Let us know what you thought of this episode!
Sitting across from my dad, Bob Burns, MBE, the conversation illuminates with tales of his Australian adventures and quiet moments playing chess with my son, Louie.
As he packs his bags to return to the UK, we capture these treasured memories and look ahead to his eagerly anticipated life story publication, a tapestry of family connections and life's rich journeys.
Our dialogue extends beyond the familial, delving into Bob's vibrant past and the art of memoir writing, where his sharp recollections and endearing anecdotes transport us to a time of childhood mischief and career-defining transformations.
Bob's life is a testament to the power of hard work and the spirit of philanthropy, values deeply ingrained in our family's DNA.
He shares insights into the resilience of my grandmother, his entrepreneurial ventures, and how these experiences have shaped his approach to business and giving back.
The narrative unfolds, revealing how our family bakery, Burns the Bread, has woven itself into the fabric of Glastonbury's community, paralleling the story of Bob's own growth and the pride of an MBE honour—a symbol of the indelible mark one's work can leave on the world.
Wrapping up our exchange, we stumble upon a previously forgotten question, a moment that encapsulates the essence of our interactions. It serves as a gentle reminder of the importance of asking the right questions, the kinds that lead to profound insights and deeper connections. Each query posed during our time together teases out meaningful dialogue, solidifying the idea that the questions we ask are just as vital as the stories we tell.
Join us for an episode that celebrates storytelling, success, and the art of inquiry, all woven together by the bonds of family and the legacy we leave behind.
You can find Burns The Bread here
Book in a Bakery School experience here
And find Burns The Bread on Facebook here
Let us know what you thought of this episode!
Sitting across from my dad, Bob Burns, MBE, the conversation illuminates with tales of his Australian adventures and quiet moments playing chess with my son, Louie.
As he packs his bags to return to the UK, we capture these treasured memories and look ahead to his eagerly anticipated life story publication, a tapestry of family connections and life's rich journeys.
Our dialogue extends beyond the familial, delving into Bob's vibrant past and the art of memoir writing, where his sharp recollections and endearing anecdotes transport us to a time of childhood mischief and career-defining transformations.
Bob's life is a testament to the power of hard work and the spirit of philanthropy, values deeply ingrained in our family's DNA.
He shares insights into the resilience of my grandmother, his entrepreneurial ventures, and how these experiences have shaped his approach to business and giving back.
The narrative unfolds, revealing how our family bakery, Burns the Bread, has woven itself into the fabric of Glastonbury's community, paralleling the story of Bob's own growth and the pride of an MBE honour—a symbol of the indelible mark one's work can leave on the world.
Wrapping up our exchange, we stumble upon a previously forgotten question, a moment that encapsulates the essence of our interactions. It serves as a gentle reminder of the importance of asking the right questions, the kinds that lead to profound insights and deeper connections. Each query posed during our time together teases out meaningful dialogue, solidifying the idea that the questions we ask are just as vital as the stories we tell.
Join us for an episode that celebrates storytelling, success, and the art of inquiry, all woven together by the bonds of family and the legacy we leave behind.
You can find Burns The Bread here
Book in a Bakery School experience here
And find Burns The Bread on Facebook here
Hello, hello, it's Nadine here and I'm here with this week's episode of Life, health and the Universe. And this week I'm joined by a very special guest and we're talking in person. And this guest you don't know him yet, but you'll know a little bit about him by the end of our conversation. This guest is Bob Burns. Bob Burns, mbe, that's Member of the British Empire. And, yeah, before I go any further, let's thank you for joining me, bob Olly Deeney.
Speaker 2:It's a pleasure to be here. I mean, none of you know Nadine Deeney, as I call her I always have called her is my youngest daughter. We're over here for a few weeks staying with Nadine and her family, having a great time and getting to know the kids better, which has been great. I've improved my chess, which I play with Lily, and I'm trying to answer the questions that I get posed from Winnie. I'm trying to get the right answer every time. I don't always do that because she's a smart kitty and, yeah, we're having a great time. We are going home next week. We are looking forward to going home, but we're not looking forward to leaving the family here.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, Nadine, I understand you've got some questions for me.
Speaker 1:I have I have. Thank you for joining me. Dad, I'll call this man, bob Burns, my dad from now, and obviously he's given you a little intro about us. Well, he's my dad, so he's known me my entire life. Well, he's my dad, so he's known me my entire life. Um, and he's here, has been here for almost six weeks, um spending some time with us and the family, um so, if I can say, if I can say also, I've honed my grass cutting skills.
Speaker 2:They've got five acres of grass here and I've been mowing pretty well every inch of that grass.
Speaker 1:It seems like every other day, so it's looking pretty good here he's made it his personal project to uh, leave us with an extraordinary, perfect lawn, so, um, okay. So, guys, you know that this is my dad, that I've got on here with us joining us today, and it might be like, well, why do we want to speak? You know, why do we want to hear from Bob Burns, all the way from the UK, and the name of the podcast, as I often say, is Life, health and the Universe. And we, you know, we're all connected in different ways, um, and family is an important part of that, um, for for all of us, um, but dad and I, we chat every sunday, um, on zoom, yep and uh, we often philosophize about life and dean sends me all these weird books on philosophies.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think I hope you found them interesting, they're not weird, they're all interesting, they're all interesting. So, yeah, we do philosophize about what Dad calls the rich tapestry of life, and Dad has had an extraordinary journey thus far in his own life and we're all connected through our stories. And one of the things that I sort of said to dad as I roped him into coming in to um talk with us was the um he's, you've been writing a book.
