Hardee the Inventor

My Grandpa Hardee had a brother.  The brother had an affair, and from that affair there was a son named Harold.  The brother would never acknowledge Harold.  At one point, when Harold was in his teens, he came to live at the Phillips Ranch, which was located between Salem and Waltham, up at Shepard's Butte, all of which were just a stone's throw from Highwood, MT.  Harold slept in the bunkhouse above the garage, sharing the room with the potbellied stove with my dad.

Well, my Grandpa Hardee fancied himself as an inventor.  During the winter months, after the crop had been harvested, and his machinery had been fixed, he liked to hunker down in his shop and invent stuff.  One of the years Harold lived there, Grandpa Hardee invented a snow sled with sail.   You have to live around Great Falls Montana to fully appreciate how windy that area is, like Chicago which is famous for it's wind.  At one time I saw a ranking where it was windier than Chicago.  In other words, perfect for a wind sled.

My dad said Harold was a little slow, but willing to try anything. So the sled was made with the sail attached.  Dad said that day the wind was blowing very badly, with high wind gusts.  Harold hopped on the sled, without much thought.  Harold never did think much through.  The problem with Hardee's inventions was that there was always some flaw that didn't come out until after the invention was being tested.  The fatal flaw in the sled's design was that there was no way to steer the sled (or break either).  Harold hopped on the sled, and a huge gust of wind came along.  The sled made a 90 degree turn and was headed straight for the barbed wire fence.  Harold was frantically trying to shift on the sled to change its course, but of no avail.  The few spectators were screaming at him to bail off the make shift, jerry-rigged sled, but it was going at a high rate of speed.

Dad said Harold looked slack jawed heading to the fence.  It was a spectacular crash, with Harold becoming enmeshed in the barbed wire.  Harold spent a few days in his bunkhouse bed recovering from his wounds.  Dad stoked the pot-belly stove to keep Harold warm.  That was one of Hardee's many failed invenventions.