Transcription
[Music] Yes, Norman Vincent Peale had the book called "The Power of Positive Thinking," and I had picked it up, read it, and there were two things that really enticed me to research further. And that was when you said, "You can have anything you want; see yourself," and those were three things that intrigued me. And I was, you know, just a little happy homemaker, no education—high school education, period—and the mother of three in the sitting room and needing a lot of little creature comfort things, you know. And so I thought, well, that sounds exciting.
So that night, my husband got in at night. I said, "I read this book." And I said, "What would you like?" And he was reading the Dallas Morning News, and he said, "Well, looky here, Coca-Cola has a contest, and you can win an outboard motor. All you have to do is write 25 words while you take Coca-Cola on audience." And I said, "A nice outboard motor," and then went on and finished reading his paper. Well, I went into the bedroom, and he's won an outboard motor. So I sit there and I thought, "Coca-Cola on subhead," and I don't think—we don't even drink Cokes—that's gonna be a tough one. But I saw him sitting in a boat with this motor, enjoying himself. And so I wrote—or he liked to go fishing by himself on weekends 'cause he had a very serious job and it was always stretched out, and the kids were too young to take him fishing at that point. And so he'd go out for the afternoon. Okay, so now I'm sitting there, and I see him in this boat, and I write: "I am a lone wolf fisherman; folks are my silent partners; they contributed—no yakety-yak—only enjoyment." 25 words, put it in an envelope, mailed it off, and actually said to me, "I wonder how long it's going to take him to let us know." Now that's positive thinking. I didn't know any better; I just knew he's got—I wrote that, Mr. Ruddy, that incident—he's got to win it.
Two weeks later, the representative from Coca-Cola called and said, "Mr. Hanson, you won your outboard motor." I thought, "Oh, that's nice. Now what would we like to win now? What would we like to—" And my daughter said, "Well, I like a swim bicycle," and I said, "And you want what color?" You know, I thought, well, everybody should do this because selected, you know, here it is—see yourself as adding it. So we had her sitting on a bicycle, and it was high. Now, at that point in time, there were many, many opportunities, and most of them—see a contest is when you have to complete something in 25 words or less, name something, write an essay; a sweepstake is when they just put your name in the pot, and they draw from 1 million entries, they draw your name. I didn't think of that as competition. I always thought the only competition you ever had is with yourself; that's when you doubt yourself. So now my daughter—we had to name a pony—and it got to be—now this was a fun thing—and my son—I mean, we didn't look for big things—rollerskates, you know, bicycles and things that were that children have wanted—zoo, boom boxes, you know, flirt music and stuff. And so we started—we sit with—sit at night, and I says, "Oh, we're gonna get Pamela on her bicycle—a bicycle," and we have to name up on me—how're we gonna name a pony—and show a picture of the pony. And they said, "Well, he's brown." And I said, "Yeah, he's brown," and what else? And what else does he do? Well, he's in France, but then we call him Prince Charming. Prince Charming, get on a pony. What else? He bucks—him buck—to Prince Charming. And these were what we call coined words, and that's what we sent him. I don't know which entry won, but she had her bike. Okay, so they've got all the little stuff. Now I want linoleum for the floor, and I get it. Then I want something else, and I get it. Now I'm thinking bigger. Now I want to win trips, and my son—my younger son—said, "Let's go to a dude ranch." Do you know we won this trip to a dude ranch? And stupid me, this was in Arizona, and that's when I would—was afraid of flying, and they—I won the prize—they're gonna fly, and I said, "I don't fly. Can we drive down?" And then I was—I was—I didn't get the prize because he had to follow their rules. It's something that he was very, very ticked about that you have to learn to fly—activate. But now the next thing I wanted—children want to go to Disneyland—and that meant flying too, and I thought, well, I'll just brave it out. Really and truly, I was stupid on that area, but at that time I didn't know better. And so we get to—one this trip to Disneyland, and it was a fabulous, fabulous trip. And later on, we didn't win a trip to a dude ranch, and I did—goats—that we did go to the dude ranch. And then we won a trip to the World's Fair and go to the World's Fair.