Speaker 2:I've been. Uh, some people call it a book, I call it a story, a story About my life.
Speaker 1:He's been recording the story of his life in a book which you're kind of in the process of working with a publisher.
Speaker 2:Book one is pretty well ready to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, cool. So that's kind of like a good reason to get you on the podcast, because then we can let people know about your book and if they're interested in reading about your memoirs or the story of Bob Burns as it stands thus far, then they're going to be able to get their hands on it pretty soon. Um, so, before we talk more about the book and some of the things in the book and um, I've got this um challenge for you. Well, you've kind of said that you know you've done a little intro of yourself. Um, you know what? Where we are right now? You've come over to australia to to visit the family, um, hanging out with the grandchildren and and getting to know them better in person, which has been really lovely. But if you were to meet someone in an elevator, you're not afraid to have a chat.
Speaker 1:The elevator hasn't broken down, so maybe you're just going up a couple of stories. What would your elevator pitch be about?
Speaker 2:who you are, oh well, well, I can tell you a little story. I was at a small railway station in Somerset going to a meeting in London. It was a cold, wet morning. There were two people on the platform myself and another gentleman and I thought, well, I'm going to have a chat with him and find out who he is and where he's going and what he's doing. And we got chatting and he was from the next village to where I live, so he lived about two to three miles, probably two miles, away from where I lived.
Speaker 2:He knew me because of my business, which is Burns the Bread, the baker business, in Glastonbury in Somerset, and he owned a kitchen manufacturing business in a place called Cheddar, which a lot of you would have heard of Cheddar, where the cheddar cheese comes from. Anyway, we got chatting and he said I'd recently opened at that time I'd opened a bakery school to teach well, yeah, to entertain people into making bread and buns and pastries and things. And he said I'd love to come on one of your courses. So, as it happened, even after his meeting in London, I went to my meeting in London. About two years later he turned up on one of my courses with his daughter and I'd forgotten all about this conversation at the railway station. Anyway, he reintroduced. He said the other chap was going off to see a client in London and he said yes. He said I was going, he manufactures kitchens and apparently he got the order for this kitchen. I think he said it was about half a million. Oh my God, so nice kitchen for this kitchen.
Speaker 2:I think he said it was about half a million. Oh my God. So a nice kitchen, Nice kitchen. My kitchen at home would have cost about 3,000 when the house was built. It's 20 years old and it's still looking absolutely great.
Speaker 1:So where's your elevator pitch?
Speaker 2:Ah, that's just an example. That's just an example of what I would. So your elevator, you get chatting with people, what is it? Ah, that's just an example of what I would. So you're elevated.
Speaker 1:You get chatting with people. What is?
Speaker 2:it that you tell them about you. You say I'm Bob.
Speaker 1:Burns, I'm a baker.
Speaker 2:I've got a shop in. No, I don't go into that, I just try and find out. What about other people?
Speaker 2:And I was going to a meeting in Manchester a few years ago and I was at birmingham um railway station another railway station railway station, going to another meeting and um, all connected with, uh, with baking, and there was this chap standing next to me reading his paper and I thought, well, I'll try and sort of break into the conversation with him. And he, it was a. It was a just after lunch, about two o'clock, and he told me that he was a manager for an insurance company, worked in in head. I said, oh yes. I said my next door neighbour is the managing director of that particular insurance company and he said does he know that you bunk off at lunchtime? So it was that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:And then that same day I sat on a train next to this young man. I chatting to him, and his hobby was collecting miniature bottles of whiskey.
Speaker 1:So you know, it's all those sort of.
Speaker 2:I just meet some interesting people as you go through life, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Do they ever get to find out anything about you? Oh?
Speaker 2:yes, yes, wendy, my wife she'll tell you that, Bob. She said I can hear you like three or four on a plane, for instance.
Speaker 2:I can sit next to someone on a plane so I sit on on one side of the aisle Wendy sits on the other side of the aisle purely so that it's easier for us to exit the toilet and um and um.
Speaker 2:So we get someone sat next to us that we we don't know, some people you don't want to speak to, somebody who's got really bad body odor, so you try and ignore that and um anyway, but um, probably seven times out of ten there is someone interesting next to you. So I tell them a bit about my story, my my life, how I became a baker, going back to when my mum and dad split up when I was nine and I thought I'm the eldest son. I had two younger brothers and an older sister at that time and I didn't know why my mum and dad split up at that time. I can understand more now, as I've experienced life and I thought to myself I need to get myself a job to help the family finances. We had nothing. My dad had gone. He'd taken all the furniture from the house apart from our kitchen table and four chairs and the cooker and our beds.
Speaker 1:And some teaspoons I recall you and everything went Without coming in this Everything went.
Speaker 2:And I said to her I came home from school that afternoon I said to Mel, what do you have for tea, mel? She said, well, if you go to the shop and get six eggs, we'll have boiled eggs for tea. I got the money to pay for the eggs, so I put them on the book. So I went to the shop, I got the six eggs the baker had been. So we had a loaf of bread and we obviously had a bread knife because we were able to cut the bread. But we had no egg cups and we had. We had no teaspoons. Oh, you didn't have any teaspoons. No, we had no teaspoons. So I think we must have had probably a hard boiled eggs or egg sandwiches or something.
