Children Deserve Cracker Night
Justin Sheedy wrote:
We were all told that fireworks were dangerous and should only be fired by professionals.
Yeah? Well at least I never set fire to any buildings. Perhaps in Clover Moore's increasingly desperate attemtps to copy Melbourne, next year she can have the Sydney Opera House set ablaze. It will be perfectly safe as long as no child in the outer suburbs gets to ignite any bungers...
For any young child growing up in the suburbs of 1970s Australia, there were three days of any year that you held as holy. One was your birthday, one was Christmas, one – and by far the most primordially sensual, wondrous and potentially lethal to your young life – was Crackernight....subsequently known as the Queen's Birthday after fireworks sale in NSW was banned 25 years ago.
We were all told that fireworks were dangerous and should only be fired by professionals.
Yeah? Well at least I never set fire to any buildings. Perhaps in Clover Moore's increasingly desperate attemtps to copy Melbourne, next year she can have the Sydney Opera House set ablaze. It will be perfectly safe as long as no child in the outer suburbs gets to ignite any bungers...
posted by Dan at 6:53 AM |
3 Comments:
Ahhh, Crackernight.
I loved it.
Dad used to be in his element as miniature powder monkey! (The powder was in miniature, not Dad!)
Then when I grew up we had crackernight at a friend's place. I have photos. It was fun - noone ever burnt anything down, nor did they blow bits off themselves.
Anyway, I reckon this "fire in the spire" is just a cautionary tale broadcast by the nannies to show us how dangerous fireworks are.
I'd love to have Crackernight back. One problem would be the fireworks, modern fireworks are very very powerful compared to the things I used to buy as a kid. The biggest you could buy was a penny banger, it was loud and strong but all the same it wasn't really that scary. Modern crackers would easily blow a finger off. The same for skyrockets etc. The old skyrockets were cheap and small, the modern ones are huge and extremely powerful. That poor bloke who got killed in Melbourne had one go into his face, can you imagine an old style skyrocket killing anyone? I'd support free sale of fireworks if they were limited to old style less powerful crackers such as Tom Thumbs, Halfpenny Bangers and Penny Bangers etc.
I remember cracker in Melbourne in the late 60's with Tom Thumbs, 2 cent bangers (shorter and thicker than the Penny Bangers. I remember the smell of them and the smell of the smoke that that left behind mmmmmmmm... Nicer than a 2 stroke Outboard running a WOT
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