It\u2019s the 5th of November, so I\u2019ve decided to remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guy Fawkes in a strange thing to celebrate, especially in South Africa. We\u2019ve been a republic for almost 60 years. When I was a kid, and it was still legal, my dad would let off a few small fireworks in the back garden and we\u2019d write words in the air with sparklers. My dad would save one of the firework to set off a few nights later on my birthday \u2013 that was pretty exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were the occasional big events, held on school fields. It was more of an affair \u2013 with food stalls, professional firework displays, and boys (yes, HUGE motivator for a 12-year-old from a girls\u2019 school). One year there was even a beauty contest. These firework displays were all about the \u201cwow\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This morning I woke up to a post on the ratepayers\u2019 association Facebook page about a gunshot that was heard in my neighbourhood last night. It turns out it was a firework. I live in the suburbs. There are actually an alarming number of concerned citizens who report the sound of gunshots in the area. However, no reports of actually shootings. I don\u2019t think that I\u2019d know the difference between a car backfiring and a gunshot myself, so I just choose to ignore the reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did honestly think that I would have some great firework memories to record, but I really don\u2019t. Sparklers are cool. Fireworks cause too much trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the 5th of November, so I\u2019ve decided to remember. Guy Fawkes in a strange thing to celebrate, especially in South Africa. We\u2019ve been a republic for almost 60 years. When I was a kid, and it was still legal, my dad would let off a few small fireworks in the back garden and we\u2019d write words in the air with sparklers. My dad would save one of the firework to set off a few nights later on my birthday \u2013 that was pretty exciting. There were the occasional big events, held on school fields. It was more of an affair \u2013 with food stalls, professional firework displays, and boys (yes, HUGE motivator for a 12-year-old from a girls\u2019 school). One year there was even a beauty contest. These firework displays were all about the \u201cwow\u201d. This morning I woke up to a post on the ratepayers\u2019 association Facebook page about a gunshot that was heard in my neighbourhood last night. It turns out it was a firework. I live in the suburbs. There are actually an alarming number of concerned citizens who report the sound of gunshots in the area. However, no reports of actually shootings. I don\u2019t think that I\u2019d know the difference between a car backfiring and a gunshot myself, so I just choose to ignore the reports. I did honestly think that I would have some great firework memories to record, but I really don\u2019t. Sparklers are cool. Fireworks cause too much trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing-challenge"],"yoast_head":"\n