Absolutely! And did we love them!
We either lit the fuses at the end, threw them on the ground and they went off one at a time over the next few seconds OR we unwound the string tying them together, held the base between thumb-nail and first finger-nail, lit the fuse and bravely held our arm out, turning faces away and let it go BANG… I mean POP!!! LOL!!!
Yes indeed. As November rolled along it was time for cracker night (Well, the official title was Guy Fawkes Night) and every country town had a bonfire with sky rockets and crackers of all sizes.
There very few pyrotechnicians to give the flash co-ordinated displays that the big cities got so a few fathers were delegated to light the blue tapers and step back.
Of course many families also had their own cracker nights as well as the town one.
I grew up in Scotland where we looked forward to Guy Fawkes night every November. Every paper shop would sell boxes of Fireworks and the back courts would be exploding for weeks before the big night. Bonfire night was a family affair and only dad was allowed to light the fireworks. Happy days. When I see the buffoons they have in Parliament over in London I think it a terrible shame that old Guy didn’t succeed!
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