A Letter from John Quinn

August 2023

Dear Paddington Then & Now,

Thanks for having a great website! You bring wonderful memories back to so many people. I enjoy the posts and the interactions they create! Paddington has always been part of my life and that of so many others.

I am writing today to relate something I enjoyed as a kid growing up in Paddington… Guy Fawkes night!

In the ’40s and ’50s, all of us kids looked forward to Guy Fawkes night in November. Not sure of our parents were so keen on it…

We would start getting ready a couple of weeks before the big day, after we’d saved up to get our crackers. We had to get the bonfire ready, too… We gathered branches and grass, and built a large pile near the chook house in the backyard near the Lower Cairns Tce back street.

We stuffed old clothes with grass to make our Guy Fawkes, and put him at the top of the pile, ready to burn. Then, on Guy Fawkes night in November, we’d be ready to go!

We had Tom Thumbs, Sky Rockets, Jumping Jacks, Roman Candles, sparklers, Bungers, Double Bungers, Cannons, Catherine Wheels and Pin Wheels.

It was bigger than the EKKA in our minds!

So, when the time came, I had to tie up my pet sheep in the front yard at the Charteris St end so he wouldn’t catch on fire. Then we would light the fire and start letting off the crackers.

It was the same on the other side of our back street in Lower Cairns Tce, where the Germain kids were doing the same thing. All around the suburb, you could hear the commotion.

We would sit around watching Guy Fawkes burn at the top of the fire. Then it was over for another year.

Of all the years we did this, there was only one year when we had a problem… It was either 1949, or 1950, I can’t remember exactly, but I will never forget the night when it all went wrong!

That year, a man named Benny, who lived in Hayward Street at the Plunkett Street corner, gave my friend, John Dunne, and myself something to set off on Guy Fawkes night. Benny was in the army during the war, and still serving then.

He gave John and me an Aldershot Grenade to set off.

Benny told us to be careful and not get close to it when we set it off because it could blow up. So John and I decided to put it halfway between John’s place on Hayward St, and my place at 34 Charteris St - a little bit down from the corner of Great George St.

The thing was about the size of a coconut, and round with a wick thing on top - I have since found out that it was made at a munitions factory in England during WWII and used for training purposes - so it wasn’t a toy like we thought it was…

Anyway, about teatime, we set it up and started the wick burning and ran for our lives to watch it. We saw it starting to shake, then it started to roll down the street, past Blaxland’s house, past Nolan’s house, and past Norris’s house. Then past John Dunne’s house on the corner, and across Hayward St over the gutter. It stopped against the front gate of the old lady’s house at 49 Hayward St.

Then there was a big explosion that blew the gate off and started a big fire burning the fence. Boy, did we get into trouble!

Our fathers had to rebuild the fence for the lady. We got a visit from Sergeant Hefferan and his police dog. I got more ‘Our Fathers’ and ‘Hail Marys’ than I could count when I told Father Masterson the next Saturday… and we were not allowed to do Guy Fawkes Night again.

Everyone in Paddington knew about ‘THOSE TWO BLOODY KIDS!’

I guess it could have been a lot worse as the old lady had a ramp from the gate to her front door. We were lucky it didn’t go through the front gate and along the ramp before it blew up! I guess we were lucky we didn’t kill ourselves that night!

But Wow! What a night!

Hopefully, the statute of limitations will apply after all these years! (I checked for advice on that with my good friend, Margaret-Anne, and she thinks I should be okay).

PS I can’t repeat what Benny said when he found out

Well, Paddington, I hope you found my little story interesting. There are lots of stories from those days. Paddington was a wonderful place to grow up. We learned so much.

Take care, kind regards and love you all,

John Quinn