Geo

“ya gotta luv him!” 

For the last seven years my husband, Jim, and I have put together goody bags for the “Meals-On-Wheels” guests in Gallatin—Park—and Powell counties.  We did this lovingly in memory of our parents, who were very much involved in these communities.  But atlas, our parents would be 98—95—93—88 years of age this year and not too many folks remember them. 

You ask what in the world are ‘goody bags’?  They are simply zip lock quart-size baggies with small treats given out with the “Meals-On-Wheels” before Christmas and/or Easter.  Each goody bag contains several herbal teas, hot chocolate mix, apple cider mix, package of tissue, pen, note pad, box of raisins or yogurt covered raisins, package of cookies, package of cheese or peanut butter covered crackers, a Lindor chocolate, Hershey’s kisses, a butter mint in a red/white/blue wrapper, and of course a candy cane or Peeks in a plastic egg—depending on the occasion!  Now assemble all of those goodies and put them into 300 quart-size zip lock baggies.  What fun!

Dear George saw through our senior moments of frustration and with all his excellent entrepreneur capabilities he came up with a very simplified procedure!  He approached Powell’s extension service about initiating a program utilizing local 4-H clubs to bring a little “sunshine” into the homes of elderly and shut-ins in Deer Lodge during the Valentine holiday! 

Croix Austad and Bill Baker
with 4-H'ers--Cal Boggess,
Tristan Smith, and Sierra Jette!

With the assistance of 4-H leaders he and his wife, Suzy, compiled a list of folks—the 4-H’ers baked homemade cookies—assembled small packages—signed Valentine cards for each—young 4-H’ers visited with each of these folks as deliveries were made by the generous contribution of transportation of the Senior Citizens’ “Meals-On-Wheels” van!  The seniors visited seemed to enjoy the young 4-H’ers calling on them and among those visited were the LeRoy Kemmesats, a former teacher, and Phyllis Lane Mason’s parents!  Suzy also contributed all the great photo history!  



Marg Meaghers with 4-H'ers,
Cal, Tristan, and Sierra

Jim and I were included on this project of making ‘a little extra sunshine’ when we added candies and the Valentine cards to each delivery!  We got a great deal of pleasure watching this project develop—it saved us assembly time and monies—and eliminated the travel time back and forth to Deer Lodge during one of longest winters on record!  And it was FUN for us!

Croix Austad with George and
4-H'ers--Cal, Tristan, Sierra!

The entire initiation of this exceptional project and its extraordinary success is the coordinator—GEORGE!

    This classmate is one that continually gives to our community with his many involvements in Senior Citizens—the museums—recreating a ‘ railroad depot’ in his yard—self-published author of “Platform Baggage Truck”—developing a prosthetic procedure—restoration of our railroad’s past—“Meals-On-Wheels”—and now the 4-H’ers!  George and Suzy love kids—young and old!  He is so shy that I am certain that I have missed many of his “giving” involvements. 

Our hats are off to George and Suzy!

 

We are proud of you—even down
to the pink flamingos and colorful palm trees!



George sharing and caring. . .

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The PCHS Class of 1961 is an exceptional class — with many outstanding classmates!

Hopefully this site will convey the stories of these classmates and you will see why I am so proud to be a member of the Class of 1961!

The following are two stories relative to George and Suzy Hamblin!  George is a man of many talents and dedications — you might see him out deliverying 'Meals-on-Wheels' or helping friends with their many projects!  Suzy is right at George's side helping make all their creative ideas work well!  George, "a self-published author — "Platform Baggage Truck" — says, "The book did not make the New York Times Best Sellers List!  Actually I wrote this book because there is nothing on the Internet — in 2004 — on this topic.  So I jumped to the front of the line and said - "Choose ME!" 

Plastic Paradise

Couple’s palm tree decorations do not draw as much controversy as casino’s

Taken from Hometowns Section of the Missoulian,  February 16, 2009.

By Keila Szpaller     

      Palm trees in Deer Lodge?  If you have ridden by on Interstate 90 and been even marginally awake, you have seen them.  It is an enormous display, groves of life-size synthetic palm trees in eye-popping shades—red, yellow, green, orange, and even some ringed with bands of a variety of colors and topped with matching coconuts and flashy palm-frond look-alikes.

    The tropical stand is near impossible to miss—but that garden of some 24 trees and fountain of civic debate is not the only palm grove in Deer Lodge.

    There is another one—a cheerful albeit smaller paean to the tropics set up along Milwaukee Avenue on the way to the prison.  Funny thing is when the wind kicked down one of the palm trees there; the Hamblin’s figured it was an amusing and fitting parody of the bigger grove around the Happy Endings Casino.

    “If we can’t laugh, ain’t worth it,”  said George Hamblin, a retiree, prankster, and train aficionado of

Kentucky Street.

    So George and his wife, Suzy, anchored it down on its side.  That is where it lay last week, flanked by faded pink flamingos, joined by a cement bench for two, and a fountain, tiered and tall in warmer weather.

    The palm trees were Suzy’s idea and her inspiration did not come from the bigger grove or the debate raging around it.  (Are the trees beautiful?  A blight?  Are they drawing tourists into town?  Should the owner get to keep them?  Should the government get to order him to take them down?  And, um, hellooo—zoning?)

    “It was a pretty little palm tree in the catalog,”  Suzy said.  George agreed:  “We oughta get some palm trees!”

