A Coventry Kid's Tale

Chapter 7: Aged 11, Senior School days

Enough of school for now, bonfire night is more interesting. The biggest bonfire was on a bomb site between Vauxhall Street and East Street. The bonfire was built up over a period of weeks until it was 20ft high. On the days leading up to November 5th all the children collected what they could find to burn! Where the settees and armchairs came from nobody asked, for nobody ever threw them out. Sold yes, but not thrown out. One child called Tony sold an armchair to the second hand shop on the corner of Raglan Street and Canterbury Street. When his father came home he found he had nowhere to sit. No wonder Tony joined the army. Anyway, the child saw other children throwing bangers, so he thought he would too. He lit the fuse pulled his arm back and waited for it to "fizz". "BANG", the child's hand was numb for hours. This banger had a short fuse, the child did not try this again for his hand hurt. Next he tried putting a rocket in a tube and aimed it as a gun, lighting the fuse he waited. He aimed his tube, off up the street the rocket went, perfect, but his hand was now black and his jumper burnt. The child had learned his lesson. Now, in a cupboard at home there was a ready supply of aircraft. (They belonged to the something. The something had bought and glued them together over a period of years). The child tied a banger to a plastic aircraft, lit the fuse and then hurled it into the sky. BANG, the plane was shot down into little pieces. This was good fun for the child. So he got more aircraft from the cupboard. Next he tied a rocket to a bigger aircraft, lighting the fuse he hurled that into the sky, ignition, it took off like a rocket (there's a pun there). First the wings fell off then the body melted, the child could not find the rest of the aircraft for it had flown away. This was extremely good fun, but it came to an end when the child went to the cupboard and only a Lancaster bomber was left. Even the child could not destroy this one. Luckily for the child the cupboard was never looked in for another six years.

Another one of the child's ideas was to build a rocket out of empty spray cans. Pulling the ends off he would solder the cans together until they were 3ft tall, next the child would unwrap the paper off the rockets until only the solid gunpowder was left. He then inserted these into the cans (rocket). Bangers were emptied into the rocket as well. After a period of time (two days), the rocket would be ready for launching. Down at his friends house by Days Lane (Pete Renwick), the child set up his rocket. Lighting the fuse all the children ran for cover. The fuse burnt for a long time, and the rocket fell over on the launch pad (this brought on by Sputnik). One of the children ran out to stand it upright again when the rocket started to ignite. He soon ran back for cover, the rocket was now spouting flames 2ft long, when all of a sudden it shot off like a bullet across the ground. Past the toilet block it went, smashing into a wall then ricocheting off and breaking through a fence, next it hit another wall and bounced off back through the fence again, then it headed straight for the children who all ran screaming for their lives, but the rocket fizzled out before it got to them. The child built no more rockets. Too dangerous. However, this did not deter the child from altering the rockets he bought. The child found that his mother's hair curlers (made of aluminium) could be pushed onto the top of a rocket. So, pulling the top off a rocket and exposing the top of the solid gunpowder, he would then push a hair curler onto the rocket. Binding the curler with cotton to cover the holes, then filling it with gunpowder from bangers he would then glue a plastic top on it. Now for lighting it ! Trial and error taught the child how much gunpowder to put in. Some exploded on the ground, some only rose a few feet in the air, but when he got it right the rocket rose slowly in the air to a good height, and then exploded with an almighty bang. His mother never did know what happened to her hair curlers. The child ran out of hair curlers because his mother bought new plastic ones which melted instead of exploding.