PENNY for the Guy! There's a laugh. What good is a penny to a child these days?

I saw rockets advertised at "only eight pounds." Only eight pounds! And the shopkeeper tells me that they are selling, and selling well.

They have sticks on them like fence posts. So I would imagine if you held on to one, it would be a case of: "Was last seen flying over the Town Hall!"

I suppose with not having small children around me I must have got a bit out of touch with the cost of this sort of thing. My "rich" uncle used to give us a five bob box of fireworks between the three of us.

Bangers were the lads' favourites, whereas I liked the fountains and the Catherine wheels. Our backyard door bore the scars for years.

I remember that we once had a bonfire in the Jubilee yard in Blackburn and I made a life-size Guy just like Elvis Presley. We had him sat on a bar stool and even though I knew he was there he used to scare the life out of me when I came down in the morning. He looked so real. The vault lads put him, plus a few other things including an old (I hope it was old) market barrow on the fire and the flames went so high they burnt the telephone wires.

Rockets then were small, a milk bottle was the launch pad. Flip flaps were the ones the lads used to scare the girls and throw in doorways. Pretty tame stuff by comparison with the heavy artillery that is sold today.

And what's with all this Hallowe'en stuff? Where has that suddenly come from? I know, I know, America. But it must certainly make life a little expensive for families with one or two children. Somehow I feel the real poor are married couples with a family, working hard, proud, their income just above the benefit line, and trying hard to do their best. They get no rent rebate, no handouts and no help from a government that seems hell bent on putting people off marriage. Bringing up children is the hardest of all jobs and is probably best done if at all possible with two committed people.

When I was driving into Blackburn the other morning -- not the easiest of tasks, even if you know it well like I do -- I was thinking if people can't get to a place easily by car, let's face it, they ain't going. And if they can't park easily and cheaply then they definitely ain't going. So why are those "upstairs" constantly trying to make it difficult and expensive for shoppers to shop in Blackburn?

Perhaps we should have a question and answer page in the paper so we, the public, could submit our questions and then the appropriate officers/councillors or officials could give their reasons for the decisions they take.

Maybe then we might then possibly understand why, and even sympathise. Just a thought.

Whilst I was sitting in the traffic at the junction of Church Street, (no I won't mention you know what) and Darwen Street the other day and I thought of the time when a bobby was on point duty there. Folk would learn over the rails watching him. I would be standing on the rails, held there safely by my dad. And the bobby, very, very conscious of the admiring glances would "perform" -- commanding the traffic. He had long white "sleeves" over his uniform jacket and sometimes he wore a white coat. In winter he would stamp his feet and bang his arms across his chest. Funny how these pictures stay with you, isn't it?

Perhaps its because that same policeman was in all our picture books as well and, until quite recently, the uniform never changed. But, as with everything else, there is constant updating so I will just have to get my finger out and tell myself a rocket is "only eight pounds" and try not to keep exclaiming, how much did you say?