Forget, Forget the 5th of November....

Sorry to start the week sounding like a curmudgeon, after all I wouldn't want to end up sounding like that Higgsworth chap who writes that pointless column for the Courier every week, but I'll admit it I'm glad that Bonfire Night is over. There I've said it. As a lad I was never over keen on fireworks but at least then they had a certain novelty value since most experiences are fresh when you're growing up. With time fireworks have got bigger, brighter and increasingly loud so I suppose that should have kept my interest levels up. In recent years though I've just grown bored of them and wish they'd just, well, fizzle out. You can hear them from mid October onwards banging away, whirring and crackling until, by November 5th, they have virtually no impact because we've all had both ears full for nearly a month. I wouldn't mind it so much if it was just kept to the night itself. This year there was no excuse since the 5th actually fell on a Saturday and, despite the weather forecast, turned out to be a lovely clear, gently moonlit night. (So why ruin it with a load of unnecessary explosions some might say!) I'd have settled for that though and might even have enjoyed watching them for three minutes or so from the safe and free viewing point of my kitchen window. But oh no! They went on into Sunday and then even last night a few pops and whizzes and bangs could be heard across Tonbridge. Fireworks might be a bit of traditional fun for some but, I suspect, they've become yet another excuse to have a party and get drunk for many more people who probably aren't even aware of the religious discriminatory history attached to the night. (although I think they still burn an effigy of the Pope in Lewes every year so it ought to be pretty obvious!) Let's face it they are unnecessary, polluting, dangerous, smoke inducing, hazardous, annoying and many other descriptive words of that nature. Can't we just have a year when we forget them altogether?!..