Civic pride is one of those virtues - like politeness and sportsmanship - that we seem to have abandoned as being quaintly old-fashioned. But Hayden has an old-fashioned view of things, and he doesn’t mind who knows it. With his collarless shirts, waistcoats and corduroy trousers, he even looks like he belongs to another age. Some find his behaviour a little baffling but, if pressed on the matter, will offer grudging admiration. To those of us who know him better, he’s a saint.
Hayden is a fixer, a handyman; he’s a jack-of-all-trades, and master of quite a few. His neat little house confirms the wisdom of doing those vital jobs a few weeks before they really need to be done. He doesn’t lie awake on stormy nights, wondering whether his house will still be standing in the morning. He enjoys the untroubled sleep of a man who is up to speed with his maintenance programme. When a job needs doing, Hayden doesn’t talk about it... he just does it.
Whimsey belongs to Hayden. Most people are fiercely proprietorial about their little fiefdoms. When they re-point a wall or trim a hedge, they go to the limit of their property and not an inch further. It just wouldn’t occur to them to pop next door and say “I’m tidying up my bit of the hedge; shall I do yours while I’ve got the clippers out?” The results look ludicrous, of course. But Hayden has a stake in Whimsey that has nothing to do with deeds and contracts. When he says “It’s my village”, he isn’t merely confirming that he was born here fifty five years ago and that, with luck, he’ll be buried here too. It’s his village because he looks after it.
Hayden takes pride in his little fiefdom too, but his gaze extends far beyond the boundary of his property. Whenever he spies some little corner of the village that needs sprucing up, he takes action. Instead of complaining to the council, or writing a stroppy letter to the local paper, the Gazette & Advertiser, he changes into his overalls and sets off with his canvas bag of tools to put things right. Yes, Hayden has a different agenda altogether. He’s a free spirit, an independent thinker... almost an anarchist.
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