A childhood belief about technology

One day my dad was making me and my younger sister breakfast, when we were very young. We asked him how the toaster worked, and our dad (i suspect now rather than admitting he didnt KNOW how the toaster worked, being a drama teacher and not a scientist) told us that a little man lived inside the toaster. His name was Mr. Frosty, and he had a special trident with a red-hot tip to cook the bread. We got obsessed with Mr Frosty and every morning (mystifying our mum) the three of us (Dad, Me and sister) would look intently into the toaster and say a polite 'good morning' to mr Frosty. My sister and I also used to receive little letters on tiny scraps of pink paper from mr Frosty, thanking us for keeping him in business with all the toast we ate.