November 5

When I was growing up children used to make a 'Guy' and beg on the streets. We wouldn't have dreamt of doing this. 'A penny for the Guy' was their cry. The 'guy' would indeed have been burnt on the fire. This has died out because children cannot be allowed out on their own and also because most people go to organised firework displays rather than having parties in their gardens due to safety issues.
The 'guy' represents Guy Fawkes, one of the plotters in the gunpowder plot who is now thought by many to have been framed (I nearly called him the fall-guy).
I hope this helps.

Organised firework displays usually have rather an elaborate Guy on the top of the bonfire. I just love fireworks!

It was a lot of fun. Growing up in Manchester, I used to go out with my friends begging for a penny for the guy, which we made and trundled round in an old wheelbarrow. The proceeds were then used for the purchase of fireworks - no legislation then prohibiting their sale to 10 year olds. We would then construct a massive bonfire on the waste ground at the back of our houses - augmenting it with the odd gate pinched from an unpopular neighbour. One of the dads would light the fire - usually by dousing it in petrol - and up it would go, complete with guy. We ate baked potatoes and home made treacle toffee. Jugs of beer from the outdoor sales window at the local pub would be circulated for the grown ups and a great time was had by all.

Envious , we did , and yes we do .

But we don"t celebrate Hallowen as you do , I love driving round various places in the States and seeing all the Pumpkins outside the houses .

I love them .

I would do it outside my own home but as my house goes straight onto the street , it is not possible.

Nonu,you could always place a pumpkin in your window!

I couldn"t , as strange as it may seem I don"t have windowsills either .

Well I do but they are only about 3 inches wide.

I have never quite worked this out but your messages are coming in at the time it is, in U.K .

yet I know it about 11ish roughly where you are .

Nonu,yes the time statement messes me up.I just try to resond as soon as I see a posting.I pop in and out,and know you are 6 hrs. ahead.You could place a small table in front of the window unless you couch sits there.

Hell, you are right I will have a pumpkin in my window after all , on a small table . Next time you pass my house in the "Fall" you will be seeing the pumpkin.

Re the time difference , i will google it and see what they say , probably something to do with the "Server" .

Like vegasmags I grew up in Manchester, but I had a younger brother who loved Bonfire Night more than even Christmas. He was besotted with fireworks and every year I lived in dread of him getting injured by doing stupid things with fireworks. One year when I was about twelve or thirteen I saved up enough money for the bus fare to take him into the city centre where there was an exhibition in the town hall about the dangers of fireworks. It had the desired effect and he stopped doing dangerous things with fireworks.
Many years later he was told that there was only a million to one chance of having a child - his son was born on November the 5th!!

The time given for each post is the time it first appears on Gransnet - our time.

I also grew up in Manchester and we had a bonfire every year in the middle of our road! The only person with a car who drove down there after teatime was my dad, who would park up elsewhere. The bonfire was lit when the last dad arrived home from work. The boys would make a Guy and wheel it round on a 'bogey' - basically, a plank with four old pram wheels. They would light rip-raps and throw them at girls, or chuck bangers at us, until the dads came over to admonish them. Fireworks would be lined up at the pavement's edge, rockets placed in milk bottles, Catherine wheels pinned to shed doors. We had Bengal matches to strike, and sparklers to wave around and make patterns.

The mums would do jacket potatoes in the embers and we had toffee apples, treacle toffee and parkin.

The next day, the children would collect the dead fireworks, shake any remaining powder out and make a tiny pile on the pavement, which they would strike matches over, attempting to make another bang - it never worked.

If I saw children doing most of the above now, I would be so concerned, but we did have great fun!

Here is another one who grew up in Salford - and bonfire night was one of the best nights of the year. The boys would be collecting wood for weeks beforehand and would build a huge fire on the croft - an open space where a whole row of houses had been flattened in the blitz.
We also collected for the guy and had baked potatoes, toffee apples and parkin. The grannies would have their armchairs brought out to watch the fun, and they would have glasses of mild beer brought from the off-licence. I don't remember any injuries, in spite of the total lack of control over fireworks.
I don't think the nuns approved because Guy Fawkes was a Catholic!

Oh,that does sound fun! And your weather is cool like Fall then?

Yes, Envious much the same as Fall in New England.

Yes, and it would be dark by 5 p.m. but we had to wait until we had our 'tea', which was our evening meal and for the dads to be ready.

We always made a guy when I was a child although my mother was always appalled by A Penny for the Guy and would never let me go out "begging". Actually I think it was the poor quality of some of the guys that she objected to - some of them weren't much more than a mask and an old sweater in a box.

When my children were young we used to have a party with our neighbours and do the whole baked potatoes and soup thing.

The year that Princess Margaret forsook Peter Townsend my father made a brilliant guy of the Archbishop of Canterbury anhd we burnt him instead. Of course as a catholic my father was fairly pro Guy Fawkes anyway

The last bonfire party I went to was really enjoyable. We had a hot pot supper, a big pan of chilli, and a giant meat and potato pie, with lots of toffee apples, parkin, juice for the children and hot punch for the adults. The children sat in a large conservatory, nice and warm, and the dads created the firework display. Everyone wandered back to their own houses by about 10 o'clock, no-one got injured, no stress.

I dread hearing about firework injuries. Thank goodness things are safer these days.

We always had fireworks for my birthday party. When we were still quite small, we would line up at the wide window in the sitting room while my dad and my uncle lit the blue touch paper with their cigarettes. Once we got bigger and more sensible (?) we were out there doing it ourselves. A spark from a firework put paid to my first ever pair of nylons!

Ah yes anno the blue touch paper - that brings back memories. I used to think my dad was really mean because he wouldn't let us hold some of the fireworks in a 'gloved hand' as it said on the wrapper it was safe to do. His argument was that if the wrong label was attached in the factory 'there goes your b...y hand.' You were right dad, and thanks to you, we all still have all our fingers.

fireworks injuries have always been a problem in the U.S. Luckily less and less each year due to inflated prices and being outlawed for private use in the cities. small towns still sell them at road side stands,some quite large with big tents.People make a lot of money but mostly we have BIG firework displays put on by the cities where people get together to watch.When I was little my family was shooting off fireworks and they tried to get me to hold one called a roman candle.It was like a long stick and the fireworks shot out the end.Anyway I was too scared so my older brother by 8 years held it and it misfired hurting his hand. My parents felt terrible and was so glad I told them NO!

Wow....Lots of memories there!!
Bonfires made on the crofts (Manchester) had to be guarded....in case other gangs tried to steal the wood!
Always remember the morning after..all the spent rockets..and the fire still having burning embers. Bonfire night only lasted one night then.... unlike today when it seems to go on for a week either side of the 5th !!! Happy days!

Bonfire night is a moveable feast now due to growth of halloween and Diwali 's about then too. So we get fireworks for weeks it seems. We only used to get it on 5th November, one of the most exciting times of the year and it was always so bitterly cold at the end of Autumn. Makes it hard to shut animals away as the BBC used to advise us.
PS Why are we talking about this in April?

LullyDully,it's me being nosey.