Night that didn’t … “go with a bang” !
Posted by Big John on November 5, 2012
It is the 5th November .. ‘Guy Fawkes Night’ .. which when I was a kid was always called .. ’Bonfire Night’.
At this time of year children would roam the streets with homemade effigies of poor old Guy shouting .. “Penny for the Guy!” .. and sometimes chanting the poem …
“Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot”.
The effigies of those ’Guys’ would later be burned on backyard bonfires where dads would let off a few fireworks to the delight of their families.
Today I get the impression that, apart from a few organised displays, Guido and his fellow plotters have long been “forgot” !
What seems to have happened is that they have been overshadowed by that American ‘import’ .. ‘Trick or Treat’ .. No, I don’t mean the traditional festival of Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve), but the plastic pumpkin and mail-order monster event which now fills our supermarket aisles with all sorts of ‘fun and fright’ items marketed only to make ‘monster’ amounts of money for the stores concerned.
Now, I’m not against kids having fun. I just wish that ‘Trick or Treat’ could be ’homemade’ and properly organised in this country as it is in the USA, and that our oldest traditions should also bring pleasure to future generations.
You never know, Guy Fawkes Night could catch on once again when the fast food giants discover that Guido reveals in his recently found diary that he and his mates stopped off on their way to blow up Parliament for a ‘blowout’ of finger lickin’ pheasant and mead milkshakes at ‘Ye Kentish Fried Capon’ before calling in at Ye Olde McMutton ‘trot-thru’ to pick up some ‘Big Boar’ burgers, Frankish fries, and, not forgetting …
… a box of matches !
Ginnie said
It’s a whole different world, John. When I was a kid we’d go to maybe 10 houses at the most and would have to perform before we got our treat … do a trick, recite a poem, etc. The grownups had the upper hand then and we thought it was just fine.