Speaker 2:But I can't remember but, um, I thought, well, I'm the eldest, sir, I was nine and my next brother, clive, was three years younger than me and David was probably three my youngest brother and my sister was five years older than me. But I thought, well, I need to earn some money. So I went around knocking on doors over the next few days and I would offer to clean windows for people and weed gardens and wash not that many people had cars in those days, but I did wash a few cars and eventually got myself a job helping a village baker to deliver bread around the village. Never, ever thinking I would become a baker. Mum said whatever you do, bob, you need to do an apprenticeship. And I thought, well, I'll probably, and that meant to me. That meant to me I'll probably be a carpenter or a bricklayer or an electrician or a plumber. Never thought I would be a baker, never even considered that. But I did get a job helping a village baker deliver bread. And I had a job before and after school helping on a farm. And mum said you don't want to be a farm labourer, bob, because there's no future in that. I said, well, most farm workers do get a house to live in with a job anyway. Um, I did.
Speaker 2:I did, um, get up in the morning before school. This was when I was about 12. I would walk down to a farm about two miles away. I'd bring the cows into the milking shed milking stalls and get them sort of chained up into the stalls. Then I would put the milking machines together, ready for the farmer's son to come and milk the cows. I would bang the milk churns to wake the farmer's son up. Eric would come down and milk the cows. I would then pick up the eggs from the chickens on the farm, feed the calves and the farmer's wife would cook me breakfast. One day it would be cereal with boiled eggs, the next day it would be cereal with boiled eggs and the next day it would be a fried breakfast with bacon and eggs. Then I would change into my school clothes in the farmhouse parlour and, bearing in mind I'd been working with cows in the morning and I don't know if you've probably asked some farmers and farmers' wives listen to this broadcast, but whenever you deal with animals you always get that smell. It's in your hand anyway.
Speaker 2:So I would then go off to school on the school bus. They used to collect me out to the farm come back about. Sometimes I would miss the school bus and the farmer one of the farmer's sons would take me into the school about. It was another probably two or three miles away, and some mornings I would be late for school so I would hide. All the other kids would be in assembly so I would have to hide in the cloakroom until all the other kids came out of assembly. Then I could join in with the rest of them when they came out of assembly.
Speaker 2:I used to get caught, occasionally by the patrolling prefects, and sometimes it would be the head boy and the head girl that were told in school they came in late anyway. I came in late one day and hid in the went to hide in the cloakrooms behind the coats and I caught the head girl and the head boy in there in a very compromising position and they never reported me ever again. So that was good. All right, I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask a few questions now. Yeah, I'm gonna give a, take a little um, take a breather, dad.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm so. Okay, we're just, I'm just gonna backtrack. So I asked you about your elevator pitch. Yeah, you gave us your train station pitch, which is cool. Um, and then, yeah, that's you. And then, um, what I? What I love is that you have captive audience when you're on an airplane yeah and this is the um stuff that you talk about, right?
Speaker 1:so when you you, if we go right back to when you were talking about being um on your um aisle seats and wendy, I think you mentioned wendy can often hear you recounting some of these tales to she tells me off, she tells you off, yeah, but what?
Speaker 1:I think this is actually a very good segue. Um, well, not maybe not even a segue, but a demonstration of your book, right? Yeah, because that story that you tell is, um, one of the stories that you have as in your book. Yeah, and what you could do, right, yeah, you could have when you've got your book published. You could have a bag full of books on the plane and you could talk to the talk to the person next to you and just say if you want to hear the rest like, just as you're getting off, take a tenner off them and give them a book and then they can.
Speaker 1:And then they can hear the the rest of the story. Tell um, like we want to hear some more stories, but before we do tell us, what was it that inspired you to get all of this stuff down on paper? Like I'm just fascinated by the amount of memory that you've got. I think I said to um Wendy the other day I um remember when my children last ate. I think about what they need to eat next have they slept?
Speaker 1:do I know where they are? And that's about all I focus. That's about all I focus on remembering and like. So, like I would have to dig really deep and put a fair bit of effort into remembering some of the things from my past, like you do, like with the amount of detail. You know, neighbour's house numbers and like the name of the person who worked in the local shop and all those things. I wouldn't have a clue. How do you do it?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know really, wouldn't have a clue. How do you do it? Well, I don't know really, but what? What prompted me to get it down on paper was I would often sat down with dinner chatting to my wife, wendy, about different things that happened when I was a boy and, um, different things that occurred to me, have occurred to me throughout my life and reasons I've done different things. And Wendy would say, well, you need to write this down.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Because your family is going to be lost. They're never going to know this. So I started doing it. I did a bit, going back probably 20 years, a few notes I made, but I've then, probably over the last it's been it's been a while I mean over the last five or ten years I've been writing bits and saying I'm going to get it published and it's going to be book one from the age of three and I can remember stuff when I was three, when I was born, well, I used to go to the clinic when I was a Well, I used to go to the clinic to be weighed and stuff all that sort of stuff. And there were going to be three books. So the first book was going to be from the age of three up to the age of 21, when we started off, when we went into business initially, and the next one was going to be from the age of 21 to 31, the 10-year period that we were in our first business with.
Speaker 2:With my grandparents, yeah, and then the last book, the final book, which I've not even started yet, will be from the age of 31 into the current day in our existing business, which we've been in for over 40 years now. But that's not even started yet. But there's a lot more stories, god. There's a lot more stories that I can tell, stories about all sorts of things, all sorts of things.
