1969 Was A Good Year For Adderbury

1969 was a good year for the village of Adderbury.
It was the year it was voted "Best-Kept Village In Oxfordshire".
I know this because there's a commemorative plaque
nailed to the wall of the Village Institute
which stands proud testament to the fact.
Tonight, in this quiet Oxfordshire village
(noted for its 15th-century parish church
and distinctive honey-coloured Horton stone cottages),
a grey-haired man stands beneath a painting
of a cornfield at harvest time.
He plays washboard and demi-jar
and sings a song about the outlaw Jesse Woodson James.
That man is my father.
It's my turn to be proud of him for a change.
In the village where he helped me make my first mud pie.
In the village where he gave me my first haircut.
In the village where he read me my first comic-book.
In the village where he showed me how to kick my first football.
In the village where he fed me my first
soft-boiled egg.
In the village voted Oxfordshire's "Best-Kept" back in 1969.