From a show I was watching last night about vampires: "Like feeding, sex is better with a willing partner." One would assume, anyway.

My family is big on get-togethers. My mother and her siblings, for my entire life, have gotten together every Sunday for dinner. Besides that, we get together for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Mockey's* birthday, Easter Sunday, and Hallowe'en. Not all of these holiday get-togethers include the same family (some are Mum's siblings, some are her cousins), but they all involve at least twenty people. That's your backstory.

*Mockey is the name (her given name is Margaret) of my mother's aunt. She was the youngest of her family (nine children) and never married and still lives in the old (over a century) homestead. She's more like a grandmother to me than my own grandmother (my father's mother) ever was. Her and my mother have a mother/daughter relationship, given that my mother's own mother died when Mum was seventeen. The get-togethers for her birthday, New Year's Day, Easter Sunday, and Hallowe'en all take place at her house. Last night being Hallowe'en, obviously you know where Im going with this.

So every Hallowe'en we all (which includes us, and Mum's cousins) all get together at Mockey's to watch fireworks and eat fuarag. These traditions are obviously old. Anyway, after that there's usually sandwiches and sweets and tea, that type of thing. You dont leave hungry, trust me. So last night, we're out in the yard putting off fireworks and a bunch of kids (13 or 14 years old) went through the yard and into the park. A couple of minutes later they light a firework and kinda aim it at us (group of at least twenty people). So they all start yelling at the kids and we resume our show. A few minutes later the kids light another one and into the yard it comes almost hitting one of the littler kids. That was it, the police were called, and they came in their SUV and went into the park after the kids who, by the time they got there, had moved further down into the park. Then a police cruiser came into the yard to talk to Mum's cousin John who knows most of the cops in town anyway because he's a firefighter and whatnot. It was quite exciting.

When they lit the big one, our "grand finale", so to speak, I reacted by ducking behind Jenelle and Paul totally soccer mom'ed her and covered her face. That was hilarious, actually. All in all it was a really fun night. It makes me kinda sad that it was the first time I had gone in a few years, due to having to do things with the ex. If Im with someone next year he'll be going with me.

2 Comments:

 James said...

On bonfire night a few years ago, the kids opposite started firing rockets in the general direction of our house. They missed the house, but not the front trees, which caught fire! Luckily the fire was put out before it got out of control.

Even though the link says Fuarag is a British custom, I’ve never heard of it before in my life!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005 6:06:00 a.m.  

 eye candy said...

Speaking of fires, the house next door to my aunt's is renovating and a spark from our fireworks happened to ignite a rubbish pile. It wasnt anything major, a few of the men went and stomped it out, but it was amusing.

Fuarag (or forak as we call it), is Scottish I believe. At least, its the Scottish part of my family that does it. And dont worry, I've never found anybody who's heard of it before.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005 9:18:00 a.m.  

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