A letter from Santa just to say that ‘he’s on the way’

Just as I was thinking about what I could write about on Christmas Week, didn’t a letter arrive from a dear old friend who I hadn’t been in contact with for the past 50 years or so. He asked if there would be any space in the paper this week for a letter this week that he had wanted to write for some time, so being the season of goodwill and all that – and given who was making the request – I presented him with an open page, to ramble on about his trials and tribulations down through the centuries.  So, Santa Claus, welcome back into my life, and say what you have to say!

Dear boys and girls (and Mummies and Daddies, Aunties, Uncles and friends),

Well, for a start – and I don’t mean to sound flippant about this – I’ve seen it all before in terms of plagues that have afflicted us down through the centuries. I really don’t have a clue how old I am, but I’m told by our Grand Master that I’ve been around since nearly the beginning of time. He has assured me too that while I’m not going to get any younger, the plus side of this is that I’m not going to get any older either. I’m stuck in a bit of a time warp and although I have the odd creaky knee and dodgy back, my long sleep and hibernation through the first three months of the year, normally loosens me out again. Now, what was I trying to say? I do need another dash of that mind freshener again. Oh yes, those plagues I’ve seen before.

Even when I was nearly young, and just a couple of hundred years old, I heard of plagues in places like Athens and Rome, and to tell the truth, these were pretty horrible times for those people too. Not any talk at all about vaccines in those days, just that the well-off people would leave the city and head off into the country. Did I hear lately that’s what some people are doing this again? Anyway, I never forgot those who were left behind and brought presents to the children. It was kind of easier then: no gadgets or electronic stuff but they were glad to see me coming.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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