One thing that was real funny—I was going to be 40 years old, and I had read that Paris is a city of light, of love, and excitement, and I wanted to be on the 1st of January. I said, "What are we going to do this year?" Padma—so I said, "I want to be in Paris, France, City and the sidewalk, my faith, drinking wine on my 40th birthday." And I started to enter contests—all the contests that were all free trips—and there were many of—there's a lot of trips—always unconsciously—always 25 words or less—and I always used the same 25 words. I said, "I'm a poop couple with three kiddos, and I'd like to go to Paris, France, to recapture the rapture of springtime ecstasy in my 40 years." Well, the first time—one company investigates before you win a big prize—you're investigated; they call you, and they come out, interview you, and they do that to find out if you are anyway related to the sponsors—anyway related—because contests—you are really on the up and up, and if they wouldn't be—I mean, if we serve any purpose. So I had the interview, and everything went fine, but I only won third prize—which—to Hammond electric organ—and it didn't win that prize. And I said, "Well, why did they give me to organ?" And you know, somebody said, "To cultivate patience." So I have this big electric Hammond organ, and here it is. Now my birth is the first to June, and here it is April already, and I still haven't had this trip. Now we're gonna have to plan this trip; we're gonna be there drinking wine. And my husband even said, "Well, we have enough money—book it." I said, "No, I'm gonna win this trip." Well, it seemed like the last minute—I send that entry off—and lo and behold, I got a phone call and said, "Mr. Hanson"—I used his name—and when I'm in my name—"You won a trip to Venice, Italy." And I thought, "Well, I don't want it; I've been to Venice; I want to go to Paris." And the man said, "When you can change—their first-class, and you can change whatever you want to do," and he said, "When we do like the tickets?" I said, "Like right now," and he had a messenger coming, bringing tickets, and we got on the plane. And to make a long story short, on my 40th birthday, I was at that sidewalk with my husband.
So this is something else I need to bring because I thought this was—well, if it was nice—my husband and I are sitting here when afternoon, and I just got back from a trip—a long trip—sometimes you went with me, and some kind of didn't—go with me first time, and then sick, then he got bored because I was always counseling people. And then that night, I was in mind, and he knew everything. But anyway, we're sitting here. You said, "Let's do something—off to the blister—something exciting. What you want to do?" I said, "You know, I love—love," and I noticed in the paper that they're having this—son—basically whorehouse in Texas, and I said, "I would love to go see that show." And he said, "Well, I'll tell you what—let's uh—let's have lunch, and I'll start calling the airlines, and we'll see what we can do." He says, "Sounds like fun, doesn't it?" We were eating lunch; we come back here for coffee, and the phone rings—"Mrs. Hanson," I said, "Yes." He said, "I'm Rich Little—you don't know him—but he was producing a show—To Tell the Truth—it's in New York, and he said your name came up as a very, very good contestant. How would you like to come to New York and be on my show?" I said—I looked at Pat—I thought, "God, is this for real?" And I said, "What is the tongue?" He said, "Well, it's To Tell the Truth," and the show had just started, and he's—"We'll pay all your expenses—first-class—and what else do you want?" And I said, "Could I have tickets to this off-Broadway—Joe—Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" And he said, "No, what else?" And I said, "Well, my husband wanted it." Well, okay, we'll do a trick; we'll give your husband a ticket also, and what else? I mean, you know, when they want to—they want. And he said, "Everything that we advertise he will also get—electric blankets—me—whatever they were advertising." I said, "When do you want me—when do I wear—you come this week or next week?" And I said, "Well, let's see," and my husband's—"Is about this week is okay." So I said, "How about this week?" "Oh, we'll have your tickets for you by courier." We went—had this hotel—salt—it's a Broadway play—was there three days. Alex—they usually pay all expenses, and they give you a voucher if you want to camp—to go wherever you want to eat—wherever you wanted—and entertain you. Really, it's nice to be on these talk shows. Well, that's—we—in our—so what is it? I mean, you know, there were many, many instances where I would not hear of something—the thing—I'm digressing, I'm sorry, because you're interesting—and being a winner—and all of you out there are winners—you know that—and you can have anything you want, provided you know it is—see yourself as having it. And if there's a delay in results, don't be disappointed; maybe we need to cultivate a little more patience—that's all it is—and it's yours. And you say, "But the competition is so fierce—so fierce." And I said, "Everything is competition. How long—I mean, eventually if you stay with something long enough and strong—of its energy—and it's got to come to you—that's the law of attraction—it's out there for anybody. I never looked at it in this competition."
