Conversing With Santa

As a little lad, we lived in west Hull. It was a typical terrace house in a street called Westlands Road. No. 8 to be precise. My Dad added extensions to it here and there so a new kitchen extension and a front porch. The front porch was where the telephone was. Back then, telephones were black and had a handset that sat on a body with a rotary dialer. They made a nice sound when you turned that dialer! Like most little kids I suppose, I was obsessed with the phone. Every chance I got, I was there, in the porch, playing with the phone. One day, I guess I must have dialed just the right number of times a number that truly existed. I recall being a bit amazed

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Top of The Pops and Santa

When I was a boy TV’s had curtains and a strange silver dot that lasted for ages after you switched off. The only phone I was familiar with was a big black hard plastic thing in the hall with a rotary dialer in metal. Once, I picked it up and dialed a number at random marveling at that slow click, click, click sound it made as that rotary moved slowly back. Santa Claus answered and we had a great chat until my Mother found me and took the phone off me. Shame, I was just telling Santa what I wanted for Christmas too, My Mother told me I shouldn’t talk to strangers – I didn’t think Santa was a stranger! I remember the radio. It was a big black thing

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