Remember the time we could go and buy a penny banger from the corner store or try to light a damp squib – or watched in awe as our dad lit a Roman Candle, spun the Catherine Reel on the garden fence before using a milk bottle to launch a Snowflake rocket aloft to much oo’s and ahhh’s’
The occasion is celebrated (or rather remembered) on the 5th November. On this date, in 1605, a group of Roman Catholics tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament, with the government, King James I, his Queen and their son.
On the 18th November 1998 we spent a night expecting a ‘free’ firework display of a meteor shower in the wake of comet Tempel-Tuttle. This event happens only once in every 33 years. To many the event turned out to be very much a ‘damp squib’, especially after all the publicity and sky watching.