Sunday, November 05, 2006

Remember Remember the Fifth of November

I remember this rhyme from my youth:

Remember Remember
The Fifth of November
Gunpowder Treason and Plot

But I can't remember the next bit! I searched and I found this (watch out for the annoying animated ads in the left sidebar; the mosquito one is particularly irritating), so I can now remember the rest of the rhyme:

I see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

We used to have great Bonfire Nights round us ("are you comin round us?", I just remembered is what we said, not even "Are you comin round to our house?"). I thought the bonfire in our back garden was really big, but our back garden wasn't that big, so it can't have been so massive. Just a big pile of wood probably made a big impression on the young me. Dad got some fireworks and Mum baked and cooked (sausage rolls, baked potatoes, wellington squares, soup in mugs). I don't think we did much in the way of a guy, that was supposed to be the kids' thing, make a figure using newspaper and tights and an old coat and a painted face (ten or fifteen years later when I was just out of college we made a "Maggie" guy), rather we found the wood and rubbish and Dad built the bonfire out of it. Fireworks are a lot louder and flashier now, I think the bonfire was more of a deal then. The extended family would come round and join in; my favourite cousin / uncle was called Michael, he was a cool guy and he was into Art and rock music. Yeah it was good.

I don't remember anyone I knew getting hurt from using fireworks then, but since then I have heard of some, mostly from being drunk and messing around. The fireworks we had were pretty much the same as today; rockets, roman candles, catherine wheels, bangers and sparklers. Everybody said "Oooooh" when the rockets went up. Our bonfire was quite an event in our little bit of the estate.

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