NationStates Jolt Archive

(As partly inspired by LG's thread about his nephew: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=9213991#post9213991)

My brother and his wife are expecting their first son next month. I fully intend to be the ideal uncle to the best of my abilities - odd ball, fun, *appropriately* spoiling, and a source of mischief.

I have a few good inspirations to pull on:

Uncle C.: A retired member of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, Uncle C. has always been my fave. He's got a house out in the west Texas desert, that includes the first proper standing urinal in a house I ever saw (and one of only three I've ever seen). He also has a gun safe full of interesting firearms - and knows the fine line between fun responsible use and dangerous use (plinking aerosol cans in the desert on full-auto! Fun!)

Uncle B.1: He's the yuppie who married late. He was lots of fun before he married. He taught me all I ever needed to know about dipping Skoal, and lots about women.

Uncle B. 2: He was the drunk. He always had a trick ready for me and my little bro. Typical of him, he was the first person to introduce the classic "pull my finger".

Uncle A.: Uncle A. lived on a farm. That was always worth good fun visiting.

And I have a new set of half-uncles (recently discovered when my dad found his birth mother), many of whom look to be worthy examples of Unclehood.

So, what is a good uncle?
Who are your favorite uncles?
And why?
And how true is it that everyone (at least in the USA) has an Uncle Bob?

Bob's YER uncle.

Bob's YER uncle.
So logically it must follow that fanny's your aunt.

I have an uncle bob, but no aunty fanny. I am very confused :(

I only have one uncle. his name isn't Bob, but he is a pretty unique person.

He is an architect, that doesn't practice architecture. He quit his job with a big firm, and spends his time going to school taking things like natural history, international marketing, and Japanese.
He paints pictures.
he's a religious Jew
He lives in an 100 year old house, and refuses to buy a showerhead.
He will not reveal anything about his political views.

An interesting charachter, but can be a bit frustrating to deal with.

I have an Uncle B, exactly as you describe, and his name was actually Bob. He cleaned up his act later in life, though.

I'm about to be an uncle as well. No Uncle B experiences, though - my parents are both only children.

:( All but two of my uncles have passed away.

But while they were alive I had some really intersting ones. My Great-Uncle Eric was the drunk, but also a homesteader here in Canada, and participated in the last gold rush in the northwest. An awesome carpenter too, when he injured his back and could no longer work full time in his trade, he moved to Winnioeg. While there he owned and ran an apartment building in one of the seedier/slummier areas. His building though, was always in top condition, he did his best to fix any problems his tenants had, prided himself on charging fair rent, and put up with no BS. Troublemakers were tossed out, physicly, by Uncle Eric, who was 6'3" and 250 of muscle.

One story recalled many times in family get-togethers paints picture of Uncle Erics crazier side, his penchant for being a disarmingly charming troublemaker.: Stumbling out of a bar pissed drunk in the early evening, he spotted a motorbike-cop. The officer was about to approach him and give trouble for being drunk in public, but Uncle Eric just strode up and got into the sidecar on the cops bike, looked up at him and said "Take me home."
So the Cop took him to the drunk tank to dry out of course, but didn't charge him with anything. This was all witnessed by his brother, my Uncle August, who himself had dubious distinction of losing three fingers on his left hand when his moonshine still blew up one fine winter evening way back when.

As drunk as he'd get at times, Uncle Eric was always a gentleman. He never even raised his voice in anger at his wife, treated all women like they both Ladies and equal to any man. I have many fond memories of listening to his tales of life on the BC frontier in the early 1900s and the last Goldrush, his incredible magic tricks (all slight of hand)

Thats just one of my Uncles, and many of them were equally as interesting as Uncle Eric, but I'd never have time to list them all (between Uncles and Great-Uncles I at one time had 24 of them)

i've got an uncle bob. and i am in america. but think about it, uncle bob's kids probably DON'T have an uncle named bob. so not everyone has one.

my uncles sort of an architect. he helped build safeco field and can get free tickets to there

I have an Uncle C (dosen't live in Texas, or America for that matter) and an uncle B.2 (except he's not a drunk, just an occasional cigar smoker)