Gerry Nomeland came to Flin Flon in 1946 from Archerwill, SK. His family, father George, mother Elsa, and sisters Vivian and Doreen, had arrived in 1941.
When the rest of the family moved, Gerry stayed behind to help his grandparents, Victor and Victoria Johnson, look after their livery barn. During that time Gerry’s brother Ernie died in Germany.
Gerry was 17 years old when he came up north. He was supposed to go to school but managed to find work, first in the butcher shop at Ostry’s, then at PK (Plummer/Kies) hardware store, then with Emery Brothers contractors, the company that put up the first tower for the radio station.
Gerry got a job at Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting (HBM&S) on September 16, 1948, working in the smelter. He started on the bull gang, then moved to a swamper or “crane chaser.” The smelter floor crew on day shift wheeled hot copper bars from the casting wheel to the storage area to cool before being shipped by train to Montreal.
In 1956 Gerry became No. 2 crane operator in the converter pit, working alongside the converter boss Mike Dopater.
“There were three convertors in the smelter going 24/7, three shifts, and my job was to put the ladles under the convertor to skim off the slag. Skimming was done regularly by the punchers. The slag was taken to the reverb furnace to be reprocessed till a complete copper charge was reached, meaning all the slag had been removed.
“On occasion a special charge was done. Five or six 45-gallon drums from the gold presses in the mill would arrive and the heavy black material would be dumped into the convertor and mixed with the copper. This was called a gold charge.
“Rumours said that the gold charge could pay the wages for all the HBM&S workers in the plant. The copper and gold mix was shipped by train to Montreal for further refining.”
In 1969, Gerry transferred to the fuming plant as No. 2 crane operator, with Wielenga as his shift boss and Jeff Mould as foreman. “I was the first crane operator to pour molten metal into the electric holding furnace,” he says.
Gerry became labour foreman in 1971, working with new smelter employees in the training department. The job involved five-day classroom orientation with each class consisting of six or seven new employees.
In 1981 Gerry transferred to the job of industrial adjustment worker co-ordinator, where he made videos of various jobs, looking for safety issues.
Gerry retired from HBM&S in 1986.
Shortly after Gerry arrived in Flin Flon, a pretty young lady named Valerie Barr, “noticed this young lad working in the butcher shop at Ostry’s.”
Valerie was attending Hapnot and working at the Rex Theatre after school and on weekends. Gerry and Val got to go to “free” shows. They often walked to Phantom Lake along with Val’s brother Bob, Norma Saddlemeyer, Don Randle and Germaine Floch.
Val and Gerry were married in 1951. They lived first in an apartment on North Avenue, then moved to a suite on Main Street, then to Hapnot Street across from the Royal Canadian Legion, where they shared the bathroom with Don and Germaine. Their daughter Lisa was born in 1955 while they were in the Hapnot Street house.
After a couple of moves he family settled into a house on Bracken Street, where daughter Pam was born in 1957 and son Joby was born in 1958.
In 1976-77 Val and Gerry built a home at Sourdough Bay. After Gerry retired they wintered in Tucson, Arizona for a couple of winters and then Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island for about 10 years.
As life would have it, Val got sick in 2001 and they sold their home at Sourdough Bay and moved into the East Street apartments. In 2008, Val went into the personal care home and Gerry moved to Rotary Court.
Happily, three years ago the PCH gave the family permission to take Val out on a holiday. Lisa, her husband Kerry, Gerry and Val spent some in Drumheller, Alberta visiting family.
Gerry enjoyed curling and was a member of the Willowpark Curling Club men’s league, where he curled with Norm Scheider among others. Gerry was also on the Bomber Board for seven or eight years and the Community Club board for 10 years.
Gerry worked at the museum, “fixing things,” and at Camp Whitney under the direction of Brenda Russell. He was president of the Flin Flon Lions Club in the ’70s. He also belonged to the Phantom Lake Golf Course, where he helped by raking and levelling the fairway.
Gerry laughs as he tells the story of a Flin Flon Hunting Lodge in The Pas with about 20 members. “I remember I brought my grandson on time from The Pas, and as we crossed the bridge, he turned to me and asked, ‘Grandpa can we swear now?’”
Once a year Del Byers, Bill Daniels, Gerry Trueman and Gerry would go on a fly-in fishing trip. “It was great fun and good fishing too,” he smiles.
Gerry enjoys good health, visits Val pretty much every day, travels to The Pas to visit his daughter Lisa, and to Winnipeg and Minitonas to visit family. He goes to Cranberry Portage to see son Joby and grandson. His daughter Pam lives in Flin Flon.
Gerry says he feels he has been blessed with a wonderful life. He is grateful for the opportunities HBM&S gave him, a young man with Grade 7 education. He credits his family for his full life and their support in his endeavours. They have always been his rock.
