that was advertising Lindy's dark sapphires, and it was so damn original; we couldn't possibly think of that. And then he did a step further—further; he said he made it—he actually made it. And I said, "Well, why you made it—I said, 'Why did you send it to him with your entry?' You know, if you're seeing something is good. You got a little boy a box and mounts this thing in, and it was lovely, really, and put it in and send it in. I wonder how long it's gonna take him to let us know—I want all this stuff. So one day it was—I was sitting there, and this morning I woke up and I says, "They're gonna call us today—gotta be here," and he was playing Little League, and he needed tennis shoes, and he said, "I've got to get tennis shoes before the game—is at five o'clock." I said, "Well, we'll go as soon as they call us." Are now—is waiting in the mail or call us—are in the mail—nothing came in the mail, and I'm sitting there, and he was the one that used to say, "You don't know everything." Later on, he changed it when my husband said, "But she does know," and so some that could figure be done, but you don't know everything—you get angry because this is a ketene injury. And so we're on—I said at four o'clock now—he has to be at Little League at five, and I thought, "Well, I missed that one—how could I miss him?" When you have a feeling—there's a knowing feeling, there's a calm feeling, and it's not like this, you know, like when you're waiting to have your name drawing add up to some place; it's a different view, and I had this common feeling. And so we get in the car, and he's in the car, and the phone rings. I had the door of the chlorines—and I said, "Go in there and answer—tell him your boy—tell me your boy," and his name is Chris. He went in there, and the man whom I talked to—this is Chris—head—so he said, "Are you a boy or a girl?" He says, "I'm all boy," and they hung up the phone. That was it; that was it. What they had done in New York—they were giving a prize—top prize—to one girl and one boy, and when they looked at Chris's name, they thought this might be a girl, so we gotta find out. And when I was able to visit—when I went to New York—the people that judge—the judges were there until his—up to dinner because they wanted to meet the two top—the minutes—the girl and the boy—the one girl—the one woman that was a judge called me aside, and she said, "We had so much great difficulty decided on Chris and another boy, Michael, and whatever—we knew Michael was appalled, but she said, 'I wanted Chris to win,' and these guys already said, 'Let's give it to Michael because he's a boy; let's get out of here.'" And she said, "I will do that on one condition: if you call Texas, and if Chris is a boy, will you give this to Chris?" And that's what happened. One of the—one of the judges called, and it was Chris. Then another time—that was—you know, sometimes it's real close. Another time, this younger son said, "Well, Mother, what—all these things—she never won a car," and I said, "I don't need a car; I was driving a Lincoln; I don't need a car, but just prove to me that you can win a car." And you don't ever need to prove anything. Ah, what you're taking—a silver training—don't have a Jose—says, "Don't ever prove anything—prove it to yourself." And so I thought, "Well, okay, I never won a car—let's do this." And a local radio station was giving a car—and they were giving Dysons away—okay—by the phone at random; they would choose your name, and when they would call you, you would have to say, "My favorite radio station is KATE." That's all you had to do, and if you said that, then your name would be in a pot, and at the end of six weeks, they would draw one name a week, and at the end of six weeks, you're in the pot, and then you'd go to the dealership, and then you would draw which car you would win. So it was a very headache—listen to that radio all day long because you never knew when they were gonna call you. He just had to stay home, and at that time there weren't cell phones. And so I was—them—the first week I listened to all week long, and they call the name, and of course, they—Mr. Hammond—so in sofa grapevine—"What is your favorite radio station?" "KE LIF 1190 on the dock." Well, meant you're in the drawing now—you've won that one—you knew you won a car when he said that. Well, the second week was—in the second week, I'm listening, and it was a Friday afternoon, and we had rental property, and my husband is out there fixing some of the water plumbing that was leaking, and the children were around, and so he called me and said he needed one wrench to help with this, but he couldn't go to get it because these children are out there, and he had a hole, and he was concerned about the children—get that part. And I said, "No, I can't because I'm—they're gonna call me today; I know they're gonna call me, and I can't leave the house." He said, "Dammit, put him on hold; I need that part now—get that part." He was very angry. So I got in the car, and I had the radio on in the car, and I'm giving his park—and I had to run all over town because this part—it was some kind of a wrench—finally got it—took it out to where he was working—threw it down and ran—come wrecked out—but on the radio station, I'm listening, and they said, "We have the second week winner, and during the break we will put it for you." And I am devastated—"How could that happen?" I thought I knew—I had that time, and I come home, and I am so disappointed and sitting there—cause that—because I know they called me—"Dammit!" And I'm angry—every few minutes—the radio station—I mean—telephone ring—it's my older son—the one that lifted it—only comes back and brings his dirty laundry and checks his mail, and he called his mother—"Where were you?" I said, "I was out getting Dania apart from some of the plumbing." He said, "While you were gone," he said, "the phone rang, and there—they asked who is—what is—they just said, 'Mrs. Hansal, what is your favorite radio station?'" And you had—I had tacked up around the house because I thought if my husband calls—he's not into this—I said when they call and asked what your favorite station is—say "A LIF 1190 on your dial is your favorite," and he—there's the phone in the kitchen, and he looks up in it when they call, and he—ready—"Oh, my mother's favorite radio station is K L I live in nine," and now—man—"Congratulations, you just won your mother a Dallas" [Music]