Hamilton leaving a legacy of giving
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BY COLLEEN KENNEY / Lincoln Journal Star
How will you leave this world?
Pastor Greg Olson asked this of his people the other Sunday at Southwood Lutheran Church. How will people be touched by your love?
I want to be like Harold Hamilton! (Posted by: Karen.)
If you want to hear Pastor Greg Olson's sermon, go to the Southwood Lutheran blog, southwood.typepad.com and look for the Nov. 13 entry: “I Want to Be Like Harold Hamilton.”
The pastor said he wanted to leave it the way Harold Hamilton will leave it, maybe someday soon.
He talked about how Harold Hamilton spends most of his days and extra money filling the cup and cupboards of charities around town, filling the souls of others and his own.
I want to be like Harold Hamilton!!! (Posted by: Ingrid Skilbred.)
Harold Hamilton slides into his red Honda CRV most every day and drives from store to store, buying bargains by the cases: Campbell’s soup, Van Camp’s Pork and Beans, Cheese Puffs …
He drives the loads to the Lutheran Food Pantry, the People’s City Mission, the Friendship Home, Newborns in Need … about eight charities. (He knows a homeless guy at The Gathering Place who likes mince-meat pie.)
Harold Hamilton is a retired Lutheran pastor. He is 86 years old.
I want to be like Harold Hamilton. (Posted by: Chip Borgstadt.)
“This is the Hamilton Store,” he says one recent day at his home in east Lincoln.
Groceries fill a storeroom in his basement, which is down a stairwell lined with wedding portraits of his three sons and his wife, in the wedding dress she sewed herself.
She died a few years back.
He promised his sons he would always use the handrail.
“I want to be like Harold Hamilton.” (Posted by: Drew)
Groceries fill storage shelves in his garage, too, like the boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats he stacked after a sale at Hy-Vee.
He digs into his savings.
He has trouble with his neck. That’s why he stoops like this. Other than that, he says, he’s blessed with health.
He buys pastries at the end of the day after Hy-Vee marks them down. In the morning, he drives them to fire stations for the firefighters.
He lets his grandkids take all the pop they want.
I want to be like Harold Hamilton. (Posted by: Barb)
He leaves cold cans of pop in the mailbox for the mail woman. He leaves pop for the garbage men.
He walks back to the living room now, slowly, and sits in a glider rocker by the window. He talks about the Depression and growing up in Carter Lake, Iowa, how his mom existed on coffee, always letting her growing boys eat first.
He talks about his dad, a good man and the kind of dad you’d want, except when he drank.
That’s why Harold Hamilton doesn’t.
He talks about how, when friends are depressed, he mails them jokes he’s collected over the decades.
Q: According to the Bible, how long did Cain hate his brother?
A: As long as he was abel.
And this one, which he reads aloud:
“Some ministers would make good martyrs. They are so dry, they would burn well.”
Harold Hamilton laughs at this.
I want to be like Harold Hamilton! (Posted by: Andrea)
His youngest son attends Southwood Lutheran Church. The other Sunday, Harold Hamilton went with him there.
“I want to be like Harold Hamilton,” he heard Pastor Greg Olson say, to his great surprise.
A few days later, a story of Harold Hamilton went up on the church’s blog and people left comment after comment, and that surprised him, too.
I remember this sermon and bought some specials at Russ’s yesterday, knowing I didn’t need them, but the food bank could use them! Now I will need to figure out where to take them. (Posted by: Beth.)
He’s folded five winter coats and lined them up on the couch. He will bring them to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church for the work release prisoners who come every Sunday to worship and to eat.
He heard they needed coats.
Anyone else want to be like Harold Hamilton?
Reach Colleen Kenney at 473-2655 or ckenney@journalstar.com.
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Linda wrote on December 3, 2008 5:43 am:
Thank You Mr. Hamilton. And Colleen for a great article. I wish there were more of these and less focus on the junk. Bless You! "
Sadly Cynical wrote on December 3, 2008 6:06 am:
Jake wrote on December 3, 2008 7:14 am:
thank you wrote on December 3, 2008 7:15 am:
Tim wrote on December 3, 2008 7:33 am:
FANTASTIC wrote on December 3, 2008 7:42 am:
Missing the point wrote on December 3, 2008 7:52 am:
Linda Birman wrote on December 3, 2008 7:56 am:
Kay wrote on December 3, 2008 8:50 am:
Merry Christmas!! "
I want to be like Harold Hamilton wrote on December 3, 2008 9:14 am:
Plain N Simple wrote on December 3, 2008 10:00 am:
Some people DO, some people DON'T. Some eventually WILL, some NEVER DO.
