Nostalgia: Capital have managed to enjoy a dazzling Guy Fawkes celebration

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 10:52

BACK in the heady days before health and safety, the idea of keeping fireworks away from small children appears not to have occurred to the Evening News photographer.

These days, youngsters are lucky to get a look-in as the fireworks are kept locked away in secure boxes, but to mark the build up to Guy Fawkes Nght in 1967, Joan and Donna Pattie were allowed to get their hands on this huge box of Standard fireworks.

Ironically, the three and five-year-old sisters were pictured in the paper alongside a reminder of the dangers of careless handling of fireworks from Secretary of State for Scotland, William Ross.

He warned readers not to let children play with fireworks on their own, and to make them follow the correct drill if they were to light them for themselves.

The day's most important traditions remain unchanged, however. Then, as now, youngsters across the city began to stockpile wood ahead of the big day to ensure a decent blaze on Bonfire Night.

Down at Silverknowes in 1964 these lads appear to have a fine haul, and even got a small blaze going ahead of the night as a "dress rehearsal" for the main event.

A fabulous blaze in St Leonard's shows that a decent bonfire can throw flames almost as high as the neighbouring tenements, and there is a fine row of welly boots on display at Canaan Lodge for a 1958 celebration.

In fact, the fashions were certainly on the practical side in days gone by.

As well as the wellies, the children who gathered at Redford Barracks in 1968 were sporting a particularly smart selection of balaclavas.

The Scots Guards and Queen's Own Highlanders put on the display for wives and families, with the audience kept safe behind a high chain link fence.

By 1984, it seems the fashion was for jeans to be rolled up over the top of your boots, and – of course – the snorkel parka was ubiquitous.

These youngsters at Linlithgow Rugby Club in Mains Park had obviously been tempted to turn their back on the bonfire to show off their sparklers.

And in Westfield, Gorgie, in 1979, onlookers must have been confident that the wind wouldn't change direction as they gathered close to this fountain of flame to watch the sparks fly.