Flaming Barrels of Tar, continued

So one of the first adult barrels we went to was on a narrow street. My friends and I parked ourselves next to a wall with a garage door in it. I thought, this doesn't look too safe. But there were so many people trying to dictate what we did, I didn't say anything. Now when they light the barrels everyone crowds around it. The let it burn a bit, then roll it around to make sure everything inside is burning. Then the first person picks it up and runs. We were fairly close to the lighting of the barrel. The first man picked it up and ran down the street toward us. And just about three feet to my side he decided he needed to pass it off. But this was not an elegant pass in the slightest. He was wobbly on his feet and almost crashed into the wall where my friend Helena was standing two seconds earlier. But Helena can move quickly when she is in peril and was trying to dig through us and out of danger. It was quite hot, but I kept looking at the barrel cause I wanted to know where it was and which direction it was going. Well the men finally made the pass and on his way by us he said "hello!" It was a very funny moment. But so much adrenaline was flowing, it was great. I looked around to make sure everyone was okay and I see Phoebe walking out of the garage. The crowd had pressed her against the door and the latch wasn't too good, so she flew through the door and landed on her back.

Kelly was big on snaking when we went through crowds. She would call "snake", not the best idea in a crowd. Cause if I heard someone calling snake I would run in the opposite direction. But we would link hands and appease her. When we thought that the barrel was done, the one mentioned above, we started to make our way through the crowd to the next one. But we were wrong, very wrong. The barrel was not over, it was still going strong and we were heading right into the action. I was holding on to Lauren's hand and Kelly's. Lauren had made a comment to me earlier that she was always the one being pulled apart in chains like that. And a person got in between us and I couldn't go any further, and she was being pulled and we got folded up, so I let go of her hand. Cause I didn't want to cause pain. I'm pretty good at getting through a crowd and finding people. But not when there is a flaming barrel of tar flying by. Matt, Kelly, and I got separated from our group and stuck in the crowd. I felt the intense heat of the flames as it whizzed by my head. Looking back, it is pretty funny. I do believe that I was laughing and thinking it was amusing while it was happening, but Kelly wasn't she was worried that we wouldn't find them again, which is ridiculous cause we knew where we were parked. We found each other and headed to the Lady's Barrel.

We went to one of the lady's barrels. These barrels are not as big as the men's and therefore less scary in my mind. My friends Lauren and Katie were taking pictures throughout the night. We were in the middle of the street for the lady's barrel. The barrel had just passed and Katie took an awesome picture and I wanted to see it, as did some others around me. So we are looking at the picture telling Katie what a fabulous job she did when Lauren says in a very calm voice "um, guys, it's coming back, like now" We look up just in time to run out of the way and let the barrel through. Let's just say that we didn't look at pictures again for a while.

But part of the problem with the lady's barrels is that a) the ladies are shorter and b) the barrels are smaller, so it is harder to see when they are coming. You kind of have to watch the buildings around you and move when it gets within eye-shot. So yet again, we were not paying attention and we see the flames coming very close, very fast. I run to the curb where Helena is and turn around to see the barrel fly by. I realize that my right hand is not by my body. I look over and there is a guy about 19 or 20 standing there looking at me. I look down and there is my hand grabbing onto his arm for protection I guess. I look back up and quickly take my hand away. I put on a sheepish smile and say "so sorry." (The English are big on sorry.) He smiles at me like, that's okay this happens all the time, which I'm sure it doesn't he was pretty scrawny (as are most Englishmen). So I made sure I knew who I was grabbing onto from them on.

I'm not going to tell about the men running with the barrel down the hill, cause it's really not that interesting of a story. So I'll tell a bit about the bonfire and then be done with this ridiculously long entry. They have a bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night, every one does. But this was the biggest bonfire I have every been to in my life. The pile of wood was about 2 1/2 to 3 stories tall. And on top sat Guy Fawkes. They dress up and stuff a man and set him on top of the bonfire. Everyone watches and wait for Guy to light up. Which is very hard to see when a 3 story pile of wood is smoking and flaming. But he eventually caught light and everyone cheered. But the heat from that bonfire was intense! I couldn't stand it after about 15 minutes.

So that was my first Guy Fawkes Night in England. It was wonderful. I will hopefully get some pictures from Katie and Lauren soon and I'll post them for you to see. Maybe I can get a video from Katie and you can see some live action. Thanks for hanging in there with me.