Speaker 1:Well, there's all those kind of like just anecdotes, right. And then there's those poignant moments in your life that have been like potentially you know where you've had to change direction, or like your thought processes, or yeah, just because of what life has served up, yeah, yeah it's interesting.
Speaker 1:And then there's all those sort of anecdotal stories about you know some of the things you got up to when you were a kid. I want to ask you like it's kind of interesting, isn't it Like we get up to mischief when we're kids? It's kind of interesting, isn't it Like we get up to mischief when we're kids and then we discipline our own kids for doing mischief themselves. It's like, what's that about? Often the same thing, Often the same sort of things. So yeah, that's a bit weird.
Speaker 2:I can remember reading. It was the first book that I bought when I started my apprenticeship, started my apprenticeship as a baker and I never thought I was gonna be a baker. I never thought that's what I was going to do. I thought I left school at 16. I did an extra year at school. I became an apprentice mechanic, but I still. I still helped the baker some weekends. I still helped on the farm at weekends and occasionally during the holidays, but I did become an apprentice mechanic in a garage.
Speaker 2:And I think I would have ended up with my own garage if I continued on that path. But when I was doing my apprenticeship the company I worked for went into receivership so they went bust. And it was about the same time that the baker that I'd helped when I was at school was looking for an apprentice and he'd been to see my mum during the day and he said tell Bob if he's interested to come and do an apprenticeship at the bakery.
Speaker 2:I was nearly 18, then Tell him to come and see me. Well, I went to see Mr Hayman and I was earning £5illings a week at the garage and he offered me ten pounds a week for a 50 hour week. I thought that's really double my, double my pay. But it also meant that I could start early in the morning and it was only a few hundred yards from where I lived with mum.
Speaker 2:It meant I could start at 4.30 in the morning, be home by 1.30 and then I could go and help on the farm and do other jobs as well. So I had two.
Speaker 2:I had a quite good income stream but also he said besides paying me 10 pounds a week, he said, and probably said and you can use one of the vans for personal use at the weekends. Well, I just started going out with a girl in the village and I thought a bread van could come in pretty handy the weekend. So that's what swung it for me.
Speaker 1:That wasn't mum. Yeah, oh, that was mum, oh, and I thought she was such a good girl.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you the story. I'll tell you the story about how I met mum.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And they'd moved from a town called Taunton, which was about 10 miles from the village where I was born, and they'd moved into no 1 Penny's Mead, which was a small housing estate of 32 houses that was built on some land that actually belonged to the baker Ah, and they'd moved into no number one Penny's Mead, which was my first call on a Saturday morning, and I walked down the path with my basket of bread and biscuits and canes on my arm, knocked on the door and this young bird came to the door and I can remember what she was wearing it was a check skirt and an orange sort of skinny ribbed jumper and I thought, well, she's all right.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I said good morning. I said I'm the local baker. I said would you like some bread today? She said oh. She said, well, we don't have your bread, we have Mother's Pride.
Speaker 1:Okay, which is kind of like a factory Factory yeah.
Speaker 2:So Mother's Pride delivered on a Monday, wednesday and Friday. We delivered on a Tuesday, thursday and Saturday and this was a Saturday morning and I said, well, this is not mother's pride, this is father's joy. She said I'll go and ask my mum. So she went to ask her mum and she came back and she said, yes, please, we'll have one sliced loaf and we'll have one every Saturday. I thought, oh, that's good, and she paid for it and I went back to the van and on a Saturday, it was a pretty busy day on Saturday and we were in the village delivering all day long and these two girls, including this girl from Number One, pennies Me, were following me around and they bucked up courage to arrange to meet and meet the one from Number One, pennies Mead, at seven o'clock that evening for a date. I was excited all the afternoon and so normally we would finish about 6 and that day because I was keen to get home and get my tea and be out by 7 o'clock date.
Speaker 2:We probably finished about 5 o'clock, which gave me time to have my tea, which mum always put the cooked meal back for me, and, fortunately, my bath night, because I used to bath once a week, my bath night was a Friday night, so I was pretty clean. Um, I, so I had my tea, went to the bathroom. I didn't shave then, but, um, my dad had left a little jar, a little bottle of old spice aftershave behind in the bathroom window. So I sprinkled some aftershave on and I went. I had to meet them at the bus. I had to meet Sandra at the bus shelter, which was just up the road from where I lived, and I went.
Speaker 2:I looked up the road to the bus shelter and I thought, no, there's two of them up there. Her friend was there as well. So I thought I don't really want to take two girls out in one night. So, to be fair to the other girl, she did wander off and left Sandra on her own and we went for a walk down the lanes. It was a lovely summer's evening, sort of haymaking time, plenty of hayfields around. So I guided her into a hayfield.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know if I want to know anymore, put my arm round her. I watched a few films so I knew what I had to do and I thought I'll give her a kiss now, and that turned into a bit of a slog, which was the second time that I'd ever kissed a girl. So, yeah, yeah, I must have made a pretty good job of it and the rest is history yes, yes, yeah wow right next question next next um, okay, so that was another anecdote from your book and that, um and uh yeah, kind of gives us a a taste of some of the stories.
Speaker 1:Is that one in the book that's that particular?
