Advertise on podcast: Keith Sanders the Storyman Podcast

A short podcast brought on by the fact that I have had to send my false teeth away once again to be repaired. We travel to 1962 to find out why I have to have false teeth. We move on over the years to hear about the progress of my teeth and what they had to change over the years. We come to the present day where my teeth are made of modern high grade metal that can cope with the vagaries of living in my mouth!! The big question is, would a modern cricket helmet have prevented all these problems?? Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

This is a story about New Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire. A new town built around 1800 and the first of a series of dreams of John Parkinson. The town was a success despite the fact that it had no original road connections to anywhere and the architectural designs of the town were a mix of country and city. This  is a fascinating town with an amazing history that is still ongoing. John Parkinson's third dream made him bankrupt, but he was also an amazing man to have such foresight.  Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

It was another trip to the Ford Motor Company, but it was not so funny this time. A moments inattention.......... Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

Another Goliath and Bonnie story from Lincolnshire's Northcote Heavy Horse Centre in the 1990s. Drama and stress on a cold wet night. You can download Goliath's own online picture storybook from our bookcase site at: http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ All downloads are free and there are 9 other books for you to look at. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

The title of this story in our books is "How Many Tablets," but I now prefer the title above! This is another Goliath and Bonnie story from Lincolnshire's Northcote Heavy Horse Centre in the 1990s. You can access Goliath's own online picture storybook from our Book Case site at http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ All downloads are free and you can use any device you choose. There are 10 books on the bookcase, try a different one too! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

It came about in 1986 and we were living close to Spilsby in Lincolnshire. Sir John Franklin, Spilsby’s most famous “son” was born there in 1786 and subsequently lost his life together with the rest of his crew and two ships, undertaking the expedition to find the “North West Passage” in 1848. This was the most sought after route “around the top of the World” which it was hoped, could allow vessels to reach the Pacific Ocean without having to risk that long, dangerous voyage around South America and “Cape Horn”. The actual history of these explorations are covered in many publications. Indeed the Internet’s Wikipedia has most comprehensive information. Back in Spilsby in 1986, the Mayor and Councillors were asked by the High Commission for Canada to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth and indeed the High Commissioner Himself wished to attend. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

A  story from the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre in about 2005. On a wet and windy night one of the horses managed to dislocate my right shoulder. Unfortunately, it was the same shoulder that I had broken when falling over "that" dog only a month previously. The story goes on as I travelled to my out patients appointment on my motor bike with the sling loose around my neck! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

 Back to that interview with my lady surgeon who happened to say, “well the only little problem you might have with the new lenses is that your extreme peripheral vision might be affected when driving in the dark.”  “Oh that’s ok then, I replied. “I do not normally drive after dark and anyway the last time was for my last check up with Dr,…. my Opthalmologist last week when I got home at 1.30am in the morning.”  “I.30am,” she exploded. “ Did I hear correctly, are you sure.”  “Oh yes,” I continued. “ My appointment was for 10.30 pm oh and it was Saturday evening.   When I arrived, there were 5 folk in front of me, which is normal. Then as you know that final examination before the operations is quite lengthy.  I had to wait a bit before driving because of the drops in my eyes. I suppose it could have been nearer to 2am when I arrived home.”  My surgeon was most surprised to say the least and completely dumbfounded.   In fact she nearly fell off her stool! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

This is a  re write of the story "Incident with Queen Mary." Just a few changes.  It involves a contingent of CCF Naval Section Cadets let loose on HMS Vanguard while in Portsmouth Harbour. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

 We were going into all this. Perhaps it was good that these machines had wheels, that would help when we touched the sand way out at sea.  You will have to imagine that you are taking a journey into rough offshore seas with breaking waves, in a steel motorised bathtub with wheels.  I do not remember anything of lifejackets or the like. If we did have them in the 1950s they would have been those dreadful double-sided cork contraptions that you would see issued to the unfortunate passengers on the Titanic!  There was no evidence of ships boats from the Frigate being ready for use, or “the Captain’s pinnace” available to whisk the Mayor of Skegness over for a visit.  You see, at Skegness, it was just the open beach and nothing else. If the Mayor was to visit, then the Captain’s pinnace would have to run ashore up the beach and then be pushed off again at the mercy of the surf pounding the beach! You should be so lucky!  Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

This is a story about a Bus Journey, well several bus journeys really. A story of "Financial aspirations" of a 6 year old in 1950. The scene is Harrogate, Yorkshire, in the North of England. A very smart and affluent town with more Rolls Royce cars to the mile than any other town in England! All for the sake of a half penny! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

