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Post by wilbarra on Dec 17, 2015 18:51:47 GMT
GEORGE WAS NOT THE TYPICAL ALLOTMENT HOLDER OF THE FORTIES
HE WAS THE PRODUCT OF A FAMILY THAT, IN THE CLASS SYSTEM OF THE TIME,WERE UPPER MIDDLE CLASS.
EDUCATION WISE HE WASNT IN THE TOP CLASS BUT MOST CERTAINLY WAS THE TOPS AS A PERSON AND KIDS AND
ADULTS ALIKE LOVED HIM.
IT WAS CHRISTMAS EVE 1943 AND GEORGE WAS HOLDING COURT ON HIS ALLOTMENT TO US KIDS( HE HAD JUST GOT
HIS CALL UP PAPERS AND WAS DUE TO LEAVE THE VILLAGE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE)
THERE WERE TWELVE OF US STANDING ROUND HIM WHEN GEORGE BET US THAT WE COULDNT PULL A PARTICULAR
BRUSSEL SPROUT PLANT OUT OF THE GROUND.
HE SAID HE WOULD GIVE A SHILLING TO THE ONE WHO COULD.
HE SHOWED US WHAT WAS THE BEST WAY TO STAND WHEN WE WENT TO PULL THE BRUSSEL ",STAND WITH YOUR FEET
EITHER SIDE OF THE STEM WITH YOUR FEET AGAINST THE PLANT" HE SAID.
EASY MONEY WE THOUGHT BUT ONE BY ONE WE DID AS GEORGE TOLD US BUT NONE OF US COULD GET THAT PLANT OUT
OF THE GROUND.
AFTER WE HAD ALL HAD A GO AND FAILED , GEORGE SAID HE WOULD SHOW US HOW TO DO IT.
GOING UP TO THE STALK HE PUT HIS FEET ,NOT AS HE HAD TOLD US TO DO BUT EACH FOOT WAS WIDE AWAY FROM
THE STALK.
GEORGE PULLED AND PULLED , THEN WITH A WRENCH AND A TWIST THE STALK CAME AWAY FROM THE SOIL BUT NOT JUST
THE STALK ATTACHED TO THE ROOT WAS A BUCKET.
THE BUCKET WAS UPSIDE DOWN WITH A HOLE IN IT.
GEORGE HAD PLANNED THIS WAY BACK IN THE SPRING WHEN HE PLANTED HIS BRUSSELS OUT.
HE HAD MADE A HOLE IN THE BUCKET PLUNGED IT IN THE GROUND AND PLANTED HIS PLANT WITH THE ROOTS IN THE
UPTURNED BUCKET.
THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN THE ROOTS HAD GROWN IN THE BUCKET AND WHEN WE HAD COME TO PULL IT
OUT IN THE WAY GEORGE HAD TOLD US WE WERE NOT ONLY PULLING AT THE STALK WE WERE PULLING AGAINST OUR OWN
WEIGHT AS WELL.
HOW GEORGE LAUGHED. HOW WE LAUGHED, HOW THE OTHER PEOPLE ON THE SITE WHO HAD GATHERED ROUND
LAUGHED.
SOMEHOW ON THAT CHRISTMAS EVE 1943 THE WAR WAS FAR FAR AWAY.
GEORGE TOLD US THAT HE GOT THE IDEA FROM AN ARTICLE IN ONE OF THE GARDENING PAPERS TWO YEARS BEFORE.
GEORGE WENT OFF TO WAR ON THE SECOND OF JANUARY 1944 WITH ALL US KIDS SEEING HIM OFF.
GEORGE NEVER CAME BACK .
HE DIED, LIKE THOUSANDS OF OTHERS ON THE BEACHES OF NORMANDY.
ON CHRISTMAS EVE 1945 THE FIRST PEACE TIME CHRISTMAS AFTER THE WAR THE VICAR HELD A SERVICE OF THANKS
TO THE MEN FROM THE VILLAGE WHO DIDNT COME HOME .
EACH OF THE MENS FAMILY HAD PUT A MEMENTO OF THEIR LOVED ONES ON THE ALTER.
SITTING PROUDLY IN THE MIDDLE WAS A BRUSSEL SPROUT PLANT
GE
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Post by trickymicky123 on Jan 10, 2016 16:14:37 GMT
It`s over 45 years since I started cultivating an allotment just over the road from where I live, but I remember the first day well. It was a crisp winter`s morning and my peace was shattered as I was about to take our the first spit of my new plot. `Your dog`s just peed on my plot, can`t you keep him under control.` This was my first introduction to the many different characters whom I would meet over the coming months.
This man turned out to be the moaner of the group. If it wasn`t too hot or too cold, his back was giving him great pain, and he blamed the weather, or the government for most things. But he was still there since being urged to Dig for Victory during the second world war. In those days of course,it had been an important part of the war effort to feed the nation.
There is an assured comradeship in gardening and while we tend our vegetables, fruit and flowers, there is always someone who is willing to have a chat. If you go away for a holiday your colleagues will make sure that your plot is looked after, and offer advice if needed.
Bill, who has a plot near to mind, has a wry sense of humour that can be seen by the placards he puts around his plot such as `Don`t kill yourself in your garden, do it in mine instead` or `Self peeling potatoes`
Jack Martin is our oldest member at 92 and he trundles his wheel-barrow about in all weathers looking a picture of health and as agile as anyone 30 years his junior. It could be put down to all the fresh air he gets.
Our senior lady Margaret Buckfield, is 80 years old and still finds the energy to cultivate her plot despite going to the local `Age Concern` twice a week to look after `the poor old dears` as she delicately puts it.
