My daughters, Janet and Susan were reminiscing in the kitchen about Ted Waite and the advantages of having him in a Wendy House in the orchard at Hey Farm. The first thing we all agreed on was that they loved him to bits. The second was that in today's world, a situation where these young lasses were spending so much time alone with an old bachelor would be grounds for Social Services to intervene! Vera and I had no such qualms because we trusted Ted implicitly. In any case, as I found out years later, young children have a built in instinct about these things. I had noticed that they didn't get on at all with another of my acquaintances and found that this was with very good reason! They had marked his card immediately.
At one point we were very worried by Janet, she didn't seem to eat as much as she should. It came out yesterday that if she didn't fancy the meal Vera had cooked she just nibbled and then went round to Ted in the caravan and told him to get some sausages and fried egg on! Ted cooking was a sight to behold, everything was burned black, his eggs were like leather and blue smoke poured out of the caravan windows. They had no inhibitions about touching Ted, they lit his cigarettes for him and combed his hair but they both said that Ted never initiated contact or touched them. They got valuable sex education from Ted and the pigs and cows that were always about. I remember Ted and Susan in deep conversation leaning on the fence one day and watching the heifers in the croft. Shortly afterwards Ted came and told me that they had been disputing the calving dates and he was tickled pink because Susan at nine years old was right and he was wrong!
Ted wasn't a drinker but every now and again he would have a pint or two. One Sunday I was at home and I noticed that Ted had gone up to the pigsty in the croft where one of the sows was on the verge of farrowing. I hadn't seen him come out so I popped up to make sure he was all right. The old sow was laid in the clean straw she had gathered up for her bed and Ted was hard and fast asleep laid alongside her. I got Vera up to see this and she wanted to waken Ted but I said no, he's all right and they are both happy!
It all sounds impossibly idyllic doesn't it and perhaps today it is but that's how it was, forty years ago those kids had as near perfect childhood experiences as anyone could have and looking back they agree. Every family should have a Ted Waite. He was a good friend, an outstanding support and a perfect gent. As I said earlier, the kids loved him to bits and still do, it was lovely watching them talking about him yesterday in the kitchen. I can't help wondering if everything wasn't more simple forty years ago......
Vera and Ted Waite in 1968 at Hey Farm.