I remember when—after I had the publicity and had won that house and lost to leanness and had won all the cars—whatever I needed or wanted—this was very interesting because that night we went to dance, and we're dancing, and write it as you came in—you signed in—and they had this fishbowl—put your name in—at the end of the night—they had fruitcakes because it was Christmas Day—and they had this big boom box. And my daughter had been wanting this huge boom box that had all these acoustics and things out, and I looked at it nicely over—there's a family's Christmas—personally. Well, the woman that was taking the tickets—her overburdening—and she laughed and she said, "Well, Mrs. Hansen's here," so really and truly it's stupid to put your name in—the Hansons won the boom box already. All right, what did I do? They were giving me their energy; everybody in that room gave me energy because they knew—now we've won this house—and we're dancing, and this man said, "I guess she's got my pets, and she's got the boom box," and we're there making a joke of it—a joke—and they don't know that I didn't take their energy—they gave it to me. And that night—when his boss—now it's time to tell them to have the drawing—and here's that fishbowl full of names—and the boss said, "I'm not going to have anything to do with this—somebody come up and draw a name," and a woman came up, and she said, "I'll get a different name," and she whisked around and whisked her and pulled a name, and it was my name. Okay, this is energy; this is energy; this is what they do. And yes, you can get energy from someone else—if they're negative—I mean, why not?
We mentioned the house—things—tell us more about how you won the house. Yes, yes, I came back after my trip, and in Dallas, we have a group of women that get together, and we call them the contest—we call them the range writers—and when we got there, we would—Spock—entry blanks; we would stand up and say what we want this month—we won this and this—a business—one month I won a prize every day—30 prizes—one prize every day—some of them would win four or five of them—and we had a lot of fun, and they were very supportive. So the night I got there, the woman—one of the women—said, "Oh, you won the world—he went to New York on your way to Paris—you just stopped at the World's Fair." And I said, "Yeah, my son was a trip to the World's Fair, so he was with us." And then after the trip, we were at the World's Fair; he went back home—someone met him—and so forth, and we went on to Paris. And she said, "While you were there, did you see that Formica house?" She said, "That's a world—that's an entire United States—a contest, and Formica is having a new product that they're sponsoring, and they're going to build a house someplace in the United States, and all you have to do—throughout the United States—the builders were you building their houses, but they were using this molding that Formica was very, very proud of using. So anybody throughout the United States—you had to visit one of the homes that had these entry blanks that were using for mica." Well, in my area, it was Garland—the only place that was headless thing—and she said, "Well, you could—" And I said, "No, I didn't know about it—nobody—" Well, it's in Garland, and it's closing next week. And so on the way home—driving home—because Dallas is up 27 miles from Irving rather—all I could think about was, "God, I'd like to win a new house—that's pretty—yeah, I think I win their votes." So the next day, it's drizzling, and one of my god—two of my friends that we've had that word in this contest club with me—live in Irving. So I called one of them, and I said, "Let's go over and see that for my girls and enter." And she said, "Oh," she said, "You know, they've already picked the entries—it's in New York—and they've already picked the injuries," and she's—"Know," and the other one was having her rug shampooed; she couldn't go. And I tried—I said, "I'll even buy your pizza on the way—let's go," and nobody would go with me. It's starting to drizzle rain, and I—something—I swear—something old—actually pulled—you know—the next thing I know, I'm in the car driving 53 miles to go today from like the house. When I got there, I sat in one of the chairs, and I looked at everything around there, and I'm already deciding that I want Spanish furniture; I'm already building the inside of the house, and there wasn't anybody there except the woman that said, "You know—open house." I registered my name, and I registered tax name, and I took an entry blank. Oh, and that night I'm reading the entry blank, and it said, "You must visit to the home," and I said, "Oh my god," I said, "I put in pants." Do you know that Saturday morning that cut up, and I said, "We're getting in the car; you're driving to Garland, and you're gonna look at that house." So when they call you, you can save your visit—you did—you got to work—you believe what I said—we drove all that way so he could look at that house, and that was it; it was a done deal. Now we come home, and he draws the plans for the house, and he said, "Tell us the kids—Mama's gonna win us this—make