"A PENNY FOR MY GUY"
By © J. A. Elliott 2023
During the 1950’s and early 60’s, it was an era of innocence, an age where we could play all over Mansfield, my home town, in relative safety, even for the very young.
There were fewer cars on the roads back then, so, street games for us kids were the norm. Where football was not restricted to eleven players a side, sometimes we’d have fifteen or even twenty; other times there’d be just five a side. Both girls and boys played the street games together, which often lasted all day, well at least till tea time, when mum’s throughout the area, would screech out our names to come home, and give us five minutes to do so or else.
It was during these carefree autumn days, that our attentions turned to making our annual Guy Fawkes, so we could go do penny for the guying in town.
It was quite funny really, as we’d scrounge old clothes, and stuff them full with newspapers. The guys we made, often looked smarter than we did in our play clothes. Sometimes we had a bought mask for our guy, now that was a luxury, but mostly we simply drew a face on some cardboard, it really didn’t matter, but the more effort that was put into making our guys, meant we’d probably get more money in our little pots. More money meant more fireworks, (mostly bangers) or more sweets we could buy from our local corner shop.
As kids, we were very competitive when it came to our guys, we would be in groups of two’s and three’s, and set off to gain the best pitch’s in town, which were usually outside cinemas or local pubs. My favourite spot was outside the Empire cinema, at the corner of Sutton Road and Rosemary Street, which was great because of the number of people passing to go into town as well as the cinema queues outside. There would be several groups of us kids, penny for the guying, so competition was stiff, and the commissionaire would sometimes chase us off if we became too much of a nuisance to the queues of adults, waiting to see their favourite movie. No such thing as Multiplex back then, but you did get two films, the main feature and a lesser supporting ‘B’ movie.
All this effort over our surreal manikin only to be thrown onto a bonfire when it came to November 5th. But it was all good fun, and our rivalries forgotten once we were stood or sat, around the blazing fire on a cold autumnal night, wrapped in our thickest coats, hand knitted scarves, gloves and balaclava’s, clutching our toffee apples and waiting for our traditional supper of backed potatoes, that had earlier been wrapped in foil, and placed strategically around the burning embers before us. The whoosh, crackle and bangs, as the fireworks sped off into the smoky night sky, the ahhh’s from the crowd as rockets burst into explosive colours above us.
The communal spirit warmed everyone and brought us all closer together, friends and neighbours alike. Sadly much of this spirit has gone from bonfire night. The magic of those happy days, all but a distant memory now. Penny for the guying is no longer allowed on our streets, it’s classed as begging, mind, you wouldn’t think our streets were safe enough today for our children. Still I can always look back on those simpler carefree days of yesteryear with nostalgia, happy in the knowledge that I was glad to have grown up during the 50’s and 60’s in my little Nottinghamshire town..
FOOTNOTE
Tin foil (as in aluminium foil, literally made from tin in those early days) had been around for quite a while - we know it was used for cooking as early as the late 19th century. But aluminium foil (which is often called “tinfoil”) was first manufactured by Dr. Lauber, Neher & company in Switzerland in about 1910. It was believed to have been used extensively during WW2 to block and confuse the newly developed radar signals.
Brought to you by https://thecorner4women.com together with our sister website http://www.nicheebookcollections.com and our growing e-book library available FREE, through our Newsletter sign up page here:-
No comments:
Post a Comment