A is for Advance!! Southover’s clarion call.
B is for Bonfire! What else would it stand for? Oh, and Buccaneers, our 2nd Pioneers.
C is for cake (wot fireworks come from, innit).
D is for discipline – epitomised by the superb ranks of three in which our members process. (Well, we try!)
E is for excitement. It’s year round and not just reserved for the Fifth.
F is for fireworks; the Fifth List – which Emma cracks her whip to complete; and our Firesite Force led by Captain Jim.
G is for gorgeous, lovely, members of Southover Bonfire Society (now pay your subscriptions)
H is for hessian – our Waitrose-quality version is woven by elves and unicorns (amazing what they can do with their horns). It’s also for Hedge Fund – local rumour is that most SBS-ers work in finance. Well, if we did, we wouldn’t have to run so many fabulous fund raising events!
I is for ideas, and plenty of them, so that our Tab Team and our Small Builds Team can create amazing masterpieces. Which we then blow up on the night. (Doh)
J is for jaunts. We have a few of these in our Society. Some call them outmeetings and they’re a very special part of the Bonfire experience.
K is for kerosene – our Bonfire version of Chanel No 5 – in which we lovingly dip our 3,500 torches every year. Dip, dip hooray to Nick the Knife and his gang.
L is for love, the love we have for Bonfire. It’s a smokin’ hot way to get some exercise.
M is for merchandise – lots of lovely stock with all sorts of goodies and managed superbly by our Captain of Merch Shireen. Also for those naughty monks – the Cluniac priory ones of Lewes and our 1st Pioneers.
N is for nuns – we’ve introduced Nun of the Above and Nun Such plus their sisters to bring holy disorder to our Cluniac ranks.
O is for ‘Oh I can’t believe you actually make your own torches and don’t rent them from East Sussex County Council for the night’. (Yes, someone did say that in 2011!)
P is for pyro mania – the energy fizzing through the crew bringing our aerial display spectacularly to life. Nuff said!
Q is for Quartermaster – our lovely Bill ‘don’t mess with my bits and bobs in the stores’ Barber.
R is for rum – elixir of the gods and a fab ingredient in the hip flasks of Lewes.
S is for smugglers – the stripey crew that every Bonfire Society has and loves. Truly loves. Truly…loves.
T is for torchmaking – but these aren’t just any torches, they’re SBS torches, notched and whipped up in hand cut hessian, with bespoke wire twisting, then dipped in magical kero so they burn, baby, burn. Thanks to all the SBS-ers who turn up on Sundays to join the Torchmaking Tornados.
U is for U, the public, who buy our Bonfire programme and fire site tickets and help us keep it all alight.
V is for volunteers – without whom we wouldn’t be able to thrive as a Society. It’s also for vajazelling – a wonderful technique used to overly decorate one’s costume. (Allegedly)
W is for Wilson, our Society mascot, a kero-loving, torch-throwing canine, whose ‘Ruff Guide to Bonfire’ is a sell-out on Amazon.
X is what marks the spot where we have our bonfire in the Convent Field.
Y is for ‘Y not?’ A good response to any new member who wonders if they should join one Pioneer group or all of them.
Z is for the ZZZZs we partake of. But only once the Fifth is over!
