Bradford Lad: Wizard Time
As children put away their Halloween costumes and fireworks still bang and crackle in merry old England in the aftermath of the annual Bonfire Night celebrations, Mike Coatesworth recalls days when kids could not afford such treats.
Well children have enjoyed the highlights of autumn, Halloween and bonfire night, and now they are looking forwards to Christmas.
Christmas goods are already on sale. Children are already putting their orders in to Santa. Blimey the event is getting earlier every year! And I for one don't like to be asked what present I would like. All the fun is taken out of the season when you know what you are going to get. I much prefer a nice surprise.
When I was a lad, we couldn’t afford costumes for Halloween. A child with a special costume was classed as coming from a posh family. Working class folk had to spend their money on putting food on the table. We wore old coats around our shoulders, and the cheapest of cheap masks. I don't recall ever going to a Halloween party.
Kids of my era had to be more enterprising. As bonfire night approached, my brothers and I would go around collecting empty pop bottles. We could get money back if we returned them to the shops from which they had been bought. We also collected syrup tins, aware that that we would get a penny for a small tin and tuppence for a tin from the owner of the local paint shop.
The money we got was put into a kitty. At the same time we would make sure that our gyder (a small cart) was in good working order. We made an effigy of Guy Fawkes, then fastened it securely to the gyder, ensuring that Guy was sitting upright. We tied a cup to the front of the gyder, hoping people would place money in it. Then we went around asking for a penny for the guy. Actually we were hoping that grown-ups would give us a thrupenny bit.
As bonfire night neared we counted up the money we had collected. If we were very lucky we could afford to buy a five-bob box of fireworks, along with some cinder toffee, and a couple of parkin pigs.
Our precious box of fireworks would be safely put away until the night of November 5.
To build our bonfire we collected unwanted wood from wherever we could find it, usually in old houses were going to be demolished.
Nowadays parents take their children to the shops, their to buy them Halloween cosutmes and boxes of fireworks. But do they have as much fun as we did back then?
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