Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Uncle Sib


Jen Clair of Bayou Quilts is one of several people posting a challenge: Find your fourth roll of photos, find the fourth photo on the roll, post it and write about it. I was curious to see what my fourth was, and when I found it, I had to post.

This is my Uncle Eusibius, known as Sib; it was taken at my mother's 90th birthday brunch in 2004. Sib was a dear, sweet man, but one of those people who seemed to exist to cause hilarity among people who knew him, mostly for his great quantity of misinformation, delivered in a very loud voice. (He was quite hard of hearing in his last years.) One example: at a family reunion one of Sib's many, many grand-, or great-grand-nephews approached and introduced himself: "I'm Davey, Clarence's son." Sib responded (shouted), "No, you ain't! You're John Duncan's boy!" Quite a surprise to Davey, and a lovingly repeated story for everyone else in the family.

Sib had a truly wonderful collection of arrowheads and other Native American artifacts that he loved to take to local schools to share with the students. The arrowheads were interesting, but there were other lesser-known treasures in the collection. For example, there were the roundish stones, easily fitting in the human hand, that Sib insisted were "throwing rocks". Throwing rocks are quite common. More rare were the infamous "sex rocks." Sib: "They had pornography too, you know!" I was never fortunate enough to be shown a "sex rock", so I can't give any details, but the story lives in family folklore. I don't think the school kids ever saw the "sex rocks", either.

In this picture, Sib is proudly showing a privately printed local history brochure whose author used him as a source. "It's true! It's in this book!" If that doesn't make you question the reliability of history, nothing will.

Dear Sib. I miss you.

Anyone else want to post a picture and reminisce?

13 comments:

Paula Hewitt said...

Uncle Sib sounds great. we had an 'Uncle Sib' too - but not so bad he argued with Davey about who he was! lol.
id love to know more about the sex rocks.

dee said...

I would love to play along and will as soon as I stop twirling. My Late FIL Jim is a constant source of wonder.
I second the info on the sex rocks...hmmm

dee said...

I forgot to say how much I love that name. It's so wonderful and latin.

Liz in Kansas said...

Uncle Sib sounds great. My Dad would have made a good match for him. Sib and Bob - the terrifying two!

Barbara C said...

Great story. I think the throwing rocks are as funny as the sex rocks.

Granny Fran said...

What a doll he was! Thanks for sharing him with us.

jenclair said...

Oh, this is a great one! Loved the photo and the stories about Uncle Sib. So sorry you didn't get to see the sex rocks!

allie aller said...

Sib...what a character! From another era entirely....
I don't have "rolls" of film anymore, so how do I decide?

McIrish Annie said...

What a great story! We all have an "Uncle Sib" in our family. These are the people who add the "spice" to family gatherings.

BTW everyone knows that sex rocks!! LOL

*karendianne. said...

We should all be so fortuante and blessed to have an Uncle Sib in the family. We did in our family. He was my grandfather. Passed away at the age of 99 on - seriously now - 12/31/99. No kidding! I reckon he just didn't want to bring in the double zero's.

Sound in mind and body, too!

Candace said...

Hi Kay, I came over via Karen Dianne at Lee Haven. Great blog you have and I absolutely love your stars! I was offered the same challenge a few posts ago, too (by Karen)! You can see my picture on my blog. I love your uncle Sib - sounds like the relatives my husband grew up with - great story and picture!

Kim said...

Your Uncle Sib sounds like a few of my relatives, especially with respect to 'his great quantity of misinformation.' I spend much of my youth arguing with loud facts - learned my lesson, I'm totally buying his "sex rocks" story!

Deb Hardman said...

He sounds a little bit like my uncle Cecil (lovingly refered to as uncle Squeezel because he liked to squeeze the girls).

What a great story. I suddenly realized I'd been missing your posts for a lon while. I didn't realize I hadn't finished moving everybody to my reading list! Sorry I've missed you Kay!