Chumping

My darling wife said to me tonight, "Have you got your chumps ready for tomorrow night."

Chumps for anyone who doesn't know, are the materials that make up your annual Guy Fawkes bonfire. They can be anything from old newspapers to railway sleepers. If it's combustible, it's a chump.

The word chump brought me back to when I was a young lad. We always had a bonfire on the 5th of November on the field at the back of our houses. All of my mates and myself would be out chumping for weeks before the big event. We'd knock on everybody's door asking if they had any chumps. Usually it was a pile of newspapers but if we got lucky it could be an old sideboard or some doors that someone was chucking out. We'd transport the chumps back to the bonfire site on a kart made of two planks and some old pram wheels.

We would always guard our ever growing bonfire from marauding gangs of boys from other parts of the estate. We'd build a den inside the bonfire, were we could keep a watch from. (Not a sensible idea on reflection.) There was always some looting from ours at times when there was no one on guard, but then again we would be looting from other bonfires, so it sort of evened itself out.

About a week before the event, we'd get some old clothes and stuff them full of paper to make a "Guy". We would once more go knocking on doors asking for "A penny for the Guy," at the same time pointing to a pathetic looking thing we'd propped up in the Kart. Mind you we were proud of our "Guy" especially when he took centrepiece on top of the bonfire.

I'll be having a modest fire in the back garden tomorrow night and setting off a few fireworks.

The kid's will love it.

The "Guy" won't!