A Vision of the future: Ted's story

A Vision of the future: Ted's story

Ted, who has lived in Didcot for the past 35 years and now resides on Fleet Meadow, is a keen gardener and has maintained an allotment since he moved here. He has made many friends through working his allotment, and very much enjoys sharing his crops with his fellow allotmenteers when he has a successful season. 

Recently Ted has retired from his full time job working as a janitor/groundskeeper at All Saints Primary School but while he was working there, a volunteer from the Didcot Orchard Town Project approached the school with some free fruit trees to plant on site. The Headteacher was very happy to receive the trees and arranged for the volunteer to return to help plant the trees. A few days later Ted and the volunteer worked together to plant the first tree, whilst the children and teachers watched and learned. The children were happy to get involved with the digging and they worked with the teachers to plant the rest. As time went by, Ted was surprised that the children were really interested in the trees and he was never short of volunteers when it came to weeding. In the winter Ted taught them about pruning and in the summer the teachers taught them about pollination and reproduction. 

When it was time to pick the apples all the children joined in and they found that there were too many for the school alone, so the teachers suggested that the children should vote to see who would receive the extra apples. After a lot of commotion and scribbling on ballot papers the children had voted that the apples would be given to the local Children's Centre where many of their younger brothers and sisters went on a regular basis. Together they boxed up what was left and a few of them wandered down the road to the Childrens Centre, leaving the heavy work of carrying the apples to Ted and one of the teachers. All the parents and children at the Childrens Centre were very grateful for the apples and vowed to return the favor one day. Back at the school some of the other children were upset that they didn't have enough apples to give to their choice of recipient, even suggesting that they should get more trees so they could give more away next time. After some further discussion with the Headteacher  it was decided that they would do just that. Ted contacted the Didcot Orchard Town Project to see if they had any more trees available and luckily they did. This time when the trees were delivered Ted and the teachers supervised as the older children taught the younger children how to plant them. Ted felt so inspired by the generosity of the children and their willingness to help others.

Ted loved working at the school but like all good things his time there had come to end, it was time for him to retire. The children were sad to see him leave and planted a tree to commemorate all he had done for the school.  Although he wasn't as fit as he used to be, Ted, like the children, wanted to help others with what he had left. 

Ted was still a keen gardener so he contacted the Didcot Orchard Town Project to see if he could help out. They were happy for him to join in and he went to meet with some of the other volunteers at the weekly meeting. He was surprised by the scale of the project, there were micro orchards everywhere! How had he not noticed all this going on around him? Being September, and the main month of harvest, there were lots of jobs to do, so one morning Ted volunteered to put up some signs on the Ladygrove saying "Pick Me, I'm Ready to Eat & I'm Free!". As he was doing so, he was offering fruit to passers by, many of whom hadn't even realised that all these fruit trees were here. They all thought it was a great idea and were very thankful for the free fruit. Some even offered to help too so he told them about the weekly meeting. 

Ted was really proud to be part of the project and it was only his first day.

~Mark