Penny for the Guy? When Bonfire Night was fun for all the family
Before the big displays took over, our own back gardens were where the fun was
I saw in the Bugle recently that there would be fireworks displays at Himley Hall and Wolverhampton racecourse, and that got me thinking about how Bonfire Night used to be
enjoyed.
We are told now ‘no bonfires’ – we shouldn’t be polluting the atmosphere – and no fireworks at home because someone may get hurt. Yet the local councils will most probably have thirty or forty feethigh bonfires and majestic firework displays.
I have heard family stories from my mother about when she was young, when the family used to get together for Bonfire Night. Bangers and Jumping Jacks were lit to ‘frighten the ladies’ present. Everyone laughed and enjoyed the evening.
Back then my grandparents always had a bonfire, and this tradition was carried on by my parents when I was young.
My friends and I used to collect any wood we could find – visiting local shops to ask for boxes or wooden crates. We made a guy, sat him in a wheelbarrow and stood on the corner of the road saying, “Penny for the Guy?”
Any money collected was used to purchase fireworks for bonfire night.
We also visited William Jackson of Langley Green, the local builders and wood yard. We used to ask for a sack full of wood shavings. They had a room with a pipe in the ceiling, that was an extraction unit for the wood shavings from the workshops, and there was always a mound of shavings on the floor.
After filling the sack we used to dive on the rest of the shavings and had to spend hours afterwards trying to get the bits of shavings out of our hair and off our clothes.
Another little escapade we used to get up to was to purchase a few bangers, and some of these were used to have fun by the local factory – Langley Forge.
We knew when the workers had their morning break because the press shop door would slide open and the men
would sit on a bench by the door to eat their sandwiches.
We would walk past, say hello and then turn back and light a banger and push it round the back of the door. We had a few seconds to run off before the ‘BANG’.
We always heard the shouts of “You little devils, you wait, we’ll get you,” but they always laughed it off and if they saw us with the guy they always gave us a few pennies.
Years later when I had a family of my own, bonfire night was always looked forward to. Any spare wood would be kept, and I would get some pallets from work. The apple tree would be trimmed, our neighbours Val and Terry would also join in with the wood collection.
A few days before November the 5th it was ‘making the guy’ time. Some old trousers of mine and a shirt were always found, and also loads of newspapers were needed.
My daughter and son had the job of scrunching up the newspapers and stuffing them down the legs of the trousers. When these were full my wife would sew the shirt to the trousers and the paper scrunching started again. A head was then made and the guy finished.
From looking at history books, Guy Fawkes was a small thin man, whereas our version of him was more like an oversized Herman Munster.
He was carried into the dining room and sat in a chair by the table. So for the next few days we had our breakfasts and dinners with Herman.
November 5th arrived, the bonfire was built and at about five-thirty that evening Herman would be carried up the garden and placed sitting down under the apple tree to await his throwing on the bonfire.
The fire was lit, my father would take charge of lighting the fireworks and we always had a great evening.
After a couple of hours, with red faces from the fire and smelling of smoke, we would come in the house for tomato soup, jacket potatoes and hot dogs. Then once we’d filled our bellies we’d be back out again to add the last of the wood to the fire and wait for it to burn through. Sometimes I would be out there again at eleven o’clock, covering the last remnants of the fire with dirt to make sure no sparks would fly about.
Those days have gone now. Most houses have their gardens all set out and no space for a bonfire. My children have their own families now and do what they want to do for Bonfire Night.
For young children nowadays Hallowe’en seems to have taken over from Bonfire Night; November the 5th is no longer a family and friends gettogether around a roaring fire.
But what special memories we still have from those days gone by.
Our Guy Fawkes looked more like an over-sized Herman Munster