    A friend told Suzy that Herberger’s in Butte was selling palm trees cheap—so she hit the road.  Exactly $70 later, she was the proud owner of one 7-ish-foot tree and two 3-ish-foot palm trees, all roped with electric white lights.  The Hamblin’s anchored the bumpy, clear-ish plastic-type trees in their yard with rebar and the trees joined the flock of three flamingos.  That was last summer and within a month—maybe two—Happy Endings Casino put up its grove.

    “Then the palm tree controversy started,”  said Hamblin.

    Soon a storm mangled the fronds of the biggest tree, or as George put it, “The branches kinda went to hell.”  It resembled the red palm stuck sideways at the casino—only smaller.  Suzy and George?  They went with the flow.  The Hamblin trees sit in a yard just across the street from their own pad, and they rent out the home on that property.  George threatened to evict the tenant, throw on a grass skirt, and turn the place into a joint not unlike the Happy Endings.  A “BYOB casino,”  he said.  Suzy told him she would tie a coconut bra around him and George warned his town folks about mischief.  “I told everybody I confronted the sheriff:  Copycat crime is rampant in the community.”

    A palm-tree lark—if there ever was one!  Still the Hamblin’s have their opinions about the going-ons at Happy Endings.  George said he does not like the government trying to tell the owner what to do.  Suzy said strangers are pulling into Deer Lodge to check out the trees and then they are spending tourist dollars downtown.  Some people would prefer Deer Lodge keep with its Western motif, but George said there is such a thing as overkill.  Suzy agreed, “You gotta progress!”  

    Outside, the palm trees sparkle, George started mowing more than his own lawn out there—tidying up the area—and his neighbors followed suit.  The flamingos are out there, too—two plastic ones and one wooden one made by a resident of the Montana State Prison.  Suzy plans to paint another coat of pink on the bird soon.

    The trees are made in China and they are wired to a timer that switches on the lights at dusk.  The Hamblin’s can see them glow from the big picture window in their living room.  “They look much nicer at night,”  Suzy said.

    Denise Ray, an employee at the Happy Endings Casino, knows about the miniature palm tree display across town.  She said, "Honestly, it dressed up that yard really, really well.  And when it is lit up at night, it is awesome!”

Local Man Helps Amputees

Taken from the Silver State Post,  May 19, 2010

By Mark Eisenbeil

      Watching his television this past January, Deer Lodge resident George Hamblin said he was touched by what he saw — a devastating earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti and the disaster affected tens of thousands of people.

      Hamblin said he was equally affected when he read the Silver State Post’s story about Garrison fire chief, Tom Gilbert and his nephew, Jim Cearley, who decided to go to Haiti and do what they could to help survivors of the earthquake.

      The men had contacted a philanthropic organization called Project 81  and were able to go to the island nation to give aid.  “It’s an organization that assists people in Haiti as a result of the earthquake on January 12 of this year.”

      Hamblin contacted Project 81 as well.  He had been listening to late night radio when he heard that there were many people who had limbs amputated and some of them could find use for what was sitting in his garage for the past couple of decades—prosthetic foot and ankle joints.

      Although he had never been to Haiti, Hamblin said he saw a need for the products that he used to sell for profit until being edged out of the prosthetic market.  “Several years ago, in the early 80s, I developed a multi-access foot and ankle joint,” said Hamblin, adding that he had at one time provided to a national market and shipped all the products out of Deer Lodge.

      Hamblin said he was inspired by an old gentleman in Salt Lake City, Utah, named Pat McKendrick, who had been making prosthetics for people ever since World War II.  “After World War II they had a lot of amputees coming back and he helped design what was called the ‘Navy foot’ around 1946, 47, 48, around that time frame,”  said Hamblin.  Hamblin added that many of the prosthetic makers during that time period used mechanical concepts that began to make clicking sounds over time from normal wear and tear.  The older designs also suffered from rigid steel ankle tendons that failed after a couple years of use.  He said McKendrick changed the design which eventually fixed the problems associated with the clicking and steel tendon failure.

      After teaming up with McKendrick years later, Hamblin said that he made even more improvements to the foot and ankle joint design and then put the new product into production out of his Deer Lodge location.  Hamblin admitted that he was very proud of this product and used it himself since he is also an amputee.

      “They did much more than just fill shoes,”  said Hamblin.  “The newly improved foot and ankle joint had rotational capabilities and was much quieter than other prosthetics on the market at that time.  The new design sported special features such as heavy-duty rubber memory block and steel cable that allowed for more motion of the ankle joint.  The ankle movement became the hot selling point of his products in a narrow market.”

George Hamblin is shown with one

of the foot and ankle prosthetics.

    

“I was doing very well with it until they brought in the ‘Seattle foot,’ which was backed by the VA and the government.  Also, the ‘flex foot’ came on the market, and because of that, sales dropped off dramatically,”  said Hamblin about his rise and fall in the prosthetic industry.

      Hamblin said he just did not have the financial capital to go up against larger companies.  So around 1986-1987, he closed up his business and stocked all of his merchandise into 37 boxes and stacked them on shelves in his garage.  The products sat on shelves until this year when the news reports came in about the Haiti earthquake.  After contacting  Project 81,  Hamblin arranged to have his $100,000 inventory of prosthetics shipped on its way toward the island nation.

      Hamblin said he heard that entrepreneurs were trying to establish new industries in Haiti to help the population survive.  He said it would make him very happy if they decided to go into prosthetic manufacturing and wish to use his design as their model.  Hamblin added that he would be willing to go down there and train Haitians how to make them.

      “It would be great if they could build them for their own use and also it could serve as an export to send to other Third World countries,”  said Hamblin.