nimbus2

When you think of the joy and sastifaction fireworks gave us when we were young it's incredible, and quite Orwellian, that the general philosophy of Big Brother is that such pleasures are unhealthy and not needed. As a teenager I earnt money with three jobs - gardening for a rich estate, a paper round and looking after a neighbour's dog (I eventually adopted the dog). When the firework season arrived I was ready with cash in hand to start buying my favourite brands The pleasure and pride of buying a box of bangers. a few rockets and maybe a few sparklers for my sister - such pleasures are now removed by the Nanny State. At this time these things made my life meaningful. Being able to buy and let off fireworks as a young teenager gave me memories I now cherish, even though I am now a husband and father.

Cheers Firefiend! With those photos you have just opened an otherwise closed chapter of my youth. There are the roundels I remember, though I can't pinpoint the exact firework. I take my hat off to you, for your expertise and consideration.

Thanks for posting those great photos, Firefiend. You certainly know your vintage fireworks. Do you remember a helicopter type firework that had thin wooden wings printed with the red, white and blue RAF roundels? I think it was made by Standard but I cannot remember it's name.

When I was young the names of fireworks often had a certain flair for historical things. Only a few decades separated the end of the Second World War and the time when I grew up as a young lad in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That last Great War left a peculiar legacy that somehow found it's way onto firework labels. I remember Standard's "Spitfire" and Brocks "Tracer Stream". Excelsior had a banger called "Dam Buster" and Rainbow had a small firework called "Pathfinder". And who can forget Benwell's banger "Mighty Atom"? This unreliable banger rarely lived up to it's namesake but it did at least refer to a new age in weaponry. Alongside Benwell's ominously named banger goes "Polaris", a medium-sized rocket made by Pains. This rocket was not paying homage to the North Star - but to a certain famous missile launched from a British submarine. The design on the rocket even showed how it worked, with a sylistic simplicity that stands out as a hallmark of firework label art.
Those were the days, when small fireworks still carried not only a British stamp but also a residue of patriotic emotion.

That is the most moving story I have ever read on the forum and I want to thank you, Spectrum, for sharing it. It has a spiritual quality that reflects a bygone age, when people really cared about each other. Cheers.