Please help find Blanket
ELSPETH BLANCHE DUNCAN
AS children, for the annual Christmas Eve family gathering hosted at Auntie Pat’s and Uncle Ivan’s house in Tunapuna, my sisters, our cousins and I would gather in the backyard while the adults chatted and limed in the verandah to the front. There in the garden, amidst Auntie Pat’s treasured plants, we would spend hours telling stories, playing games and lighting starlights, excited by their crackling, effusive sparks.
Today, sparklers are not a major feature on festive nights. Children whose parents allow it probably go into the yard (supervised or not) to indulge in the dangerous practice of setting off fireworks, turning quiet neighbourhoods into warzones of explosions, terrorising the aged, animals and stressing many people.