I looked up the Calendar of Cultural and Religious
Dates in Australia on the web and was so surprised
to see how many various Days for celebration there
were that were important to people from various
ethnic backgrounds. Then I remembered one particular
day that our entire street used to celebrate back
in the 1970s when I was growing up and I wonder how
many other people may remember that day. "Bonfire Night?"
November 5th.

Our entire street used to take part in building a huge
bonfire in the paddock at the bottom of the street. We'd
collect anything that would burn and pile it up into a
huge stack. Then at night all of us kids would have our
paper bags full of crackers like Catherine wheels,
double-bungers, jumping jacks, sky rockets, and we'd light
them and have fun with the bonfire set alight.

Of course that event was cancelled for safety reasons.
However, I can't remember anyone getting seriously burned
or hurt. Those were fun times.

It is deemed important that no child should be placed at risk with fireworks.

It is preferable that children have 'safer' risk-taking options, such as drugs and gang membership.

Similarly, no young teen should ever be allowed to plink paper in the backyard with a Daisy air rifle.

People are very good at restricting the behaviour of others and always for their own good - which we can take as read, of course.

Dear leoj,

Talking about fireworks.

I remember witnessing an incident when my older
brother managed to persuade his younger cousin
too stick a thick firecracker in the
younger cousins ear. My brother was about to light
the cracker in his cousin's ear when his dad walked
in and stopped the near catastrophe. Imagine what
would have happened if these kids would have succeeded.

"Banjo Paterson .. worked for a while driving ambulances for the Australian Voluntary Hospital. In 1915 he returned home and was commissioned in the AIF and sent to the Middle East. Experienced with horses, he was promoted to major and commanded the Australian Remount Squadron."
never knew that, interesting.

Foxy,

How does your brother check the fuel in the mower, the keenness of tools, or whether the power is really on?

The neighbour was outside in the dew this morning, in thongs using a spade. His children are obese. They spend their time indoors. That is safer than riding bikes.

Electric hedge trimmers tell you when the wire is cut . They stop. Fitting a new power plug is a worry if the 3 point pin is attached to the live wire. Luckily I noticed.