Speaker 2:story actually, yes, yes, yeah, I was gonna. I was going to call the book um 50 trays of bread, but, um, but, uh, I think nadine even said that no, you need to call, and the fact we had a bit of a competition yeah, we had with nadine's children um coming up with different names.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah so probably not going to reveal what the official name of the book is yet no we keep, we keep them, keep them hanging on for that one, okay. So let's talk about so. Work has obviously been a massive part of your life.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Do you like, and you've got a very, very strong work ethic. You don't stop very often. Often, um, it's obviously come from like way back you know right from your youth and you were driven to to um work hard. Do you think that that is stems back from wanting to help support your mum and your family?
Speaker 2:that did, that was, but but also I well, even you've got it, nadeem, you've got, you've got a strong work ethic, my, my two brothers and my sister, but they've all. And I don't think that, I don't think that is because of the situation we found ourselves in I think. I think there's something within us yeah, um, like the, the farmer's son who I worked for when I was at school, I'm still friendly with yeah, very friendly with you, know, I speak to him every week he's 83 or 84 now and sold his farm and retired.
Speaker 2:But he said there was always a lot of work in the burns, a lot of work in the burns.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what it's used to.
Speaker 1:That probably for a lot of people listening to this sounded like a foreign language. Yeah, I know what he said A lot of work in the Burns's? Yeah, so my dad's name is Burns and my maiden name's Burns, yeah, so, yeah, would, that's definite and so. But you, your dad, your mum and dad split up when you were young and, as you said, um, uh, the mum was left with the to take care of the family with very little resources and so you sort of work hard as well.
Speaker 2:She she became the caretaker of the local school. Yes, she would help with the postal delivery post.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, she ran, she ran um mail order catalogs okay, yeah, she used to go, yes, with the mail order, and then she would get a commission. I think two shillings in the pound commission. I bought my first set of tools when I became an apprentice mechanic from her catalogue. So she would get the commission. Yeah, that's nice to buy. From the day my dad left I probably bought nearly all my own clothes. Yeah, I would get stuff for presents and things.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I would tend to buy all my own clothes and some of those I would buy through the catalogue so that Mum got the commission. Yeah, I would choose trousers and shoes and stuff. Yeah, wow, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:So, as you grew up and you- grown up not grown up yet, no, so it's ever changing, evolving, isn't?
Speaker 2:it we're. We're here for a very, very short period in the whole scheme of things, aren't we really?
Speaker 2:yeah, and we, we all, come into this world with nothing and we'll leave with nothing. Yeah, and it's what you do while you're here, really, and I did. When I was 18, when I first became a defence baker, I bought a book on confectionery and this was written by a German or Austrian baker and he wrote lots of proverbs in there and sayings, and he said that one of those was if he could leave this world a little bit better than he came into it, then he'd be happy. And I think that's what I've tried to do. If I can go into life and do a bit of good while we're here, and if everyone did that, what a great place it would be. But unfortunately that's not what happens is it.
Speaker 1:No, unfortunately people get and yeah, and um, I've.
Speaker 2:I've tried to because I've had my well. Most of the time I've been pretty fit and healthy. I've had a few blips on the way. Yeah, I've been lucky. I never, ever, claimed one penny in any benefits or, you know, for sickness or anything. I've always been able to get through and I've been in a position where I've been able to help a lot of other people.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I became a director and involved with a baker's cooperative which I got fees and expenses for, but I always, whatever I earned from that, that was besides running the business I always put that money, I gave it. Well, I supported other people really and through the business we've supported we still do my daughter, terry, nadine's eldest sister, who runs the bakery now with her two sons. They've carried on that philanthropy, if you like, and ensure that they support wherever they can. You can't support every cause because you've got a business to run and mouths to feed and responsibility, but wherever we've been able to, we have. I've tried to support other people and organisations and still do. I mean, I think why did I do that? That was too generous. I think why did I do that? That was too generous. But I think, well, what do I need?
Speaker 1:Provided I can breathe and walk and mow Nadine's lawn. Yes, yeah, okay. So do you think that? Well, do you think that? Well, let's kind of give the listeners a bit more background. So you've mentioned philanthropy and like being able to give back to charities and that sort of thing. Do you think that part of it kind of goes hand in hand, like and I guess you're saying it's all part of life's rich?
Speaker 1:tapestry and your philosophy on life of you know, if you can do a little bit, come in and do do some good, you know, then that's a, that's kind of like a, a good way to a good outlook to have. So my first question was about like, do you feel like your work ethic was about, you know, taking care of your came from taking care of needed, a need to take care of your family. But I guess then the other question is is that philanthropic part of you, um, because of something you read in a confectionery book, or is it because of where you started out in your own life? Did anyone help you? Or did you just feel, you know, you could essentially say that you were an underdog, right, yeah, tell us the story of where you?
Speaker 1:were born in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I was born in a tin hut an isn't hut, I mean after the war. I was born in a tin hut I mean after the war. After the war I was born in 51. And after the war there was a severe housing shortage in the country. There's a lot of houses being bombed and stuff and the council took over some of the we did. There was an American air base on the edge of the village where I was, where I lived, where I was born, and the council took over some of the those buildings, those those Nissan huts for accommodation for local people.
Speaker 2:And we moved into one of these Nissan huts, so that was where I was born, and then they built. They built council houses. We moved into one of these distances, so that was where I was born, and then they built council houses. We moved into one of the council houses. We swapped a council house. Mum had done a deal with a lady called Mrs Wills and Mum preferred Mrs Wills' house, which was number 7, college Corner, and Mrs Wills preferred Mum's house, which was number 7 Cox Lane lane. And we did a swap one saturday morning how good's that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, if only it was that simple. Now I did a swap one saturday morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah and um anyway. So um but um, what was the question?