But...the Best part is ALL of US Can! (we're all capable to some degree no matter age, income, or race)
It's obvious that Mr. Hamilton "GETs IT & LOOK...in turn ..just by doing the story, it inspired Colleen so much that now Colleen does too! That's the ultimate of "getting it...is that it spreads!)
And in GETTING IT, it feels so good & you realize what those who DON'T are truly missing!
I encourage everyone to "GET IT"! You won't be sorry! "
JD wrote on December 3, 2008 10:10 am:
Thinking about giving - is gratifying.
The act of giving - is gratifying.
The memory of giving - is gratifying.
More people should be in the "attitude of gratitude". Oh how we can all learn from Pastor Hamilton's examples. Just think of all the loving memories he has of all the smiles he has caused and seen.
I WANT TO BE LIKE HAROLD HAMILTON TOO! DON'T YOU? "
kim wrote on December 3, 2008 10:24 am:
DOC wrote on December 3, 2008 11:07 am:
rose wrote on December 3, 2008 12:00 pm:
My view of the churches of today is they are more into worshiping with the elite... Yes just look how they leave the churches in the older neighborhoods and go for the new big churches. I've often wondered why they can not minister in the area that needs it the most. There is so much they could do for people and children in need. Just coming to the area and sponsoring a night out for the youth. They could easily teach their youth (those who have everything) that there is a different side of life in Lincoln. I see so much in my "older" neighborhood that could be helped by a kind deed. "
Faye wrote on December 3, 2008 1:28 pm:
Jo wrote on December 3, 2008 2:30 pm:
Ethan Hamilton wrote on December 3, 2008 3:51 pm:
Kim wrote on December 3, 2008 4:01 pm:
grateful 4 story wrote on December 3, 2008 6:41 pm:
Mel wrote on December 4, 2008 8:53 am:
Karen wants to be like Harold wrote on December 4, 2008 9:45 am:
Jon Hamilton wrote on December 6, 2008 12:31 pm:
"It only takes a spark to get a fire going
And soon all those around will warm up to its glowing ..."
I suppose you could decide for yourself if that's either a call to action or a statement of faith or perhaps the proper intersection of both.
All I know is that there are people we meet who have a profound impact upon us, who challenge us to challenge ourselves and to see the world a little differently than it is often described or painted. Most people are about as happy as they want to be, I suppose. And that may either be a blessing or a curse -- depending upon your viewpoint.
Our eyesight or health may be compromised or no longer serve us as well as it used to, but that should never diminish our vision or our ability " to do what we can, with what we have, where we are." I know that those words were originally spoken by Theodore Roosevelt, but the actions and the quiet determinition to make those words a reality not just figuratively but more importantly literally and humanitarianly comes from the example demonstrated daily by both my mother and father.
And I can bear witness to that simple fact because my brothers and I grew up in the same house where those important "ROOTS" and "WINGS" were
allowed to grow and be developed. My mother's name was Darlene Phyllis Softley Hamilton and my father was, and is still, Harold E. Hamilton and THAT to borrow a line from a Robert Frost poem -- "has made ALL the difference." You'll have to trust me when I say, "That's just the way I've come to see it!"
Never doubt for a moment that "one person cannot make a difference." I can point to too many examples in history and in my own life to show how true that statement really is. But as profound and inspirational as even that one difference maker can be -- we should also recognize what the collective and proper application of that same desire to make a difference in our own way when we align ourselves together in a common purpose or in a cooperative venture worthy of ALL of us and for the GOOD in all of us as well. That's an important MATH application of just how that possible equation can work itself or play itself out into the community and the world.
James Baldwin once wrote in one of his novels in the early 1960's:
"The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it in the same way as you found it." Harold Hamilton and many others bear witness to demonstrating by their own poignant, unselfish and yet very contagious and profound example that we never have to be satisfied, stimyied or even limited by either our own ignorance or apathy or even someone else's.
And EACH of us can decide to use our talents, gifts and abilities to make
a difference in the lives of a greater community than just ourselves when we seek to both serve and share "what we can, with what we have, where we are."
Jon Hamilton
(youngest son of Harold & Darlene Hamilton) "