Well its hard to imagine now because our attitudes have change so much since back then ,But as you all know and would remember there was time when the backyards were full of Bon fires.
Sky Rockets and Ball shooters were shooting off ! out of the backyards all around the country.
Not to mention the Bungers, Thunders and all could be bought at coles all woollies.
Looking back on it now it seems like another world away,, and in many ways it was like giving gun powder to marauding Apes, but in other ways it was a fun family night.

Well , it just so happens that one kid has saved his crackers from all those years ago to keep as memory .

Im sure there are some ive saved you remember too.
And yes ! They still smell great !

Note the bunger! In the

Fireworks were still legal in the ACT till a few years back. It just amazed me that even then people were doing stupid things with them and eventually brought their downfall to the ACT as well. Its just such a shame that people can be so stupid to spoil such a wonderful thing. I enjoyed many a time with my dad setting off the fireworks in the backyard at home.

People in the USA on July 4th use these to celebrate the 4th of July. And they are legal in a few places. But you still hear them where they are not legal. An NFL football player damaged his hand with a firecracker a couple years ago.

They are all very old ,its hard to remember, But I would say 40 years.
In my last house they lived in the glass display cabinet and got lots of comments from folks.

I don't know of any other kid who would have been able to keep their stash of bungers, etc, unlit for a few days let alone 40 years!

Parents had difficulty keeping them hidden until Empire Day. In my family we were prohibited from buying them ourselves so we had to wait for Dad to bring them home on the night, but plenty of schoolmates bought them and let then off all over the place.

I recall the labels on the skyrockets saying 'Light the blue touch paper and retire quickly.'

I note that Asian people in my neighbourhood still manage to get firecrackers and use them on various occasions.

GTC
Hi G, yes it's a long time to save your Crackers. I'm like that .I still have my school Tie and my first pay packet. 40 bucks per week.
A few years ago we let some of the crackers off and some still worked and others were just fizzers.
I wish I had saved a Sky Rocket ,They were one of the first to be banned.
I have good memories of cracker night and I dont remember anybody getting hurt ,other than a small finger burn and in those days they would just put butter on the burn !
Different world !
Pete

I recall the smaller crackers called Palm Trees made excellent bungers for scaring people. My mates and I let one off in South Strathfield one night and it made a much louder noise than usual and about five or six minutes following that we headed for the Cooks River canal as police sirens were getting closer from all directions. Chances are that it was a gun shot that was reported rather than a group of silly buggers with bungers as it was closer to Christmas than Queen's Birthday.

I do miss the bon fires and fire crackers and the smoke-filled air of Queen's Birthday weekend, even after all these years but I can understand why crackers were banned. Far too many kids were being injured and even blinded by tampering with them, making copper bombs with the gun powder or aiming the ones that shoot the fire balls at other people. Converting them to bungers without making them go off was a bit of an art form and a lot of kids got that wrong too.

I think they are still legal in the Northern Territory - but only on Queen's Birthday weekend.

Yes this was the 1950's, before the Nanny State, when life was cheaper!

The trick was to pester your parents to be allowed to build a bonfire, then invite your mates to bring ti-tree branches from the vacant lot across the street. And their stash on the night of course! The next morning the smog was so thick there were no cars on the road and the backyard was thick with shredded brown paper.....

Is anyone old enough to remember the tuppenny bungers? They were the first to be banned. And rightly so on reflection.

We once (emphasis on once) put a tuppenny bunger under an inverted 8 gallon steel paint can. The size of a large bucket. Launched that paint can clean over the house into the street! I guess the experience taught us some respect for those things.

Do you remember the Chinglish on the Flower Pots?

"Put fire to string
Run away"

Since most of the fireworks came from Hong Kong (we only made the pretty ones and the skyrockets in Oz) can you imagine a ship load of fireworks? How DID they get anyone to man it? If a fire broke out on board, things would have got interesting very quickly!

remember the tuppenny bungers?

I sure do and I remember my father landing our garbage can on the garage roof next door when he tied two of them together under it as the conclusion of the night's events. The idea was too see how high it would go, but I guess the rocket science wasn't precise enough. He only performed that particular act the one time, though.

Many a letter box was destroyed by twopenny bungers.

In the USA, cherry bombs, aka M80s, were used to blow up toilets in junior high schools.

A similar event happened at a school I worked at for about eight years on the day of their fete a few years ago. The two responsible for the destruction of a hand basin were frog-marched to the Deputy Headmaster and the events that followed didn't go well for them.

I think they returned to school a couple of weeks later with a lot of homework completed.

I never blew anything up, but I did see some classmates at school with M80's. Thought crossed my mind to tattle on them, but then I thought "What's in it for me? I hate this school too" Other classmates kept quiet as well.

When I was in Year 5 a classmate ratted on me for having throwdowns at school. He got a good bunch of fives the following day, which I also got into strife for but it was worth it.

School !
Gosh the Dim days .I went to a very strict school. Did you do your home work young man ? No sir! Stand up put your hand out.
Wheres your black shoes? At home brother! Stand up put your had out .
Your late again young man and and you smell of cigarettes? Yes sir , put your hand out!

Well it wasn't long before I found the best way out of this was to stay on the Bus of a morning and go to the city or the beach instead. After doing this for some time my family came too grips with the fact that I was not going back so off to work I went.

Cracker night was a fun thing as a kid. I threw a bunch of tom thumbs (I think they were called) under a tree in the dark, not realising the cat was sleeping there. Thunder bungers were used to blow up letter boxes. Throwdowns and catherine wheels were standard fare.

Once I found a skyrocket without the rocket part (so it looked like a small bunger). I rested it on a brick fence and lit it. It shot out of sight in microseconds.

Too bad the killjoys had to put an end to it all.