Alison—where do we want it?" We're out looking for lots; we've got the plan here, so when they come, we can be ready. And then odd that it was a month—now the contest closed that weekend—it was a month later when somebody on the phone called—I'm in Dallas—and they called Pat, and they asked Pat—his missus—and so they know—she's had a baby—your husband—he said, "Yes," he said, "Did she answer that—I mean, did she go to that Formica home?" And Pat said, "Oh, we were both there. I am so impressed with that laminated from my gun—we were so impressed," and he said the right thing, and that was it. And he said, "Well," he said, "We're just checking on everybody to see you them—they actually did go in—there's nothing here. Thank you, Mr. Hanson, for your time." That was all he said—all he was—oh, he asked him—"Are you related—anybody at the house—number one—number two—any relations at work for Mike?" Those are questions, so they—hey—he was on the—from the five minutes answering all this, and he was—he knew that because we knew when we got a big prize, we'd have to have an investigation—recall. And so I came home that night, and he was extended—or we went—our house—and all we did was—I wonder how long it's gonna take them to let us know—and that's all I told the kids—and some—it was about another month later—morning—I woke up, and I said—the kids were at breakfast—the two boys were still there—and my daughter was in college—and I said, "Well, listen—they're gonna let us know—we won this house—but God—say act surprised." And they went off to school, and my husband said, "Are you sure they're coming?" I said, "Yeah," and he was—I said, "Just stay in bed, and I just pretend—just world is gonna wait for—" Well, into a claw, and now it's one o'clock, and they're in, and I went to the bakery to get some bakery, and I'm getting ready to put the coffee pot on when they come, and nothing happens. And about 2:30, I get this phone call, and they say, "Mister—Missus Hanson—when does your husband get off work?" And I said, "Well, he's here now." Oh, they were waiting for him to get off work so they could tell us together. I said, "Well, he's here—on what is," and I said, "He just took the day off." "Well, then we're coming right out—we represented—his vice-president—from—and our PR man—we want to come out and tell you something very, very interesting for you." And I said, "Yeah," and then I, of course, reminded that me to act surprised. They gave him—and to her—I did—I acted—"Oh my god—oh no—not me—oh no—no"—and I see—I told him—"Don't show him the plans." So you're talking, and he said, "Well, where do you want it?" And I said, "Well, there's a new area—you know—just—I know," I said, "And we have the plans," and the guy looked at me, and I said, "Well, we were planning—we were planning on building a house"—we didn't tell him that they were gonna pay for it, you know. And so uh—we had all the plans there, and he couldn't believe it, you know. And I said, "Yeah, we—we had plans of enlarging this place," and that's how it came about. And from that period on, they hired an interior decorator—they hired so many people because it was publicity for their collection—they would call me—they'd send me flowers—one weekend—he'd always called and say, "Are you happy? Are you happy?" Because at that time, the National Enquirer—which is at Gregg magazine—called and said, "If there's any negatives things—because this is the first time the house had ever been given—if there's any negatives things—tell us—and we'll pay for the negative." And I says, "Get real," and on nothing—and I had that offered two or three times—and they were aware that they were looking for negative things—and I—there weren't any negative—but you call up and say, "Are you happy? Is there anything you can do?" And every time they came, they wind us—and dining—this—at the best—best hotels. And so one day—he—
Called, and he said, "What's your favorite place?" And they were building, and he kept coming and visiting, bringing me candy, flowers, and so forth. And I said, "God, and what I like to go to is New York." Okay, we'll put it was centered in New York, and they brought us first-class tickets. Management, I went to New York, and we had—there were, at that time, the play was on Broadway, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" I was—play I wanted to see—and they sent me to New York. And while I was in New York, I did a lot of publicity with them. One of the magazines—up the good parts can be made—and they interviewed me and so forth. And then they had the house open for a month where they could—people came in, and I was just the hostess. And they had people there that took care of the house and so forth. And then it was turned over to the fishermen. Gold piece—we had a gold key. My husband and I were given a gold key. And then he asked, "Listen, that's a big—" at that time, that period in the forties, fifties, sixties rather—"ah, income tax was a big challenge if you went aloft something and you had to pay it right away." And he said, "Your income tax is a problem—what, take care, you know I mean?" They couldn't do that. [Music]