Firecracker night

There are moments when nostalgia surprises you over the strangest things. Today it was firecracker night.

It's a pity that we don't have the innocence of firecracker night anymore. When we were growing up, our house backed on to a long council reserve, on which we always built a huge bonfire. Well. It was huge to little kids, anyway. Family friends would come over, and we'd all stand around the fire in our plastic parkas, hoping they didn't melt while we toasted our marshmallows. Then we'd all gather around for the fireworks display.

There were all sorts of exciting fireworks to be seen. The smaller ones would come packed in long, thin cardboard cylinders covered in brightly coloured labels. There would always be one wide, stumpy cylinder that held the grand finale, the biggest firecracker for the end of the night. There were also Bungers, catherine wheels, screamers, all sorts of banging and flash for that special night of the year.

Dad would set up a tall-ish metal post with a bit of coathanger wire attached, on which he'd hang the Catherine wheels. They'd always fly off 5 seconds after ignition, and the whole extended family would run around in panic, hoping that the spinning cracker wouldn't attach itself to their clothes.

Then there were the rockets. Dad would set them on top of a sawn-off log, and we'd all stand back to watch it take off with a WHUMP. Sometimes they were screamers, and we'd use our fingers as industrial ear protection. By the end of the night, our ears were always ringing.

In the lulls between crackers, when Dad would be fumbling with the torch to find the next explosive, we'd pick up the sparklers and try to light them in the bonfire. Singed eyebrows later, we'd stand up and write our names over and over in the dark. Then Dad would be ready, and another one would go off to a small crowd of "Ooohs" and "Aaahs".

Little matchbox-like containers held the Throwdowns, which did nothing other than create industrial deafness in the young. They were small paper cylinders with a target on the front that contained little bits of powder and small black stones to help create the big cracking sound when you threw them to the ground. They were occasionally used to scare the cat, and we heard that the "naughty kids" threw them at other kids. For us, though, they just made gunpowder stains on the front path.

We loved firecracker nights.