11-07-2022, 11:58 AM
When I was a young lad, we had two bonfire nights; British Empire Day and Guy Fawkes. Fireworks usually went on sale about a month before bonfire night and unsold stock was available for a week or so after bonfire night.
If you saved your paper round money and didn’t go all out on bonfire nights, you could have fireworks from the start of May through till the end of November.
Threepenny bungers were phased out around the time I was old enough to buy fireworks so penny bungers were the most powerful crackers I used. Apart from throwing them at friends and enemies, blowing up letterboxes, deterring savage dogs, and generally causing havoc, they provided the propellant charge for cracker guns that fired marbles or large ball bearings over impressive distances.
One year we all stocked up on skyrockets, reversed the handlebars on our bikes and fired skyrockets at each other as well as unsuspecting pedestrians and motorists.
Bonfire night was held on the railway reserve at the end of our street. We collected flammable material in the weeks before bonfire night and made a huge pile. It included discarded furniture, car tyres and other stuff that shouldn’t be burned. Most participants received minor burns to go with a lung full of toxic smoke and there were always a couple of folk who got hit by skyrockets. As far as I can remember, only one kid from our neighbourhood suffered a serious eye injury.
If you saved your paper round money and didn’t go all out on bonfire nights, you could have fireworks from the start of May through till the end of November.
Threepenny bungers were phased out around the time I was old enough to buy fireworks so penny bungers were the most powerful crackers I used. Apart from throwing them at friends and enemies, blowing up letterboxes, deterring savage dogs, and generally causing havoc, they provided the propellant charge for cracker guns that fired marbles or large ball bearings over impressive distances.
One year we all stocked up on skyrockets, reversed the handlebars on our bikes and fired skyrockets at each other as well as unsuspecting pedestrians and motorists.
Bonfire night was held on the railway reserve at the end of our street. We collected flammable material in the weeks before bonfire night and made a huge pile. It included discarded furniture, car tyres and other stuff that shouldn’t be burned. Most participants received minor burns to go with a lung full of toxic smoke and there were always a couple of folk who got hit by skyrockets. As far as I can remember, only one kid from our neighbourhood suffered a serious eye injury.
“Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?” Oddball