Yiz is all bringing me down memory lane and I remember our old house in Fleetwood road in Willesden
and it only had an outside toilet.
I was only young about 3 or 4 but I remember watching some older lads collecting fer Guy Fawkes night on November 5th in London.
Wow ! I thought "Money fer Jam" !
All ya had to do was make up a Dummy (Guy) from whatever and put some clothes, a mask and a hat on it, stick it in to a pram
and wheel it up to the street corner and shout "Penny fer the Guy" to everyone that passes and they give ya money.
The year after, I had me mothers old pram that me and my elder brother had been through and I had probably the best dummy 'Guy' in the whole of London, I had spent weeks making it and it was a Prize.
Myself and my brother brought the pram and 'Guy' to our street corner on 'Guy Fawkes' evening/night shouting "Penny fer the Guy", we Fookin cleaned up ! My First scam ever, aged 4 and I Loved it !
But I knew that the tradition was that the 'Guy' was to be burned on a bonfire that night, but no way was anyone burning my Prize 'Guy' and as soon as the first person who donated asked me where my 'Guy' was being burned, I legged it fer home with pockets full !
I got Three good 'Guy Fawkes' nights out of that dummy and one of the biggest disappointment's of my life was my Mother not allowing me to bring the dummy 'Guy' back home to Ireland with me in 1972.
In hindsight she was spot-on !