How It Used To Be

[poliphilo]

You used to be able to buy fireworks anywhere- at the newsagents, at the corner shop- loose or in boxes. These days I wouldn't know where to go look for them. I don't know how the change occurred- whether gradually or all at once- but I suppose there must have been legislation. Were we, the people, ever asked about any of this? If we were I don't remember.

When I was a kid the adults would buy a box of outdoor fireworks and a box of indoor fireworks. The outdoor fireworks included rockets- bloody dangerous when you think about it, Catherine Wheels (so named for one of my favourite saints} and things that sat on the ground and threw up glitter and globules of coloured light which went "bang". The indoor fireworks were like miniature science experiments. They fizzed and popped and extruded ash. We lit them on the hearth stone and considered it perfectly safe. This after all was an era in which people habitually lounged around in flammable arm chairs with cigarettes and pipes stuck in their silly mouths. This was also an era in which the entire adult generation had undergone the experience of shooting and bombing and being shot at and bombed.

Once or twice my father would splash out on something special- like an extra big Catherine Wheel or a rocket that cost as much as ten shillings. Whoosh!

I like fireworks.

But always with the proviso that someone else is paying for them.

Last night I positioned myself by an upstairs window- commanding a wide view of the town- and waited to be entertained- but nothing much happened. You could blame the weather- which was wet and windy- but if people had spent a fortune on explosives they'd have been letting them off willy-nilly, don't you think? The fact is that Guy Fawkes night is dying- with all the energy it used to channel being re-routed into Halloween.

Ah well....

Comments

[cmcmck]

There were a few going off here but I suspect people are counting the pennies.

In more normal times we got a week before and a week after at least.

[heleninwales]

The torrential rain has literally dampened the enthusiasm for bonfire night fireworks here. I did used to like bonfire night when I was young in Manchester, though it was bloody dangerous and there was always at least one death and many accidents in the news following the event. I don't much like American Halloween, but it is safer for kids and of course we've just reimported a tradition that settlers took to the US in the first place. Though it's now radically altered from the traditional British version.

[poliphilo]

I saw one or two backyard displays- and they were very brief. A couple of big bangs and that was it. I've no idea what fireworks cost these days but I'll bet they're expensive.

[poliphilo]

Our generation did very little- if anything- for Halloween, whereas Bonfire Night was a big deal. I don't resent the shift. These things happen- and Halloween can be a spur to invention and creativity. My grandkids all enjoy the dressing up and the trick or treating. Mary- who I think of as an honorary grandchild- got herself up as the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots (all her own idea) and looked amazing.

[qatsi]

We noticed it was quiet last night here, as well.

I remember (in the 1970s) having a few outdoor fireworks. I also remember one year having indoor fireworks - this was when "Made in China" was something exotic. A few sparklers in the shape of stylised animals, essentially. On a cardboard base, if I remember correctly. Somehow the place didn't burn down.

And no, Hallowe'en wasn't a Thing then either, as far as I remember.

[poliphilo]

I'm coming round to appreciating the modern Halloween.All the kids I know love it. We have an honorary grandchild who got herself up as the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots (all her own idea) and looked amazing.