Still Going

If you are looking for Ned Mangis, there are only a couple of places you need look. If it is Sunday, chances are you will find the 92-year-old at church. Any other day of the week, chances are good that you will find him at work at B and B in Malta.

"Some days I have ten or twelve customers and some days I don't have any and it is quite around here," Ned said. "It's been a good business and I get the chance to be around people. I enjoy coming down here and going to work every morning, especially since my wife died. I don't have much to do at home so I would rather be here."

Mangis turned 92 in November and though he intentionally didn't do anything extra special for his most recent birthday, he was surrounded by friends and family on his 90th.Mangis and his wife Margaret had five children during their 60-year marriage. The family now also has 13 grandchildren and 26 great grandchildren.

"Including in-laws, that makes 50 all together," Ned said. "They are scattered all across the country. I've got a son in Spokane (Wash) and another in Chicago and I even have a granddaughter in Germany."

His son Craig and daughter Mary both live in Malta and Ned spends most of his days in the back of Craig's Glass Shop where Ned run B and B Sales. Ned explained that 43 years ago he bought a wholesale fuel business. From there he started a tire business and 25 years ago established Malta Tire Center on Highway 2. In 2000, Ned sold the tire center, Craig established the Glass Shop, and in the back of that shop, Ned started B and B Filters and Batteries.

"I don't know what I would have done for the last 15 years without it," Ned said. "It isn't hard work, because I can't work very hard anymore, but it is such a pleasure to do business with people. I'm getting to where I can't always remember everyone's name, but people are pretty forgiving. This is a wonderful place to live."

Ned's parents – Linna (Knapp) and John Mangis – settled in Phillips County over 100 years ago at a spot south east of Malta, moving to the area from Southern Illinois. The couple married in 1910 and had five children, Ned being the second youngest (his sister, Margery Johnson currently lives in Bozeman.) Ned graduated from Malta High School in 1939 and was a charter member of the Future Farmers of America while he was a student. After graduating from high school, Ned had a brief stint at a vocational school in Helena where he studied Radio Broadcasting.

"I was a poor student then," Ned laughed. "If I would have paid more attention then, I might be able to use a cellphone now."

Even though he didn't learn a vocation he would use in his professional life while in Helena, Ned did meet the love of his life while in the state capitol, Margaret Craig. The couple married in 1942 and moved back to Phillips County for six years before going back to Helena for a spell where Ned worked as a carpenter. Ned's father, John, got to the point where he couldn't work the family farm by himself any longer and Ned and Margaret returned to Malta to rent and run the farm. Ned said that over time the family farm was too small to make a living on so it was sold and he and Margaret, in 1972, moved to town and started running the business.

"I much preferred being a farmer," Ned said. "When I was a kid there were 60 families out on that area. Now there are 10, I think. It was a tough life back then. A tough, tough life. We worked hard for everything and didn't have a bunch of junk."

When Margaret passed away in 2002, Ned sold the family house and moved into a smaller dwelling. Ned could have retired from working at the point, but when it came down to it, he didn't because he "wanted something to do."

"God has given me such good health and I don't know what I would have done if I had retired," he said. "I work here every day and I get to talk and meet with people. If I was retired and sitting around at home, I don't suppose I would see as many people. "

When he isn't at work, which isn't very often, Ned said that he enjoys reading books on spiritual growth and going to church and spending time with his grand and great grandchildren when the opportunity rises. But, for the most part, if you need to find Ned, you can find him sitting in his recliner – strategically placed near the pellet stove – where he waits for customers in need of batteries or filters.

"I am blessed," Ned said. "God has blessed me. I think the reason my health is so good is that I grew up in the dirt. I didn't kill me, but rather built an immunity in me. Nowadays, people wash their hands every three or four hours and take a bath every day. My kids took a bath every Saturday night ...and you didn't throw the water out when you were done, you through some flower in it and hauled it to the chicken and the pigs. People take that for granted these days."