HARRY Johnson's first childhood memory is of a fireworks display in Queen's Park to celebrate the end of the Second World War.

"I have vivid memories of crowds crossing Mayor Street railway bridge," he writes. "At the time we lived in Gilbert Street, off Quebec Street."

At first Mr Johnson, who now lives at 33 Stanley Croft, Woodplumpton, Preston (in case any of you wish to contact him) asked me if I could put a date to the display - "It would not I presume have been on VE Day, as it would have needed some organisation."

Then he came back to me - "I have done a trawl of the Evening News' archive at the Central Library, and have found the relevant story. The memory I have is of the celebration for VJ Day, on August 15th, 1945.

"After VE Day on May 8, celebrations tended to be spontaneous, whereas on VJ Day, Bolton had an official celebration with the Town Hall illuminated, and a bonfire on the Spa Road recreation ground. Apparently the civic authorities could not get hold of fireworks, but people brought their own". With this being a weekend of Remembrance, it seems an apt time to use this story.

While he was looking through the old papers, Mr Johnson also noted some of the classified advertisement which appeared then.

"There was a victory dance at the Empress Hall, costing 1s 6d (7p), but at the Albert Hall, the victory dance with Al Shaw and his Blue Hawaiians providing the music, cost the huge sum of 5s 6d (27p), although members of the Forces could get in for 3s (15p).

"At the time, season tickets for the Wanderers cost £3 10s (£3.50) for the centre stand, and £1 15s (£1.75) for the terraces - that would not even buy a programme at the Reebok these days."

Well, Mr Johnson, thanks for those memories. However, they got me interested in looking back at the papers of that time myself, and I found that "Boltonians let themselves go when they were sure the war really was over. And, as is usual on great occasions, they congregated in Victoria-sq, for the first ebullition of joy.

"The surprising thing was that within a very short time after the Prime Minister's midnight broadcast, thousands of people had congregated on the square, from all parts of the town - it was estimated that at one time there were between 12,000 and 15,000 there."

It was the same throughout the district, with thousands congregating in front of Farnworth Town Hall; in Westhoughton, "within a few minutes of the announcement hundreds of coloured lamps in the trees at the town centre were blazing away, street lamps were back in action, and a team of bellringers at the Parish Church were ringing out the peal of peace"; at Horwich, "crowds of people appeared in the previously deserted streets. Young people paraded in groups until 3.30 in the morning, singing and dancing, and fireworks were heard all over town."

But back to that bonfire in Queen's Park. The paper reported: "A loudspeaker announcement asked those of us in Victoria -sq. to form up behind one of the bands and march in procession across to Spa-rd., there to see the lighting of the town's bonfire by the Mayor. It didn't take us long to do that. Hundreds of people accepted the invitation and to the music of the Home Guard Band skipped along Deansgate, reached by way of the Crescent, across Marsden-rd., and into Spa-rd. There we found the Electricity Works brilliantly lighted.

"A few minutes after the arrival of the shouting, singing, procession, the Mayor drove up in his car to make his way through a crowd that must have been at least 10,000 to put a match to the huge bonfire.

"But hardly had the fire reached its climax when a great section of that crowd started back to Victoria-sq. It sang its way through the streets to the Town Hall, admiring as it did so the floodlighting of the main building, and particularly of the Crescent, which was undoubtedly a great beauty."

They must have been marvellous scenes, but brought back to earth in a way by a headline in the paper which indicated the suffering of many of our local Servicemen: "What the News Means to Bolton. Hundreds of Local Men will be Freed." To them, the prisoners-of-war, the celebrations were still some time away . . .