Speaker 1:well, I um oh, I asked you to tell us a little bit about where you you.
Speaker 2:You know being the underdog and whether you think your philanthropy comes from that.
Speaker 2:What drove me. We lived in a council house, as I say. We grew vegetables in our front garden, we kept chickens, we grew vegetables everywhere, so we didn't have to buy them. We kept chickens, we kept vegetables everywhere, so we didn't have to buy them. Then I started delivering bread with a local baker, mr Heyman, and we used to call on these houses with drives and doorbells and brass door knockers and brass letter boxes and lawns at the front of the. You know lawns and roses and flowers and stuff and some nice houses, really nice houses.
Speaker 2:And I would go to the back door and they would open the kitchen door and there'd be nice kitchens and I thought, oh, it doesn't always have to be, I'd like some of this. So that drove me to want to improve my lot really. And I can remember even walking to the farm one morning when was it at school Walking to the farm at half past five in the morning and thinking how much I was going to earn that week, how long it would take me to save up to buy my own cow. Could I rent a piece of ground to keep my cow and build a shed on it? You know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was thinking all those things all the time, yeah, and in fact I went to another farmer in the village, on the edge of the village. I could see that there was some waste ground and I went to see him at school to see if I could rent that piece of ground to start a market garden. Okay, yeah, so I was always thinking and I was looking to, I tried to grow mushrooms to sell, always thinking of things to do.
Speaker 1:Entrepreneurial yes.
Speaker 2:I bought my first car when I was 15. Entrepreneurial, yes, I bought my first car when I was 15. I was at school, and when I was at school, we used to walk up to the town to get chips. Rather than have school dinners, we were allowed to go out and buy chips. Yeah, hot chips, hot chips, yeah. And I saw this car for sale in this local garage with a four-years MOT that's a Ministry of Transport check on it certificate. And the next day I went to the post office, drew the money out, went into the garage and bought it and had it delivered to my home.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I rented a parking lot for it and I spent hours and hours and hours working on that car. This is when I've and then I was thinking about becoming an apprentice mechanic. So I learned quite a bit about mechanics just from that car, really mechanics just on that cart really, yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you you kind of yeah, I sort of said, and you know, use that term underdog. So you grew up it wasn't, wasn't easy. Um, you know single parent family from when you were nine um started work, so you started to get some aspirations and that kind of drove you to want, want more for yourself. You saw the um, the houses you were living to and you looked, you saw possibilities. Yes, so there's that part of um, your life that sort of drove you and you you had the work ethic. We kind of burnt that burn what is it the?
Speaker 1:burns thing. Um, that was plenty of work in those burns um. But also there would have come a point. Because we talked, I kind of said you know, do you feel like you were driven um to work hard because of having not having much? Or or where you, uh, is your philanthropy because of not having much or is your philanthropy because of not having very much? Or was there a point where you go I've got as much as I need. I want to start helping other people.
Speaker 2:Where did that?
Speaker 1:all sort of start.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I really don't know.
Speaker 1:Maybe with that guide dog in the bakery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the guide dog.
Speaker 1:But I can remember.
Speaker 2:I can remember winning when we were in Glastonbury and the local carnival the Chilwell carnival, I think the organizers of the carnival used to run a monthly or three-monthly draw. Uh-huh, and I actually won it one month. It was £500. Wow, £500. £500. And I thought that's not going to change my life. Why do I want that? So I told them to keep it for the carnival club.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But I didn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it just got to.
Speaker 2:You just were at a point where I thought, you know, some people are so greedy and I think to myself, well, it's not going to change my life, you know, it's just um, it could do someone else. There's a lot of people that, um, a lot of people that, um, through no fault of their own, haven't been as fortunate as I have. Yeah, I've been fortunate. I look at myself as being very fortunate. I'm here yeah I'm fortunate to be here yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean that's, but lots of people. You know, yeah, and I still. Well, you know, I still like working. You see, I'm looking out the window now. Look how many weeds I've got out there. What grass do you use?
Speaker 1:cutting I.
Speaker 2:I know you just have to turn your back and there's something that needs to do so you know, I think, if you can keep, I don't really enjoy sitting around doing nothing. I don't. I. I just like keep moving and doing things and thinking my mind is a bit overactive. I have to say I just like keep moving and doing things and, um, yeah, Thinking my, my mind is a bit overactive. I have to say, yeah, Um, it is overactive. I, I go to bed at.
Speaker 2:Um, I go to bed at uh um well, last night, probably quite early, it was nine o'clock by midnight. I'm awake, my mind is firing off in all directions.
Speaker 1:Too many tabs open.
Speaker 2:Yeah, too many tabs open, yeah. So I do think some of that is because when I was well, when I was baking, you know, on the shop floor early in the mornings, I'd be up at two. Yeah, I think you. You did a go to bed at ten, you're up at one. Your body clocks all over the shop. Anyway, I feel okay good.
Speaker 1:So I mentioned right at the beginning of our conversation well, I, I think I introduced you as Bob Burns MBE. You're a member of the British Empire, so you actually have been awarded by the by King Charles. King Charles, yeah, empire. So you actually have been awarded by, uh, the by well, it's king charles king charles? Yeah, but he was prince charles you were awarded a member of the british empire for your philanthropic work how did that make you?
