About Bob
Storyline
- 1942
I was born to Thomas and Eliza Deans in Glasgow on April 28. At that time, his Dad was in the Royal Air Force, stationed at Biggin Hill. Mum was a bookbinder. I am eternally grateful to my parents. Dad was stationed at Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain keeping Spitfires and Hurricanes in the air. I recently came across a tram ticket in a Salvation Army songbook my father had kept from that day.
- 1946
By the time the war was over I was the eldest of three children living in a single end accommodation in a Glasgow tenement sharing a toilet on the landing with two other families, no hot water or bathroom just like thousands of other Glasgow families.
- 1952
Dad had borrowed money money from friends and family and bought a butcher in Arbroath on the East Coast. At the age of 10, I joined the Meat Game by becoming a meat delivery boy after school and on Saturdays
- 1953
Dad had been bitten by the travel bug in the Air Force, and he dragged us all the way to Edmonton, Canada. (See “A Tale of Three Cities”)
- 1954
Back to Scotland, where Dad bought a butchery in Helensburgh near Glasgow.
- 1960
After seven years, Dad needed a change and off we went to Australia as “Ten Pound Poms’. (Australia’s Immigration Incentive Scheme). I became an apprentice butcher and worked at various jobsacross Australia.
- 1963
After various adventures, including a brief trip back to Scotland, I moved to New Zealand as a qualified butcher. Worked various jobs, including a spell at the Freezer Works in Invercargill..
- 1964
Set up our shop (with brother Tom and Dad) in Milford, Auckland. I met and married Jean and she was, until she passed away 58 years later, the most amazing wife, mother and grandmother. A faithful friend to all who knew her. The Milford shop was followed by one in Balmoral
- 1972 - 1985
Established “Sensational Sausages” in Orakei, Auckland, where we were very successful and met some very interesting people. Retired to Warkworth, where we settled after a brief sojourn on a farm just outside the town.
- 2005
I awoke one Monday morning In 2005 and suggested to Jean that we should create The Great New Zealand Sausage Trail. She looked at me and nodded. All the approval I needed. Five days later we were off, on a meaty adventure that took us all the way from Kaitaia in the north to Invercargill in the south.
- Today
Some time ago, I sat down and wrote, in my own inimitable style, my recollections of the Sausage Trail trip and some of the other Meaty adventures in my life, and now, in my 80’s, with the help of Write-On Publishing, I have published the book!
