At Christmas when we were young, my sisters & I would be in the living-room writing letters to Father Christmas. Mum would help us send them up the chimney. Once they had gone we would call out to Father Christmas asking him if he had got our letters. In a big booming voice he would rely ‘Yes, and I hope you are all being good for Mum & Dad – I find out these things you know! If you are very good you may get what you have asked for.”
The shock, surprise and excitement of hearing Father Christmas calling down OUR chimney was unbelievable. Many years passed and it wasn’t until we’d left the prefabs that the truth came out. Dad would tell us he was taking the dog for a walk and go out of the back door, slipping back in the front door unnoticed. He would go straight into the bathroom and open the airing-cupboard, calling to us as if he was Father Christmas. We never recognised his voice as it was much deeper and muffled as it carried through the airing-cupboard into the chimney in the living-room.
This is just one of the great memories I have of the prefab days.
by Eileen Van Der brock (nee McHale) of 33 Besford Road