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I don't think I ever saw Uncle Bob
Gilder cross.
If he DID have hard words with someone, then there was always a
smile on Uncle Bob's face.
To those financial gamblers, who "recognise an
opportunity" and make millions, good luck.
When you fall, I hope it's on your nxthundu. OK, that's just
a personal message from me to profiteers.
To those that worked hard all of your lives, to earn
your daily bread, only to feed yourself to work again,
Uncle Bob was a perfect example. I remember his Dad, too.
When we first met the Gilders, it was out at their
farm in the countryside.
Subsequently they moved to town, I guess to help with schooling.
My first recollection was of Uncle Bob running the local market.
AND MAN, what a market !!!!! AND WHAT A MAN.
A table filled with ripe red beetroots, another table laden with the
reddest of ripe tomatoes that you'd ever see.
No DNA in those days boet. No cloning of a tomato with an apple to
give it more bite.
The only thing genetically modified was the buyers.
Annnnnna two bob, two bob, two and tuppence....who'll
gimme two anna farthing ? two and six ? SOLD to Aubrey.
Now these carrots - fresh from Neale Bradfield's potato
farm...who'll gimme two bob a lot ? Thanks Ken, two and six...
Half a crown, my kroon.
All day long, a bustling market, with two offices on the side -
Auntie Dot (Bob's wife) and my Mom with the
fledgling PAPA - Port Alfred Publicity Association.
So many cars and trucks parked there. And never ever was one stolen.
I guess it was before the
days of "easy money" entered people's heads like property
speculators who deny rights to the worthy.
Can't really remember where or why the market didn't
come to be anymore ? Then
Uncle Bob had a shop in Wharf Street. Was it Bob's Bargains ? It was
a used furniture shoppe
and you could buy anything from a radio gram to a potty. A table,
chairs, a sideboard whatever you
needed. Some potty's were floral, others had pictures of flowers on
them.
Once an old chappie tried to sell his wife there, because he thought
she was a little potty. Uncle
Bob and Aunt Dot had five daughters to educate:
Gillian, Brenda, Jennifer, Denise and Nola.
In those days you never sat and did nothing. If there was a rugby
game on, almost
everybody went to watch. If a new movie hit town, Uncle Vernon Timm
had a full house.
Everybody attended any sort of function - even the Bathurst Show was
so packed that
you couldn't even move. Cecil Dewey at the Pig had no problem with
this, as an agricultural
show causes an agricultural type thirst. When the Baptist Church had
fun and games on a
Friday evening, us kids never knew, in our fun, that we were
actually playing with Catholics
and Baptists and Protestants and Methodists - we just jolled.
One thing one NEVER did, was to challenge Uncle Bob
at playing matches.
He had an incredible winning brain. Even if you were leading 5/1 -
he'd beat you 5/7.
GUARANTEED. Like my
parents, Uncle Bob never got rich. But he lived a rich life and paid
great attention to
educating his children. And he never ever harmed a soul.
ANOTHER MAN AMONGST MEN FROM THE KOWIE
RIP
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martin@martins.co.za
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