Web Page 1092
1^st November 2012

Top Picture : Standard Fireworks Poster

Second Picture: Stars in the sky

A penny for the Guy, was a penny for a banger.

Do you remember the things you could do with a penny banger! When I look back now I wonder how on earth none of my mates or I were not seriously injured. Plenty more were. It must have been nearing the end of the fifties when we went out on our own with a pocket full of them. When I was younger I would never have been allowed, and had to stay with my parents.
I must admit that my attitude towards the selling of fireworks has changed a great deal since those days.

The few weeks leading up to November 5th were always exciting. All pocket money was saved, and spent on penny bangers. Some of dad's old clothes were stuffed with newspapers, a football for a head, with a Guy Fawkes mask and hat attached and off we went pushing an old pram we got from somewhere to a busy spot near the local shops for the “penny for the guy” fund raising. Your parents were going to supply the basic fireworks on the actual night, so bangers and Jumping Jacks were the thing you needed for the days leading up to it. We did this for a couple of week’s prior the actual day.

We were always trying to think of new ways to explode the bangers. We would float them down the creek on a tobacco tin lid; hang them off the bridge with cotton; put them in scaffold tubes, in fact anything to make a different noise. We used to bury them in the mud on Farlington Marshes and have competitions as to who could blow the biggest hole. There were always some old tin cans and milk and beer bottles lying about, so needless to say, we used these to contain the explosions and just see what would happen. I know many kids over the firework season were badly burned but luckily enough none of our group of friends ever suffered that way.

So that was it. The weeks of waiting were over. The big night arrived and you let your own fireworks off with your mates earlier on and now your turn at home. An hour or so later Dad had done his duty, lighting at arms length and keeping the box closed. Everything had gone according to plan. Except for the occasion when the force of a rocket knocked the bottle over. Have you ever seen a rocket travel along the ground at speed; go through someones legs (burning holes in both of his long socks as it went) and end up lodging itself in the under body of a parked car inches from the fuel tank? I have! Dad let off our Aeroplanes, Strombolli, Wizzers, Jumping Jacks, Roman Candles and Catherine Wheels all we were allowed to handle were Sparklers and coloured matches ( why were they only ever red or green?)

Anyway, after that we would stick lengths of wire into spuds to roast them in the embers and later we got as black as the ace of spades from the smoke and the now black skins of the potatoes, and suddenly it was all over for another year. You could smell the smoke for days after.

To build the biggest bonfire year people got rid of their old junk, as long as it would burn. There were floorboards, scaffold boards, old wardrobes, beds, kitchen doors. You name it and if it was capable of burning, on it went. I think that it would normally have taken months to get rid of the accumulated junk lodged in old air raid shelters sheds and cellars.

Did you know that there was an on line Firework Museum? Take a look at http://www.fireworkmuseum.co.uk/ and remind yourselves of some of these brands. Pains, Brocks, Standard, Astra, Wells and Benwell Garden Fireworks. Looking back I am sure we all took risks but they were great days!!!!!

Stay in Touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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On this day 1^st November 1960-1965

On 01/11/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 01/11/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 01/11/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (BBC) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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On 01/11/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was 7 die in UK hurricane-force winds.