By Tina Jackson
Our farm was like summer camp for city cousins. Each year we hosted numerous visitors for a few days. There were many attractions for children on our place. There were hills, ponds, wildlife, and games to play with the two boys who lived on the next farm. When we reminisce about summers on the farm at family reunions, someone will always talk about “Uncle Bob.”
Bob was an uncle of our friends on the next farm who would come for the summer. He was an elderly man, but Bob was ageless to children. We heralded his return each year with celebration and glee. He brought joy to every child he met. He always had a riddle and a story. We would play horseshoes and word games, pick up walnuts or just talk until dark.
Bob was a champion nut cracker. He could sit for hours cracking nuts, passing out those yummy nuggets to each of us. Having fun with Bob was different than with other adults. He understood kids and we knew it. We accepted him unconditionally, as he did us. Bob was totally blind.
We learned to do things Bob’s way. In order to play horseshoes, we would tap the stake with a metal pipe. Bob would hone in on the sound of the tapping and eight out of ten times he would make a ringer. When going for walks in the holler, he used a walking stick or two delighted children held his hands.
I was 10 when we were sitting on the porch of the old farmhouse one day when he told me, “someday you will get too old to come see ‘ol Bob. You’ll grow up and have other friends to see and that will be ok.”
“No”, I protested, “I’ll never do that Bob.”
He was right. Children grow up and have other interests. Bobdied when I was 25. I realized that I did not even know where he lived or even asked about his home life during the rest of the year. We only knew that when Bob came to the holler it was lots of fun. I felt I had let him down and it broke my heart.
Bob was a simple man with a simple message that he lived daily. Love and respect your children, love and appreciate your family, allow for differences, and you can love and be loved.
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