SANTA IN SENSATIONAL 'STITCH-UP' SCANDAL...

Okay, I'll admit it's a little early for SANTA CLAUS to be
raising his bearded head, but there's a reason for this post.  Not a
great one, admittedly, but any excuse to indulge in a bit of personal

nostalgia is always good enough for me.  Anyway, you got in here
for free so you'll take what you get and be thankful for it.  (Don't
you just love it when I'm masterful?)  Here's the story.

Back in the '60s, after school one day, a classmate by the

name of RAYMOND BENNIE (may even have been Benny,

can't remember) invited me back to his house.  During my visit,

I noticed a stuffed Santa figure, which was probably a cat's play-
thing, although that never occurred to me until many years later.
Raymond kindly said I could have it, and so little Santa came

back home to live with me.

He immediately fell victim to terrible abuse, as me and

my brother utilised him to play 'dodge ball'.  I'd kneel on my

bed and try and hit my bruv with Santa by throwing him across

the room at my ducking and diving sibling.  Then he'd return fire
from his bed,, chucking Santa back at me as I tried to avoid being
hit.  Eventually, SC became a bit loose around the seams, so I un-
did his stitching and took him apart, intending to sew him back
together again and tighten and tidy him up a bit.

Alas, it never happened, and eventually poor old 'cotton

wool' Santa suffered, I assume, the fate of most things in a

state of disrepair, and was unceremoniously discarded without

even  a thanks for the moments of enjoyment he had afforded me

and my older relation.  I think I still had his pieces when I  spied

his twin in a back garden across from the house of one of my

mother's  friends whom we were visiting one day in 1969

or '70.  (Early '71 at a push.)

I'd just acquired my second QUERCETTI FIREBALL

XL5 parachute toy from a superb shop in Rutherglen, called

JOHNNY'S, and it had overshot it into a neighbour's garden as

I played with it in the backyard of my mother's friend.  As I went

to retrieve it, I noticed the double of my stuffed Santa lying on

the neighbour's back lawn.  It did occur to me for a second

to 'liberate' him, but my virtuous nature won out.

Anyway, I've never again seen another duplicate of that

Santa since then, but several years back I bought the one in

the picture at the top of this post, merely to 'fill the space', as

it were.  Apart from the fact that it's a Santa Claus, he's really

nothing like the one I used to have back in the '60s - but he

reminds me of him, if you know what I mean.

I sometimes wonder if Raymond Bennie, who emigrated

down under with his family in the late '60s, ever thinks back to

the stuffed Santa Claus that he (or his cat if he had one) used to

have once upon a time when we were both young and innocent

and thought we had forever.  And does he recall giving him

to me - or even remember my name?  Probably not.

A Merry Christmas when it comes,. Ho ho ho!

Raymond Bennie in July 1967

Posted in: Cartoons