Once upon a time (1605), Guy Fawkes and friends tried to blow up King James I, the royal family, and assorted aristocracy and parliament members. This Gunpowder Plot failed, however; their unsuccess was rewarded with executions all round; and Guy Fawkes was hanged, an event which is gleefully commemorated (okay, that or that the plot was foiled) to this day via the burning of effigies across the UK on Bonfire Night, November 5, or whatever surrounding weekend is most convenient.
We went to Shugborough Estate, our favourite, to join in the festivities (complete with carnival rides!). We accidentally timed it to arrive almost exactly at bonfire lighting time.
MC/DJ-type person on the back of a flat-bed: “WHO’S READY FOR THE BONFIRE?”
Assembled crowd: ” … [crickets].”
Crowd reticence notwithstanding, the fire was indeed lit, and we watched for the flames to reach the helpless effigy atop the 3-story lumber pile. We were also accidentally safely upwind, which was lucky because it was quite windy and when the guy (as he’s known in the business) caught fire, the newspaper he was stuffed with made a mad, flaming dash for the nearby trees and crowd.
After the main bonfire structure collapsed, we wandered around looking for candied apples and instead found:
1 cup of hot spiced cider
1 Staffordshire oatcake with cheese and peppers (a traditional Staffordshire specialty, whose recipe the handful of places still making them is not sharing)
2 freshly made donuts
1 Diet Coke
1 bag candy floss (aka cotton candy, whose purchase was necessitated by lack of candied apples)
Once the fire had burned down to embers of an appropriate glow, it was time for the second highlight of the night: fireworks! My favorite, and there weren’t any on the 4th of July (weird, huh). The fireworks themselves were similar to those at Ft. Vancouver, only a) there weren’t as many, b) they were lit manually about 100 yards across the lawn from us, which meant that c) most of them burst directly overhead, d) no one was singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” (though Stephan suggested that I start), and e) there was no Snickers salad. It was a little intense with them so close, particularly when the shells started going rogue. And I don’t know what happened to the little bat who unadvisedly flew directly under a chrysanthemum type—I hope his sonar still works.
Fireworks complete and crowd primarily dispersed, we joined the stragglers around what was left of the fire. We were standing as close as we could and stand the heat, about 10 feet away, and it was hot enough to evaporate the rain before it actually got us wet. A lovely end to a lovely evening.
And then the dud that had landed in the bonfire finally got hot enough to explode. Good times! It was only a single shell, and it didn’t see clear to hit or otherwise maim anyone, but we decided that we were done.
In conclusion: an overall good experience, aside from the more-disturbing-than-expected burning of someone at the stake. It was also a nice change to not have to wait for fireworks until 10 p.m. or midnight. Fireworks at 6:30: still plenty of time to make it home and beat Stephan at Monopoly.
