Bonfire Neet

[paul mann]

Can anybody mind bonfire neet when it was fun - when wi raided each others bonfires for wood?

Tha were nae pumpkins aroond then but wi had bagie lanterns. Did wi cahll them bagies or snaggies or both?

[Maggie/915]

The cemetery bonfire was always rather impressive.

Even after the wood had been stolen.

Guess maybe a certain author may have been bringing wood back from other woodpiles.

[keith lockey]

Can anybody mind bonfire neet when it was fun - when wi raided each others bonfires for wood?

Tha were nae pumpkins aroond then but wi had bagie lanterns. Did wi cahll them bagies or snaggies or both?

We called turnips snaggies, Paul. Cut some eyes and a mouth in it and stick a candle in then stand outside the Terrier waiting for the drunks to put their hands in their pockets. I also remember an incident in our cul-de-sac with fireworks. We stuck a rocket in a milk bottle and lit the blue touch paper. Just as it was about to take off skyward the bottle toppled over and the rocket went straight into the opposite house's window frame instead. Houston, we have a problem.

Edited November 1, 2013 by keith lockey

[John Fox (foxy)]

We used to cook tetties on the bonfire and its funny how they tasted better than the ones I get now from the wife and her Bosch built in Fan Assisted Auto Clean Combi oven with Auto Timer Integral Lamps and "Oh" Howld On Here She's Coming.....

[keith lockey]

One of the things I remember is sparklers. No matter how many times you were told you still managed to pick them up by the wrong end. Then there was the next morning when you went to the shops and there were rocket shafts sticking up all over the ground - like Sioux Indian arrows in the westerns.

[Maggie/915]

I suppose there could be a community bonfire somewhere in Bedlington.

Why let Morpeth Rugby club have the monopoly!

Not the same as your own fire.

I wonder if the coal fires of our past make us all nostalgic.

[Symptoms]

We often used to go and set light to bonfires being assembled by other lads elsewhere in Bedders ... a good time to strike was a couple of nights in advance as the stacks were often guarded the night before.

Penny for the Guy usually allowed us enough to buy supplies of 'penny bangers' (about pencil thickness x 3" long) and 'tuppenny bangers' (same length but 1/2" dia and usually a maroon colour) - our supplier was Adamson's sweet shop in Ridley Terrace, just around the corner from the Red Lion. Some years we didn't even bother to make a Guy ... one of the lads would dress in old togs and slump in one of our boggies and the drunks coming out of the Red Lion didn't twig.

KeithL is correct about turnips being called snaggies or snags. I often annoy Mrs Symptoms by calling most root vegetables 'snags' and she responds by calling me a "working class Geordie lout" - always a laugh!

Edited November 2, 2013 by Symptoms

[Eileen]

Were baggies white turnips and snaggies purple? I can still remember that smell, you dont get it from pumpkins. Happy times.

[mercuryg]

I suppose there could be a community bonfire somewhere in Bedlington.

Why let Morpeth Rugby club have the monopoly!

Not the same as your own fire.

I wonder if the coal fires of our past make us all nostalgic.

There used to be one at the Terriers but I believe the insurance costs make it untenable these days.

[paul mann]

I mind the mad buggers at the bottom end of Westlea who'd fight each other with roman candles for fun.

Like the image of the rocket sticks poking up oot the grund the day after - very literary.

[wonky]

ayeayeaaye, back in the day it was fun,,before corporate events and when we all had far less sense. fireworks in the phone box and stolen diesel and petrol were my favorites..we once played football with a burning couch cushion and it was great fun until mad reggie headbutted it and all the foam rubber droplets clung to his face,,that put a bit of a damper on the evening and all his mother could say was do you know how much this stuff costs as she was rubbing stork margarine into his peart !! bonfire night in Ireland is in june and last year I was handing out welding rods as sparklers to the kids in my street..oh how I laughed as they tried to light them..lol

[Canny lass]

Were baggies white turnips and snaggies purple? I can still remember that smell, you dont get it from pumpkins. Happy times.

I Think you're right there Eileen. Bagies were White and quite small - more like a giant sized radish. Had a distinct 'peppery' taste as well. LOOK NO UNDERLINING!!!!!!!!

[mickypotts]

As aah can recollect, Snaggies were pretty big Turnips, aah used ti gan Snaggie topping at Dinsmores Farm just afore yi got te Hartford, and Bagies were smaller with cabbagy leaves, Rutabaga is wot they were, swedish turnips, the farm had them as weel.

Les Dinsmore wes a fine lad, he was in my class at westridge