Goodbye Crackernight by Justin Sheedy is a comic memoir of growing up in 1970s Australia. It's the tale of a lost era, when a child's proudest possession wasn't a Playstation but a second-hand bike.
Crackernight!
One night a year, the infinite normality of the suburbs is shot with utter magic.
Goodbye Crackernight is the story of one boy's childhood in 1970s Australia. It is the story of fireworks, of fun that cost nothing, of second-hand bikes, UFO-crowded skies, streakers, lime green Valiants, half-sucked Sunnyboys and electric pink hotpants. It is a story of growing up and innocence left behing - at a three-day pool party. It is the tale of an era, of far simpler times, of an annual neighbourhood festival and an Australia now long gone.
Excerpt
For any young child growing up in the suburbs of 1970s Australia, there were three days of any year that you held as holy. One was your birthday, one was Christmas, one – and by far the most primordially sensual, wondrous and potentially lethal to your young life – was Crackernight.
Crackernight was a night of skyrockets, bungers, po-hahs, thunders, Tom Thumbs, ball-shooters, throwdowns, Roman candles, blazing parachutes, Catherine wheels and more. If my birthday celebrated my birth, Christmas the birth of Christ, then Crackernight was my childhood’s annual pagan festival. One night a year, the infinite normality of the suburbs was shot with utter magic.
It was a childhood full of fireworks, and not without attendant injuries. A time of manic innocence, of euphoric adventure and discovery in adult hindsight the equal of any designer drug experience and of which, surely, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn would have been envious.
Let me take you back there. Join me on a ten-speed Malvern Star bike ride back to where we came from. To a lost era, and a vastly different Australia. If you’re really lucky, I’ll let you ride my dragster complete with sissy bar, chunky gearstick and speedo, but only if you give me a Peach Moove. Hell, a half-sucked Sunnyboy’d do. In any case, I’ll have you home in toime for tea.
I never had a Malvern Star. I never had a dragster. I had a second-hand, single-gear Oxford with a frayed couch cushion tied on for a seat.
It was bloody wonderful.
That bike guided me through the streets of the childhood we shared.
Professional Reviews
Book a Blast From the Past - by David Mills, The Wentworth Courier
'WHICHEVER way you look at it, 1970s Sydney was a pretty groovy place, and to have been a kid in that era was a massive good fortune.
It was a time of simple fun and few rules, when kids would entertain themselves, roaming the streets on Dragsters or Malvern Stars, slurping on a Sunnyboy or chugging down a peach-flavoured Moove.
It was a more innocent time, before the fear of environmental catastrophe, terrorism and stranger danger cast a pall over almost everything.
Author Justin Sheedy has dug deep into his memories of growing up in 1970s Sydney to produce his first book, Goodbye Crackernight, which he is launching at the Surry Hills Library this Saturday.
“It’s a shared memoir; it’s a story of the era,” Sheedy explained.
Central to Sheedy’s narrative is the long-departed tradition of cracker night, an annual celebration that would light up suburban skies, and was up there with Christmas and birthdays.
“Cracker night was a night of sky-rockets, bungers, po-has, thunders, tom thumbs, ball-shooters, throwdowns, Roman candles, Catherine wheels and more,” Sheedy says in his book. “If my birthday celebrated my birth, Christmas the birth of Christ, then cracker night was my childhood’s annual pagan festival. One night a year, the infinite normality of the suburbs was shot with utter magic.”
Memories of cracker night, Sheedy said, create an instant bond for members of Generation X.
“(Gen Xers) seem to really connect with the simplicity of life, growing up as kids in the 1970s, ” he said. “The bikes, the games, the fact that we didn’t have mobile phones, the fact that we didn’t play Playstations. We were not wired into technology like kids today. We were outside, playing in the streets; we made our own electricity.”'
Goodbye Crackernight, review 9-5 Magazine
'A nostalgic memoir of times gone by, Justin Sheedy’s Goodbye Crackernight is a comic recollection of growing up in 1970s Australia. His story is a simple one, but it’s one that will resonate with anyone in their 30s who grew up in 1970s Australia. Think back to second-hand bikes over Playstations, fireworks, scanning the skies for UFOs, lime green Valiants, Sunny Boy ice blocks and electric pink hotpants. Sheedy’s read is light, warm and fuzzy and it’s easy to feel at one with the author. There’s a particularly good look at the transition of Australia from white bread society the multiculturalism of today.'
It's a Cracking Good Read - by Kate Crawford, The Mosman Daily
'BUNGERS, Malvern Star bicycles and frankfurts dipped in tomato sauce are honoured in Justin Sheedy’s debut book Goodbye Crackernight.
This reminiscent romp through Sheedy’s childhood will jog the memory of those raised in the ‘70s and gives the younger generation an idea of the fun they’ve missed out on.
The greatest loss to Australian culture is that of Crackernight, which was celebrated in backyards on the Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Sheedy’s childhood Epping home was in the same street as the nation’s largest fireworks factory and kids had a ball scaring the wits out of their friends with “throwdowns”.
And what about the fun you had on your skateboard unfettered by wristguards and helmets?
This is a great way to remind your kids that you too had a childhood full of wonder, freedom and pranks.
Sheedy’s biography includes his acquisition of a fine arts degree, which qualified him to drive a cab, and his time in the public service.'
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