{"id":3377,"date":"2015-11-09T08:30:39","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T08:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2015-11-09T09:53:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T09:53:24","slug":"the-joy-of-fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3377","title":{"rendered":"Light my fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New<\/a>

New Year Fireworks\/GDJ\/clipart<\/p><\/div>\n

As I sit here, the world outside is banging and crashing with the wonderful sound of safe explosives. The night sky is bursting with sparks and flashes. Fireworks \u2013 I love them and can\u2019t get enough of them. When I was a kid we only saw them once a year, on November 5th<\/sup>, so there was a huge build up to Guy Fawkes\u2019 night. Public displays were rare, and my abiding memory is of watching my father lining up rockets in empty milk bottles and lighting one, then shouting to us all to stand back, and our heads craned upwards as we gazed at the rocket\u2019s spectacular trajectory. Only when all the sparks had faded from our vision did the process begin again. Forget multiple simultaneous launches; this was a linear progress with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end, which always followed the same pattern.<\/p>\n

After every third rocket we got a Catherine Wheel; now these were fun, as there was always the possibility that Dad might not have secured them to the tree, and they might spin off into the night, increasing the sense of danger and risk that my parents were trying so hard to control. Actually, in all the years of garden festivities I only remember this happening once. We stood at the other end of the garden, clutching our sparklers, the only thing we were allowed to touch.\u00a0 The evening always ended with baked potatoes and baked apples – delicious.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, we get treated to displays almost as soon as the clocks go back and the days start to shorten, and there are plenty of occasions to celebrate in wonderful multi-cultural Britain. As well as November 5th<\/sup> we have Divali, New Year\u2019s Eve and Chinese New Year, to name a few, and for good measure we Londoners get fireworks over the Thames at the Mayor\u2019s summer festival.<\/p>\n

There are so many things I didn\u2019t know or had forgotten about fireworks, so here are a few:<\/p>\n