My Kind Of Santa

By Dr. Panagiotis Karavitis

Down here in Athens, my personal Santa Claus goes by the name of Ares. No, he is not the war-god, he’s just the local mail man, the one that rides on a scooter and brings me every now and then my “gifts”. They probably don’t even count as gifts, I have to pay for them. But from the moment I send the money to the magic moment I get the package in my hands, at least some 10 days go by, and by that time I can’t recall the bill part … Looks more like a gift box! 

Just as any other kid, I have my own wish list. It consists of rare, old, first-print records, LP’s from the Eastern Bloc, Melodiyas and Supraphons, French rarities, Dogs and Eyes, full frequency ears and tulips. Like all kids, the list is long, and worst part is it never seems to narrow. When one record arrives, two or more make it in the list.

Good thing I’ve been a nice boy for this last year (that’s for me to decide, which helps things a lot), so I can order to Santa’s little helper (my personal favorite seller, who lives in the North Pole Netherlands) more than one record per time. Actually I order a bit more, more than a couple, more than three or four, a lot more. I go by the tens. Records including cover and inner sleeve weight some 250gr give or take, so I can stuff about 75 LP’s before breaking the convenient 20 Kgr DHL limit.  When I get ‘em in hand my smile is so big, it won’t fit in a pic.

So what are you planning on getting from Santa this year ?