I've found a fault with living in Oz as opposed to the UK!!!
It's Guy Fawkes night and there's a total fireban!!! When I was growing up this was second only to Christmas and I can't even have a small fire. I think there may have been a fireban once in about '76 in London but that was in the summer not November so wouldn't have counted. Oh well I'll have to pretend when we do have a bonfire

When I was a little kid, we had Guy Fawkes night, and the biggest bonfire. This was a country town thing, and the CFA and the CWA were there, and all the parents ate and drank while all us kids ran around. The best part was that we all got a showbag with fireworks in it. That's right, the town social club gave all kids a few dozen fireworks each, while the adults drank. We were allowed to have matches and fireworks. No one ever got hurt, but I see the risks now.

Whats Guy Fawkes night?

I'm with Simon... What are you on about

Quote:

Originally posted by trickysimon Whats Guy Fawkes night?

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

...err, I used to buy fireworks as a 10-year-old: a bag of mixed lollies and a pack of bungers, thanks!

When I was a kid (in Oz), we had what was called 'bonfire night' or 'cracker night', and it was on 24th May (no fire bans then). As kids, we often used to put a 'Guy Falks' on the top of our bonfire, just for fun - we didn't know the meaning of it though.

We lived on a property on a hill on the edge of town, and dad would bring home all the old tires from his service station for about 6 month before hand. We had a bonfire of tires a good 6m high when we stacked them all up - used to be that hot, you couldn't get any closer than about 10 or 15m, and it was a full week before it was com;letely out. there was a 30m high Norfolk Island pinetree about 30m from the fire, and the side closest to the fire would go brown for weeks after. This was on the edge of a quarry ouside the 'house fence' on the top of the hill, so it could be seen all over town.

Us kids would save for months to buy fireworks, and on cracker night, my parents had a big party, with a BBQ and a keg. After everyone had let off all their fireworks, we went inside to tables loades with cakes and all sorts of goodies.

We had some extra things though - my dad was in the 'rocket brigade' who were set up by the Maratime Service Board to help in the case of a shipwreck along the coast. They trained to fire a rocket with a lite line in it out the the ship, then a heavy rope could be dragged out from the shore, a bosuns chair set up, and people rescued off the ship. The rockets and distress flairs would be deemed 'out of date' after a certain time, so the adults had the best skyrockets at our bonfire night.

Another thing was some timber getter mates of dads from up the bush (he used to call them the last of the hillbillys) would get there early, and sit on the front steps getting thier crackers ready - putting detonators on their gelignite. They would throw them over the fence into the long grass - a hell of a bang. Next day, us kids would find where they went off, there would be a 'crater in the long grass about 600mm dia, and a hole in the ground about 70mm deep.

They would also go with dad to his service station and fill balloons with oxy acetylene, and drive home with them in dad's '57 beetle (how dangerous is that). At the height of the bonfire, they would get as close as the heat would let them, and let a balloon go into the draught into the fire. The would be an extremely loud explosion (hurt your ears) and a blinding flash (like a welding flash nearly) when the balloon hit the fire. The compression wave from the explosion would sometimes crack windows in our house, which would have been about 80m from the fire. It echoed all over town.

They were wild nights, but man, what fun.

As kids we went 'Penny for the Guy-ing' where we made a Guy (an effigy of Guy Fawkes) normally an old pair of jeans and a jumper stuffed with newspaper with a head that had a Guy Fawkes mask - you cold buy those then, and then went around to the tube station and and asked for a penny for the guy to all the people going passed. Never thought about it at the time but bloody hell I was a beggar!!! Anyway the money we got was supposed to be spent on fireworks and the Guy was supposed to be put on the bonfire, we made quite a bit of money then specially as the people coming home from work were always in a better mood than if they were going to work. Couldn't have too many bonfires where we lived in the Elephant, no vacant grounds

Just read your post Jeff and now I feel really boring!

jeff, i often wondered why fireworks are banned in Australia (exept NT) i think you satisfied my curiosity! fantastic story. its a wonder you are still here! thanks for sharing!

cracker night here is guy fawkes night in the uk

At our bonfire night parties, there would have been 80 to 100 people, but over probably 10 or 15 years, we never had any injuries (except for the occasional spark burn maybe). I guess because we were brought up with it, we had been taught how to be carefull, and with first hand experience of what fireworks could do, we respected it.

We had cracker night all the time as a kid. They stopped it though as so many people were coming in with injuries caused by the crackers. It was a big thing at the time to light a cracker and see if you could keep holding it until just before it exploded. Some held for too long and blew off fingers and thumbs and lost hearing and eyesight. I understand why they stopped it but I also miss it.

Yogie

so tell us yogie, how high can you count on your fingers?? I SAID......................!!!

Huh, what was that you said? I can't count anymore since my eyesight went as well but I think there were 2 or 3 on each appendage.
Yogie

Cracker night, I'd almost forgotten about that. That was real fun.
I remember even having one night at school, and you could get the fireworks there, the best game was shooting at each other with those ones that used to shoot about a dozen balls of fire out before they went out.

Great fun, but somehow I'm not sure I'd be so keen seeing my kids running around with lit fireworks in their hands now that I am all grown up and suddenly feeling very old.

Of course the reason why Guy Fawkes night is remembered is because he was going to blow up Parliament House and kill all of the politicians and the King. He needed a waggon load of gunpowder in big kegs and it could not be done secretly or quietly, so he was caught.

Today that could be done with the contents of a suit case.

I wonder if the real reason why we no longer celebrate that is because we don't want people to have such ideas in an age when it could be done very easily.

Queens birthday ?

Empire day ? not sure which queen I'll have to ask the gay bloke next door and as for the date I'll have to ask the gay bloke next door.

Cracker night was Queens birthday which was May 24th. As far as I recall, it wasn't actually the birthday of ay queens.

Quote:

Originally posted by donn Empire day ? not sure which queen I'll have to ask the gay bloke next door and as for the date I'll have to ask the gay bloke next door.