August 16, 2006

You Know It’s You, Bob!

My name is Bob and I am joining a club.  I’ve never been what you would call a joiner.

But I can’t resist this offer because it’s called the Bob Club.

As the name suggests, it’s a club reserved for men named Bob and the people who know and love them. It’s my kind of organization because there aren’t any dues or regularly scheduled meetings. I also don’t have to wear some stupid-looking hat, or remember a secret pledge or password.

The best clubs, I believe, are those that get you together with people you like and allow you to drink beer while you’re doing it.

To find out more about this organization, just log onto “Bob Club.”

“Bobs,” the website notes, “are generally good-natured people, despite some of the goofy nicknames people come up with for us. It seems that some people can’t be satisfied with just calling us ‘Bob’. They have to add stuff to it, like ‘Bob-A-Loo’, ‘Bob-A-Reno’, ‘Bob-A-Linsky’ and other odd variations."

I’ve always figured my mom named me Bob because she had the feeling I’d never amount to much as a speller and Bob is an easy name to spell because it's the same backwards and forward.

For those who want a few facts about people named Bob, compliments of the Bob Club founders, here they are:

• There has never been a U.S. president named Bob.  

• In Avon, Colorado there is a bridge named Bob.

• At one time, there were three other Old English variations of the name “Bob”. They were “Hob”, “Nob” and “Dob”.

• Bozo the Clown and Captain Kangaroo were both Bobs.

The powers-that-be in the Bob Club offer for sale Bob t-shirts, hats and toys.   They also have compiled a slew of lists, like one focusing on actors named Bob — Bob Conrad, Bob Crane, Bob Culp, Bob Cummings; poets Bob Burns and Bob Frost and composer/lyricist Bob Merrill.  And one on movies with the word “Bob” in their titles — Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, What About Bob? and Bobby Deerfield.

And while we’re at it, how about a mention of the many, many songs with the name in their titles.  They include "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbing Along", "Bobby’s Girl", "Me & Bobby McGee" and "Wait Till My Bobby Gets Home".

Over the years, founders of the Bob Club have collected the names of 2,400 people, places and things named Bob. You can buy a 16-by-20-inch poster with all those names on it.

© 2006 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # BB32. Request permission to publish here.