Granddad enjoys telling his grandson, George, about a time when he was young, George enjoys listening. "I remember...I was one week old when I was born and there was snow on the ground. My daddy took me into the garden and I built a blue snowman." "Wow! Was it an i-Phone?" "Well, no," and Granddad laughed. "It was more of an ear phone than an eye phone." "Let's get going then. It's only a ten-minute walk." "Walk? Can't we go by car?" "Nobody I knew had a car when I was growing up. We walked everywhere." "Did the King have a car?" "Are you very old, Granddad?" George asked in an awed tone. "Almost as old as the Man in the Moon." "He's not real!" George exclaimed. "But I've spoken to him," Granddad responded. "The mouse whistled to his friends and they turned up carrying ukuleles." "Really?" "Well, they might have been banjos. "There'll be... how many green bottles left standing on the wall, George?" George frowned and screwed up his eyes. "NINE!" he shouted out. "Excellent! We'll go through the whole song together and then you can sing it to your mother all day long." "I will. I promise." "You told me once about a frog that spoke to the Man on the Moon." "Did I? Then it must be true." "Well I'm going to speak to the boy on Juniper!" "There was a rope inside the chimney. I'd hold on to the rope with one hand and hold a sweeping brush in the other." "What happened if somebody lit a fire?" "Why did Father Time spill his sand all over the floor before eating an egg?" "He used a small hour-glass. The sand cannot fall out." "A whole hour waiting for your egg! George exclaimed. "The only games we played back then were Snakes and Ladders and Happy Families." George considered this for a moment. "What are happy families?" he enquired." They are what you and I are both part of...""Half my pocket money...that is, sixpence, went on a savings stamp." "What's that?" George asked, puzzled. "Well, it was like a postage stamp but had a picture of the young Princess Anne on the front. You'd licked the back of the stamp and then stick it in a special book." "Was it an adventure book?" George asked. "...with cowboys and Indians and aliens and monsters...?""Butterflies make me very angry," George had informed Granddad that morning. "Angry? How could a beautiful butterfly possibly make you angry?"" They keep running away." "Wow ! I wonder if dad will let me climb a beanstalk." "You might be frightened. There's usually a giant living at the top." "I'm not afraid, Granddad! I'll climb up and push him off." "I don't think so. I've already tried." Granddad took the paper from George's outstretched hand. "First place. School Egg-and-Spoon Race. George." "You beat an egg and a spoon in a race?" Granddad asked mischievously. Granddad spread his hands. They were empty. He reached forward and slipped his left hand behind George's right ear. "Ah, there you are," he said. "My favourite." He was holding a magnificent marble. "I was really looking forward to seeing the jigglers," he moaned. Granddad thought about this for a moment. "! think you mean jugglers," he said. "Whatever...and people who can walk on bits of wood." "I think they're called stilt-walkers, George.""Granddad! We have to take all our clocks to the shop." Granddad was startled. "Why on earth would we have to do that?" he asked."The lady at School said we have to." "What exactly did she say, young man?" "She said that tomorrow is the first day of October.""I remember, when I was about your age, I had to live with the King and Queen in Buckingham Palace." "I was very frightened," replied Granddad. "In fact, I was so frightened I had to close my eyes." "Why? What did you see?" "Nothing, of course. My eyes were closed!" After a moment's thoughtful silence George asked the question that Granddad hoped he would." So... how did you get there?" "I went to the station and caught the Ghost Train!"