Who is "Gub"? Connecting the dots... (Great Uncle Barrhaven) I've been using the nickname "Gub" since 2005. And, sadly, almost NOBODY ever asks me about the origin of the nickname "GUB". Well, even if you aren't the least bit interested, here's the story! "GUB" is an acronym for Great Uncle Barrhaven... GUB And, Great Uncle Barrhaven was fashioned in the spirit of Great Uncle Bulgaria, leader of the Wombles of Wombledon, a fictional community introduced and occasionally mentioned in British freecycling / freegle circles. So, what's the connection between Wombles and freecycling you ask? Wombles are fictional, pointy-nosed furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. The wombles motto is "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish"... thus the obvious connection between Wombles and freecycling. Wombles are fictional characters created by British Elisabeth Beresford, originally appearing in a series of five children's novels from 1968. The characters later became nationally famous in the mid 1970s as a result of a popular BBC children's television show using stop motion animation. A number of spin-off novelty songs also became major hits in the British music charts. The Wombles "green" message was way ahead of its time in the 1970s. Although Wombles live in every country in the world, the stories focus on the life of the Wimbledon Common burrow in London, England. Beresford reportedly invented the name "Womble" when one of her young children referred to Wimbledon Common as "Wombledon Common". All of this got images of Ottawombles dancing around in my head. I visualized Ottawombledon as the Canadian colony of Wombledon, a place located just outside of Ottawa. Or maybe it was somewhere inside Ottawa's Experimental Farm. It doesn't really matter. And I decided to become "Gub", acronym for Great Uncle Barrhaven, since I seemed to be the first (and only) Canadian... in fact the first and only person… to visualize linkages between Wombles and freecycling / fullcircling / reusing. So, why not just become the self-appointed leader of Ottawombledon, this imaginary Canadian community, a job no one else seems to covet. Gub encourages Ottawans to become Ottawawombles, ThinkRs, folks who always... think "R". Thinking “R”, Gub has created a YouTube Freecycling Playlist - Eric Snyder (Gub) Founder, Full Circles, Canada(Now inactive) PS: Don't you just love it when the dots connect!! Last update: 2022-12-22 |
