Fire on the Common

And so, two years later than the last time I did it, and nearly two weeks after the event itself, I get to write a blog about one of my favourite annual spectacles. GUY FAWKES NIGHT.
This year, we took in a display on Saturday 6^th (due to our other excursion on Bonfire Night itself, as outlined by me yesterday).
We chose a medium-sized affair in a fair-sized village in Suffolk, rather than an overcrowded, overwhelming big city extravaganza where it takes an hour to leave the car park and the queue for the toilets is huge.
Our venue-of-choice was a playing field on the edge of a large farm, and was a fundraiser for the local scouts group, who were in attendance as ‘hired help’ selling raffle tickets and directing people around the site. It was JUST the kind of fireworks do that I love. Low-key, a couple of hundred people, a modest-but-meaningful display, the smell of fatty hot dogs in the air and plenty of smiling faces on lots of local families. The only thing from my ‘List Of Ingredients For The Perfect Bonfire Night’ that was missing was soup, but that can be forgiven when everything else was so enjoyable.
I can’t even tell you why it is that I find these things so lovely, but I do. Maybe it’s the shared sense of spectacle, or the camaraderie of the community, but I just love the feeling of being outside on a cold Winter’s night, surrounded by like-minded souls and wrapped up warm against the crisp air, a hint of palpable excitement wafting through the crowd as we all wait for Jim the farmer to light the first firework and give us 10 minutes of colourful respite from reality. It’s just lovely, and I am so, SO glad it wasn’t cancelled again!
Lockdowns were an absolute shitter, for many reasons, but I think I can honestly say that seeing Bonfire Night scuppered by Covid was the worst part of it all for me. I know that makes me seem petty and childish, and highlights how little the pandemic caused me problems, but I’m probably not alone. It’s the little things in life that make a difference, and when those little things are denied us, we are not ourselves and we struggle to cope with the big stuff. I’m only now realising how much that is true, and maybe that’s why November 6^th felt so needed and so special.

RC 17-11-21