Another old-un, Percy Frost who has just given up his plot after a lifetime of gardening is as deaf as a post and his shouted conversations can be heard 500 metres away. A tactile man, Percy has an eye for the ladies and if he ever spots a skirt among the cabbages he makes a beeline for it. He then offers his advice on how to do the garden and sneaks his arm around her at the same time.
On the plot next to mine is a chap my wife Val and I call Mr Overalls, but Alf to his face. A retired waterboard official he is in charge of turning the water on and off in the summer and winter which he does with pride. Alf always wears thick overalls and wellington boots even if it is 90 degrees in the shade. It was something he learned while serving in the army in the African desert in the last war. Apparently it was supposed to keep you cooler wearing all those clothes.
Another favourite of ours is Wally. We admire him for, despite being almost blind, he will walk a couple of miles from his home to his beloved allotment. Poor Wally fell down on his garden path one afternoon and couldn`t get up and he lay there for two hours before he was found. We help him distinguish his weeds from his seeds and mow the grass for him.
The younger men often bring their wives and family with them and make a day of it. The children love to run around in a traffic free envoironment and help by sowing seeds on their own little patch.
There is a young man who grows giant pumpkins and enters them in agricutural shows. Others enter flowers and vegetables where prizes can be won for their efforts. Arthur and Margaret Keen win prizes at the local horticultural shows for their beautiful sweet peas, roses and scrumptious vegetables.
We do get a few fly-by-nights who take on a plot and don`t realize that it takes a bit of effort to get results. They boast about what they are going to do and how much they know about gardening but in a very short time they are gone and never seen again.
Kipling wrote `Our England is a garden and such gardens are not made by singing "Oh how beautiful" and sitting in the shade. That`s true but gardens and allotments are made to be enjoyed, so when the hard work is over, what greater pleasure than to sit in the shade and admire those rows of vegetables that will feed a family through the year.
Thought you might like a few allotment stories from Vale road allotments I think we could write a book between us. Mick Vale road.
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Post by wilbarra on Jan 31, 2016 11:45:07 GMT
I got this story from an old boy on an allotment site near the where i was stationed while doing
part of my national service.
On the site was an old lady toiling away on her immaculate plot called IDA and everyone that went
passed her plot, stopped and had a few words with her,so i happened to mention that she seemed very
popular.
"i, she is" said the old boy "most popular person here but it wasnt always so" he added.
and he proceeded to tell me the story.
When IDA was young she was a bit of a goer (his words not mine) and lived with her dad who had brought
her up on his own since her mum walked out on her when she was only three years old.
At the age of sixteen she presented her father with a grandson despite not being married.
Not the best of things to do in 1912.
But despite all the flack that IDA and her dad received they proceeded to bring the child up in there
own way and would often be seen on there allotment plot with the baby in spotlessly clean linen lying
in a drawer taken out of the chest of drawers from there home.
One day,when the first world war was into its second year in 1915 IDA disappeared leaving her father to
look after her child.
She had gone to London,to the bright lights and all the soldiers from different countries.
Six months after the end of the war IDA reappeared and once again her dad stood by her and once again
they were completely ignored by the other villagers.
also once again the pair took to there allotment and even added to the dislike the villagers felt for
them by winning nearly every prize at the local flower shows.
This state of affairs lasted until one day in 1921 when the local Bobby came onto the site and
presented IDA with an official looking letter.
Ah said the villagers her past had caught up with her.
IDA read the letter passed it to her dad and walked off,her father read the letter walked over to the
group of villagers who had witnessed everything and with tears in his eyes he handed the letter to the
group and he too walked off.
IDAs past had indeed caught up with her but not in the way that the villagers thought.
For the letter was a recommendation for an award.
IDA had not spent the war having a good time,she had spent it in France as A WARD ORDERLY just behind
the lines tending the wounded.
IDA continued to live in the same quiet way and when this story was told to me was still tending the same
plot that her dad and her had tended many years before and was still winning prizes at the local shows.
She was also the one that they all went when they wanted help and advice
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Post by wilbarra on Jan 31, 2016 15:26:36 GMT
TO BRIDGEY
THE STORY OF THE WATER DIVINER IS A MYTH.
THE STORY HAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE HAPPENED IN AT LEAST FIVE DIFFERANT PLACES IN SUSSEX ALONE
AT LEAST ONCE IN OXFORD AND SO MANY PLACES IN LONDON HE MUST HAVE TRAVELLED AT THE SPEED
OF LIGHT.
BUT LIKE ALL MYTHS (URBAN OR ALLOTMENT )THERE IS ALWAYS AN ELEMENT OF TRUTH IN THEM.
STILL A GOOD STORY THOUGH.
THANKS FOR THE PHONE CALL .
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Post by Stuart@AmericaLane on Feb 1, 2016 14:06:07 GMT
Ever thought of writing a book Wilbarra? If the hits on your posts here are anything to go by it will be a best seller. Because I am so young ;-) I can't compete with these stories. As you know I am in fact so young I wasn't even born the last time Spurs won the league! Well until this year that is ....
PS I see JT is off at the end of the season. The last legend of the 'great' Chelsea side of the Mourinho era.
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bridgey
Clearing the weeds
Posts: 60 
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Post by bridgey on Apr 17, 2016 18:19:03 GMT
Only got around to reading about George recently.
There is another twist to the story.
One of the adults laughing and enjoying the joke
Was rudi a German p.o.w .
George had just got his call up papers to go off
And fight Germans.
Ironic or what
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