Letter from France continued.... MILOU'S FIRST BRUSH WITH THE LAW. We were driving a car originally registered in the Uk but that we had since imported into Franceand was now French registered!   Driving carefully on entering the town I had seen a light like a torch pointing in my direction. Getting closer it began to wave from side to side and eventually I could see the blue uniform behind the light. There was only very basic street lighting in the town and by now it was 9.30 in the evening. I pulled in to the right just off the road right next to the Gendarme gentleman who signed for me to lower my window. We began with pleasantries like good evening and he explained that he had stopped me because he was looking for the driver! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

One of our first losses around Christmas was our very first Shire Horse Ebony. He retired from Young and Cos Brewery in 1988 and came back to live with us in Lincolnshire. He helped us with the opening of the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre, in fact, he was the star during those first few years. You see he had already been a television personality during his time at Youngs Brewery. Blue Peter the famous BBC television programme for Children had him in their studio. He was also a favourite of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and took part in her Huge Celebration on Horse Guards Parade. He was also the principal character in a children’s picture storybook published by A and A Black called “Shire Horse”. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

A letter from France 1st October 2022. TODAY I MANAGED TO STOP THE TRAINS ON THE MAIN LINE! Not intentionally, well not really, but you see the local crossing barriers were stuck. I had set out on my normal dog exercise trip with Mango and hey presto we found the crossing barriers in the down position.  (We cross the main line from Tours to Nantes every morning on our excursion.) No bells ringing but the lights were flashing happily. A small van had approached the crossing ahead of us, the driver got out and had a look down the line and then sasheyed through the barriers carefully. A note here, the line both ways is dead straight for miles or rather kilometeres here. You can see anything coming possibly a minute before it arrives. Why a minute, well it is a fast line here, not maximum for TGV's but everything seems to be travelling at at least 80 mph when it goes over this crossing. Goods trains just a little slower. Anyway it must have been about 10 minutes past nine when I arrived back at the crossing with Mango and the barriers still not budging. I decided to press the emergency button at the crossing and a chap came on the line virtually straight away. I explained the problem and the fact that the barriers had been down for at least half an hour without moving.  I told him it was ok for the trains but not for the cars. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

This particular day, I had just pulled in to the side of the road close to the depot entrance, when there was an almighty bang and the front of the roof of the tyre retail premises was lifted off the brick cladding over the main front doors. The dust and mess was considerable, covering much of the surrounding area. I moved to go inside with caution, not knowing what I would be looking at. Were there any bodies laying around? Was that the final bang or were there to be more? In fact it was the only one but that initial bang had been followed by a tremendous amount of clattering as various pieces of metal and rubber gradually fell to earth after their being propelled into the air with great force. The force was compressed air and I had been fortunate that I had not arrived a few minutes earlier! Morris the very convivial manager at this particular depot was out, calling on clients. His tyre fitting staff had been taking a few short cuts in their endeavours. When removing commercial tyres from wheels there are safety instructions that should be followed. The lads in the depot that day had their own ideas. They had removed the locking ring and one side of the split wheel and turned the wheel and tyre over on a metal stand to knock the tyre off with a breaker tool. Evidently, so the story was told to me, the tyre would not budge. After lots of tyre lubricant and more hammering and jumping around, no difference, it was fixed solid. This often happened when the tyre had been on that wheel for a long time and had not had to be removed for any reason. In these instances, the tyre and wheel has to be placed in a safety cage and slowly inflated to encourage some movement. Compressed air is very very dangerous, everyone engaged in the tyre trade has received instruction regarding this at some stage in their early career. Even me! The lads at National Tyres, Stamford were fed up with this particular wheel. The boss was out and they decided to take the short cut.  They attached the air line and began to blow the tyre off the wheel, without any safety cage. It was still laying there in the middle of the floor of the workshop, on its metal stand. Its the amount of compressed air in a restricted place, contained and under increasing pressure that is dangerous. Our lads that day had a very lucky escape. Quite suddenly, the wheel and tyre began to part company and jointly were launched into the air vertically at very high speed.  Within a second or so, the wheel hit the steel girders supporting the roof of the building. The whole roof was lifted off its brick supports at the front and then the tyre and wheel separated and fell to earth almost as quickly as they had been launched. Those commercial tyres weigh over a hundredweight or 200 kilos. The wheel probably weighs more than that, so all together there was getting on for a quarter of a ton of rubber and metal flying around the building at high speed and out of control. Both bits landed not far from a clients car that was having new tyres fitted. He very nearly needed a new Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning e-books on their own Site. All the books are free to download to any device. Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/ Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr