Drop em' Bob

Well here I am watching the Adelaide Crows / Port Power show-down and thinking about my Uncle Bob, and the blog I've been planning to write for weeks!!! So the game can  wait, and I'm going to at last write this! You see my Uncle Bob died a couple of weeks ago, and he and my Aunty Audrey used to be at the show downs at Aami stadium just near their home. So Aunty Audrey I'm really thinking of you tonight, and hoping you've got some company to help ease the pain at this time!
 My uncle (my Mum's brother) was quite a famous footballer you see, and his funeral was held at Aami 2 weeks ago. His name was Bob Hank and he used to play for West Torrens. He won 2 Magary Medals and captained the state team etc etc, but to me he was just Uncle Bob.

This was from his funeral card so didn't photgraph well..but you get the idea!! MY UNCLE BOB!!

  He was the Uncle who was always cheerful, cheeky and positive. He was a charmer with all the ladies and used to always kiss our hands as a greeting. He had a great laugh, and would give us tomatos when we were near the packing shed where he and my other 2 uncles worked their market garden.

 Hank and sons would sell tomatos and cucumbers grown in the glasshouse right near our house. I can still remember the smell inside the glasshouse and the warm humid feeling when I would use it as a short cut to my friend Sharon's house! I can feel the soft dirt making puffs of "dust"against my thongs in summer as we walked through the glass-house sweating and gasping for fresh air at the end when you opened the heavy glass door, by turning the large wooden crossbar clockwise. In winter there would be muddy holes along the path some with tad-poles in them that we could collect and take home. The rain would leak through the glass roof in some places making the fertile dirt more like mud, that would stick in the tred of our shoes, and make us remove them before going into our house, (or Mum would be mad!) In cold weather the warmth in the glass house was lovely, warm and cosy, and the smell felt homely. I remember opening the door in stormy weather and the wind would catch it, making it too heavy for me to hold (I was only 7 or 8). It would swing outwards and crash as it hit a wooden holding post, and I was so frightened it would smash some glass!! But what does my reflecting have to do with Uncle Bob? Well he was always the friendly face somewhere along the rows tieing up tomato plants or harvesting the fruit. He would never ignore the small girl walking through his work place and territory. He would always stand up from what he was doing, wave, yell cheerio or beckon me to come down the row to collect tomatos for my Mum!! I was his youngest niece and number 16 for him but he would never make you feel inferior or unimportant.He had the habit of making everyone feel special, and I think that's why he was so well loved!

As a young man I think he was quite handsome looking!!

 So my heading of Drop Em' Bob.... where did that come from? Well I remember when my grandparents were still alive we would have Hank Christmases where we would all get together - with 5 kids and 21 grandkids, and numerous great-grands it would be quite a show. But my Nanna would give the 'boys' (her 3 sons) shorts for Christmas and without blinking an eye Uncle Bob would drop his old ones that he would be wearing and immediately put on the new pair! People would call out "Drop em' Bob" and it became tradition that anyone with new 'duds' for Christmas would be required to immediately try them on then and there (although I must say I only ever remember this applying to boys not girls!!) So even in our immediate family the cry continues to ring out "Drop em' Bob" at Christmas and Birthdays, and I hope it will continue to do so for much time to come, and we'll remember the lovely man and uncle who inspired it all for us!
May you be at peace Uncle Bob!