Paul Barbano December 23, 2020
It is holiday time and time for gifts and flights of fantasy. During World War II the American playing card company Bicycle sent decks of cards as gifts to American prisoners of war held by Germany. The cards, when soaked in water, showed maps of escape routes. And in 1955 Sears ran an ad telling kids to call Santa directly, but the phone number was a misprint, and instead of getting Santa, kids spoke directly to Colonel Shoup who manned the hotline of the Director of Operations for the U.S. Continental Air Defense. Colonel Shoup ordered his staff to give the children updates on the flight coordinates of Santa s sleigh. It is a tradition carried on to this day.