Voodoo and Bubble Gum

There is a thick frost outside - at least it is outside. In my youth, living in a large (and haunted) house, that had no heating in most rooms, we used to wake up with Jack Frost crusted on the inside of the window panes. Marvelling at the intricate patterns and playing at being a dragon with the mist your breath made gave us something to do. The sheets used to be so cold when you got into bed that they felt damp. All this and a poltergeist to play with. Life was such fun!

I'm not sure where the ghosts came from, but it could have had something to do with the fact my father used to encourage us to employ the 'Juju' when we really wanted something to happen. We used to hold our arms in the begging position and flex our fingers chanting 'Juju, juju' . I thought all families did this sort of thing, it didn't occur to me that we were indulging in Voodoo witchcraft at the time.

My father was a firm believer in psychokinesis as well, and always used to have me throw the dice in Ludo for him as I could throw more sixes on demand than anyone else. He had done experiments on us to establish this, offering chocolate as a reward for throwing the required numbers. We used to play Ludo for money, and had rows of little milk bottles filled up with half pence pieces with our initials on them. My friend and I used to raid these bottles at weekends and go to the Mini-Store to buy sweets. 'Hubba Bubba' bubble gum was a favourite, which we used to chew a lot and then make 'washing lines' across the bedroom by sticking one end to the wall and stretching it across in zig zag patterns. Like I said, fun was hard to come by in the days before computer games.