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From left, Sam's daughter Susan with Dad and Audrey's son Richard, with Mom at the right. |
Meet some typical players
Sam and Audrey Thomas have worked long and hard for their modest spread in Buxton, Montana. Following retirement, they've structured a simple but pleasant lifestyle that includes a regular stop at the local casino.
Audrey was born in Mahanoy City, a "coal cracking town" in northeastern Pennsylvania. She graduated high school in 1944 and, putting off college, took a job sewing at a nearby dress factory. A year later, she moved on to a foam factory, where she remained until the plant closed 16 years later. She then took a job with Lipton Foods.
"Lipton was a good company to work for," she recalls. "It was an enormous corporation—turning out all sorts of products you'd never associate with a tea company—but they paid us well, gave us a good pension and good benefits."
Audrey continued working in factories for the better part of the next two decades, as well as rearing three sons and a daughter and keeping house.
Sam was born and raised in Upper-Black Eddy, another blue-collar town in northeastern Pennsylvania. At 15, Sam quit high school, forged his application at a trucking company and got on as an "assistant trucker" with an older driver.
"There are no assistant truckers anymore," he says. "Today they go to school a few months, then they're on the road." Sam raises his eyebrows. "'Real truckers.'"
Sam stayed on the road 44 years, only once trying his hand at another occupation—blasting rock at the Belmont Mine in Butte.
As it turned out, the work didn't suit him—he only stayed a year—but the city made an impression and he decided that he'd one day return to Montana.
Seven years ago, the couple sold their house in Pennsylvania and paid cash on a tidy blue A-frame in Buxton, 15 miles southwest of Butte just off Interstate 15.
Audrey had some misgivings about moving so far from her home town, but Sam, an avid sportsman, convinced her. As it turned out, the new life worked out just fine.
"We like Montana a lot," she says. "It's quiet, the people are kind, and you don't have to put up with a lot of stress.
"Life moves slowly out here and that suits us old folks just fine."
A few years ago, Sam came down with emphysema and had to give up the outdoor activities he'd traveled so far to pursue.
But, he can still see his favorite hunting spot, Fleecer Mountain, from the kitchen window, and he's found other forms of amusement to compensate.
About four or five times a week, Sam and Audrey head over to their favorite casino just up the road in Rocker to play the machines and meet with friends.
"It's really our main form of exercise," says Sam, only half-kidding. "It's important that we get out of the house. I mean, I love my wife, but Montana would be an awfully lonely place if we were stuck on the couch all day."
"The people at the casino are wonderful," adds Audrey. "We've made a lot of good friends and the staff treats us like family. We think it's the best casino in Montana."
After a lifetime of recreational gambling (back east, the couple played bingo and bet on horse-races), the Thomases have worked out a sensible system for budgeting their playing money.
"We usually play with $20 each," says Sam. "When we're through, that's it. It doesn't matter how much we've won or lost—we always stop playing when we hit $20."
"We're not in it to make the big bucks," he kids. "If you're chasing a jackpot, you're going to be chasing a long time. You shouldn't kid yourself about the odds.
"But, if you play like we do—for amusement—win or lose, you're going to have a good time. And that's really what it's about for us: just having a good time."
"We don't have to answer to anyone," says Sam. "It's a good life."
And, after a lifetime of toil, who would deny these two their small pleasure?
Source: Gaming Player Magazine, published summer of 2002 by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701. |
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