Jerry "Mac" Cummings wanted to have a mélange of stories to tell his grandchildren.

At 62 years old with two grandkids, he now has so many that a memoir might be in order.

Professionally he's done everything from dredging for gold on the Missouri River to serving as managing editor at a newspaper to working at Kmart.

"I enjoy life. I've done a little of everything," Cummings said.

His longest stint was working for the East Helena Police Department for 25 years.

"I didn't stay because I hated it. East Helena has been very good to me," Cummings explained.

After the Texas native served in the Army in the late 1960s, Cummings moved to Montana and served as managing editor of the Cut Bank Pioneer Press. After a few years there, he yearned for a more financially beneficial position.

"I was starving to death working at the newspaper," he explained.

He then moved to Great Falls for a job at Kmart.

After six months selling cameras and jewelry, there he came to Helena for a position in the Queen City's new store's automotive department about 35 years ago.

He then sold insurance, dredged for gold on a flat boat for a year and was a home improvement specialist for Sears.

Working for retail stores, Cummings said he grew tired of people stealing stuff so he started his own security business, which was hired by many Helena shops.

Two men who worked for Cummings were former police officers, and when the East Helena police chief at the time was looking for a new patrolman, they recommended Cummings. He stated with the department in May 1982 and later became chief in 1995.

"I enjoyed it because I was working with people and treating people like people," Cummings said.

Cummings quit the security business when the two jobs together became too overwhelming.

"With police work, you can't save the world but can make a difference for one or two people," he added.

He retired as police chief in May because, he said simply, "25 years is enough."

East Helena Mayor Terrie Casey said Cummings was very easy to work with and is certainly missed.

"He had a good feel for the needs of a small city," she said.

Cummings now spends much of his time acquiring and selling antiques. He said his fellow officers would give him strange looks when he would say he was going "antiquing" with his wife, Francene.

"Not everyone's passion is antiques but he does well at it. I hope the best for him," acting East Helena Police Chief Gary Drosten said.

A tour of Cummings' East Helena home includes many antique pieces, like a radio from the 1930s in his living room that still works and a dresser from 1790.

The antiques are contrasted by a 60-inch high-definition flat-screen television.

"As you get older, your eyes don't see so well," he said.

Cummings said he has sold more than a thousand items on eBay so far.

"Everything from bird cages to radios to you-name-it," he said as he cranked up a 1906 Victrola record player.

He also appraises antiques for others.

Cummings and his wife, whom he married in 1969, are gearing up for a garage sale and flea market at their home in a few weeks.

Even though Cummings has retired from the force, he keeps plenty busy.

"I don't lounge that much," he said with a chuckle.