Tatura titan of height Jim Gow will celebrate another Father’s Day with his quickly growing teenagers this weekend, but will it be the last one he’ll look down on them?
The towering father stands just one centimetre shy of two metres.
For those playing at home on their old-school bingo cards without a conversion calculator handy, that’s six foot and seven inches.
His son, Hamish, is only five inches — around 13cm — shorter.
You might think that’s still quite a deficit, but Hamish is only 13. Jim had his most significant growth spurt when he was five years older than his son is now.
“I was 5’ 10” until about 18 when I grew six inches in 12 months and had to get a whole new wardrobe,” Jim said.
“I was a late bloomer. Hamish is going to be taller; it’s just a matter of time.”
Jim’s daughter, Bella, at 15, is also headed for great heights, measuring 170cm at 15.
While being tall has its advantages, such as being able to reach things on top shelves and change light bulbs without using a step-ladder, it’s not all it’s cracked (way) up to be.
Jim said Aussie pro basketball coach and former player Luc Longley, who is 7’ 1“ (around 215cm), described it best when he likened being lofty to living in a dollhouse.
“Shower heights — even mirror heights, driving cars; beds is a good one,” Jim said.
“People can take up pants but you can’t add on.”
He said other natural enemies of the tall person included low-hanging branches and doorways.
While Jim said at times it could be difficult to build a rapport with people who were intimidated by his height, Bella knows her dad is a gentle giant.
“Dad’s height doesn’t make him scary or any better than anyone else; it just means he’s better to hug and get chips out of the cupboard,” she said.
“Dad gives us much more than just our height, but the height is a bonus.”
Hamish said he was grateful to have inherited his dad’s tall stature because it helped his basketball game.
Jim and his wife, Kate, along with their teens who already tower over their mum, will spend Father’s Day this weekend visiting their own fathers in Tatura and the Bendigo area.
The busy dad said his ideal Father’s Day would involve stopping and relaxing to watch TV or motorsport but he would have to get through his to-do list on Sunday before he could engage in the seemingly unattainable art of doing very little.
Maybe if he was shorter, his list would be too.
But maybe that theory is a longer reach than Jim’s height.
The News wishes dads a happy Father’s Day on Sunday.
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