Blackpool switches off its illuminations for a month ... well, maybe longer, but initially for a month. I’ve never seen Blackpool illuminations. It’s a little bit to do with growing up in Southport. In a snobby sort of way we always considered ourselves a little above Blackpool, altogether classier with our snooty Lord Street shops and fancy shopping arcades. Besides, my father was never one for fairgrounds. We rarely went to Pleasureland in Southport so we were hardly likely to go the a bigger funfair in Blackpool. And as a family we didn’t go to Southport beach, preferring the quieter, and cleaner, Ainsdale beach. And from there you could see Blackpool Tower on a clear day. But you could also see the Welsh hills.
Lord Street now, by the way, is rather sad and run down - not at all a classy place to go shopping any longer. If my mother were still alive she would probably say it’s the result of Southport becoming part of Merseyside - Lancashire no longer!
I’ve only ever been to Blackpool once and that was not really my choice. The sixth form college where I worked organised a staff day out at the end of every year, ostensibly to thank us for our efforts over the year. (That stopped a few years after I retired - cuts meant the college had no spare funds to treat the staff!) We all got in a charabanc and off we went to places like York and Chester, a boat trip on the Mersey in Liverpool, even Southport, and, one year, Blackpool. And so I went finally to Blackpool. But it was July and there were no illuminations. And I didn’t go up the Tower. When you’ve been up the Eiffel Tower, there seems little point in also doing the smaller one in Blackpool.
But the Tower is the one thing that will remain illuminated through the lockdown - a symbol of hope apparently.
Now, what I want to know is whether Vigo still able to be lit up for Christmas. Mayor Abel Caballero has invested a lot of money in his city’s Christmas lights over the last few years and this has attracted masses of visitors, bringing revenue unto the city as people come for short stays in the hotels, eat and drink in the bars and restaurants and ooh! and aah! at the lights after dark. With Spain in a state if emergency and travel restrictions in place, will visiting Vigo’s illuminated streets be a possibility this year?
Bonfire night, tonight, has already been cancelled. Community firework displays are not taking place. Presumably you can only have one in your garden if it’s just the household attending. None of the gatherings of friends and relations like we used to organise years ago when our children were young! Those were the days! Remember, remember, the fifth of November! Ah, nostalgia!
However, I saw somebody buying enormous amounts of potatoes on Wednesday, all the sort of potatoes advertised as good for baking. Either her family eats a lot of spuds or she was planning a baked potato party ... maybe for Bonfire Night! Who knows!
My oldest granddaughter and my daughter both report fireworks being set off over the last week or so in the bits of town where they live. So fireworks are still being bought and sold somewhere.
Here’s an interesting bit of otherwise useless knowledge concerning Bonfire Night:-
Gingerbread men are modelled on Guy Fawkes
After the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, a new tradition spread through England. The biscuit figures sold at fairs were traditionally made in the likeness of Catholic saints, but after Guy Fawkes’ foiled attempt to blow up parliament, the bonfire celebrations that followed featured figures of him. People could now show their support for the Protestant cause by eating the papist villain. Hence, the association of gingerbread with Bonfire Night.
There’s obviously something new to learn every day!
We are still waiting for the results of the US elections. Good ness knows what chaos will ensue but ...
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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