Speaker 2:feel when, when it first happened and um when I first was told about it, I thought I cried, did you? Yep, it makes me a bit tearful now, actually, and I thought, sorry, I just wish my mum was here. Yeah, you're crying as well. You're making me cry. Yeah, I just wish my mum was here to see. You know that it doesn't. Yeah, it means a lot. I was very. I thought this was a joke. But no, some people I know, knowing what I've done, they got together. It was included my eldest daughter. She was involved on the committee, but I do wish my mum had been around to you know, yeah, um so, but I don't. I don't ever mention that to anyone. I don't ever mention it. I just it's there when your, when your children came over and I showed them the video and they watched it again, they were captivated they watched it again and again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they loved it again. They were captivated. They watched it again and again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they loved it, didn't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but no, it's you know, I feel, I feel very honoured, you know, yeah, it's been recognised that I didn't. I just thought it was the way I am, but obviously other people think it's pretty cool, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:I guess that's a good way to go into my next question any more. Oh, just a couple. You're getting bored about success. I've got grass to cut. Yeah, pressure's on um success, so obviously that's a a great achievement to um, you know, be awarded the MBE and you've had some great achievements through your life in terms of your business success. Obviously, the listeners don't know exactly. Well, some of them will know you because I'm sure that lots of people from who are fans of your Bakery, burns the Bread, will listen to this if they get their hands on it. Um. But for the listeners that don't know, dad's got a bakery business called burns the bread in glastonbury in the uk and he's got um. How many shops have you got now, dad? Six shops. Six shops um supporting really local communities um with traditional bakery products. Um, and also like there's a really good, strong um community within the business of the people that work for. You got some long-standing staff members and that sort of thing. So you've got a successful business that has um.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about success just in terms of like. When I say say success, I think it's it's been able to support you through your life. You've been able to do the things that you want to do, um, you know, go to the places you want to go and that sort of thing. Um, but what does success mean for you and has it changed? Like, did you, was there a point, or has there been a point or a driving force in your life where it's like I need to achieve this in order to be successful, and has that changed a lot?
Speaker 2:um, I've I've learned a lot from other people, meeting other people, business people. You know it's good to broaden your horizons and meet other people in business and different walks of life. So I was fortunate when I was back in the 1970s when we had our first business, I was in the Lions Club, yep, very involved with the Lions Club raising money for charity, getting there and you meet other business people. There was a local plumber, electrician, a bank manager, solicitor, and you build up a network, you build up a network. And then when I moved to Glastonbury in 1983, you know, and you build up a network, you build up a network.
Speaker 2:And that's when I moved to Glastonbury in 1983, not initially because I was too busy yeah, I was too busy with the business, you know, getting that to move in the right direction, that I wanted it to move in, and but then I I joined the Rotary Club and met people through the Rotary Club. They're still friends of mine from the last 40 years, 30 to 40 years, yeah. And then I was pure by chance. I became a director of the cooperative owned by the bakers, supplying all the bakers in the South West. Then I became First World Vice Chairman and then Chairman. I was probably Chairman for 20 odd years and I knew not personally, but I knew of most of the bakers in the South West.
Speaker 1:So do these relationships and these connections help you to go, drive you to succeed more or make more money. Not necessarily make more money but broaden your.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've got friends who've got quite big businesses, very successful financially, making a lot more money than I. But I, what do I want? What? You have to look at it. You have to look at your business, your life and what do you actually? I do sometimes think that I would have liked to have known more about business when I was younger. I've had to learn it on the way, but if I'd gone, you know, I think sometimes I would have liked to have been able to make more money to help other people in a bigger way, be more philanthropic, more of a philanthropist than I was able to. But if I was, I'd like to have done more in that way. Really, I know there are really deserving cases, but you can only do what you can do, yeah.
Speaker 1:What was the question? What was the question there About success? So what did you consider success like? Was there a driving force? Was it like how much money you made? Not really, it was security.
Speaker 2:I mean that was the drive.
Speaker 1:I think Security, security and now do you feel like? Do you consider yourself successful and does it feel different? Is it like, does it?
Speaker 2:I feel very settled, settled, settled. Yeah, I feel settled and it's nice that your sister, terry and her son, so now running the business, and I wish them every success.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'm bound to, and I've been fortunate. I've seen so many businesses where the old man has stayed on too long and interfere, not letting the next generation to do what they really feel they want to do or need to do that too. So I, yeah, I. I have in the past, I have in the last few years, when I've decided to hand over the reins, I thought, right, let me carry on now, I, I'm not going to interfere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to interfere. Yeah, I tend to stay away from the main. I've got two offices there. I've got two offices there which I hardly ever go in. One is my museum office, so one is an office where I do have a computer. I've got my first computer in my museum office still so what I decided to do to occupy my mind was to open a bakery school.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I tend to do that. I do a class about every week to 10 days and I meet. I get people from all over the country, so local people and from different parts of the country and some are overseas. They can be on holiday in the UK and they'll come and do a day at the bakery school and we just have 6 people at a time all around one big table full day. They come at about 8, 30, 9 o'clock.
Speaker 1:We'll have to put a link in to book.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, you will. And most people end up, if they've not met one another before, they usually end up exchanging email addresses and phone numbers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They all chat around the table and it's really nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so it must be nice, Well, you're still kind of in touch with what? Reality? Yeah, in touch with reality, Well, your skills, and you're able to share those skills with others. But it must be quite as you said you're settled and it must be nice to know that you've got family that are continuing the legacy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I have seen so many family businesses usually a third generation business is destroyed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I've seen that many, many times, not just in in lots of different, in different, lots of different businesses. I've seen businesses.
