About Uncles

They don't make uncles like they used to, in my opinion. My children have 3 uncles. The first they never see because he lives in America and never comes over, and the second they rarely see as he lives in Salisbury and rarely comes over. The third one, who they see frequently, is more like a proper uncle but they don't really think of him as such as they can remember when he got married to my sister.
Uncles were different in my day. They had proper uncle names. They took and active part in my life which included dragging me through water sprinklers, making me touch stinging nettles and electric fences, singing comic songs to me and generally doing the more fun things in life (most of which led to them to be given a sound telling off by whichever Aunt they were married to). They remembered my birthday (probably, I suspect, due to the Aunts). I had 2 uncles, a town uncle who was good at making things and a country uncle who taught me so much about the wildlife and plants as we walked through the countryside around his home. These 2 uncles figure prominently in happy holidays and Christmases in the past (I have memories of being made snowballs by one and being plied with homemade country wine by the other at what must have been a highly inappropriate age).
Frank, my country uncle, died a couple of years ago and Jack, my town uncle, died shortly after Christmas, so I am now uncle-less. I miss them both and am grateful to them for being the wonderful uncles they were.