Speaker 1:And when you've put so many of your own years into it and creating something, it must be pretty heart-wrenching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Years into it and creating something.
Speaker 2:It must be pretty heart wrenching yeah heart wrenching yeah yeah, so I'm, I just hope, I'm pretty confident, pretty confident that the family are going to see it forward and do what they have to, but I don't interfere and yeah good, I've got one more topic.
Speaker 1:Yep, because the podcast is called life, health and the universe oh yeah, my health, yes, your health. Um, so I'm. We don't have to go into a whole bunch of details about this, but a few years ago, um, you had a stroke. Yeah, fortunately you picked up that it was happening early enough, yeah.
Speaker 2:And Wendy did.
Speaker 1:You got to a hospital as quickly as possible and you got treatment. Yeah, and you have, you fully recovered. You were actually home in a couple of days. Yes, Like quite extraordinary really.
Speaker 2:I had a month off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't go out for a month no I didn't.
Speaker 1:I guess, um, my question with that? Because you, like we know you've already mentioned that you, uh, you know, have lots of tabs open, always thinking, um, you were a member of a lot of different organizations, you're working hard, like you're going for it, right, always on the go, yeah, yeah, I really don't know how my mind covered it. Well, it didn't did it, it didn't. So was that a turning point for you in any way? Like, when that happened, was it like, like, oh, I can't do all of these things?
Speaker 1:I need to change how I operate.
Speaker 2:I think, um, people, people I've heard people say this it was a wake up call, was a certainly wake up call for me. Um, when I think, when I think it was, I think it was on a. It was on a. It wasn't a treadmill, I was enjoying everything I was doing, but it was. I mean, I was chair of the buying group, I was running the business, I was on the Glastonbury Abbey shop board, I was Rotary chairman of several committees on Rot, fundraising events and stuff and social stuff and and I was governor of a local special needs school. Um, you know, non-stop.
Speaker 1:It was like you kind of probably look back on it now and go how the hell did I fit all of that into a 24 hour day yeah, yeah, then I joined the choir, yeah. Did you? Did you join the choir? I was in the choir then. Oh, you were in the choir then.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't want to sing for you today. Yeah, so I think so. Then I had to relinquish some of those things really to give myself a bit more, a bit more thinking time. Really. I mean, I would wake up thinking about and I still do that. I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking about things and get up and write things down and get the breakfast stuff ready often, yeah, so um, and get the breakfast stuff ready. Often, yeah, so Changed your perspective.
Speaker 2:I tried to change my perspective a bit.
Speaker 1:yeah, Slow down, slow down. Yeah, take a bit of a break.
Speaker 2:Smell the roses. Yeah, take a bit of a break sometimes and join the day even. Yeah, if you feel a little bit tired, then don't fight it. Yeah, just chill out, listen to your body, listen to your body.
Speaker 1:Wendy keeps telling me that listen to your body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even yesterday I think I said because I was on the mower. Yeah, I went over to that bakery, didn't I? Yesterday morning?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah and then I came back and I thought it's not raining today, I'll get the mower out and do some mowing, finish the mowing and then get the strimmer out, get some strimming. And when he said I think you ought to just have a lie down for an hour, so I did that, darren thought he said he was a streamer. I can't hear that streamer going, so that made me feel guilty yeah, so anyway.
Speaker 2:So it's changed your, changed your outlook yeah, I think, yeah, you've just got to chill out a bit sometimes and not feel you need to keep pushing ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think in fact sometimes, but sometimes when they're not filled, you need to keep pushing ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I think in fact sometimes, like when you do take those breaks, you probably are more efficient at doing the things when you do do them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you take those, moments.
Speaker 2:I've got to get my book finished. I've got to get it. That's the priority now when I go back he's a retired.
Speaker 1:The publisher.
Speaker 2:He's a retired printer and publisher Friend of mine it was in my Rotary Club and he's quite keen to get it done. Yeah great, so we'll get on with that now. And because I give lots of talks to various groups.
Speaker 1:You can sell your book while you're there. Well, they keep asking me see, they keep asking me yeah.
Speaker 2:Or telling me, mr B, you need to write a book, you need to write all these things down. And I say, well, I have. Oh, where can we buy it? I said, well, you can't yet. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what were you? Do you have plans for what you'll do with the sales of the book?
Speaker 2:If it makes any money.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's going to the local hospital.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:League of Friends. League of Friends yeah. League of Friends at Glastonbury Hospital yeah, league of Friends, league of Friends at Glastonbury Hospital. Yeah, I've already promised because I know the chairman of League of Friends. Okay, yeah, I said, whatever it makes, you can have it. Well, you're having it, then don't worry, you're having it.
Speaker 1:Oh bye, poppy, it's going to a good cause, okay. Well, look at how we've got. We've done perfectly one hour and two minutes and like we could probably talk and we certainly could hear more of your stories but, I think that was actually a perfect way to close talking about the book. Hopefully you guys have got a taster of some of the things that will be in the book and a little bit of insight into the man who is Bob Burns MBE. Thank you, Maggie. Thanks for joining me, Dad.
Speaker 2:Nice to speak to you all.
Speaker 1:And we'll put some links for the bakery school. If you happen to be in the UK or going to the UK and you want to experience that, we'll put a link in in the show notes for the bakery school, and also, when the book is released, we'll pop that in the notes too. Thanks for listening guys. See you again next time.