to ask for your reminiscences of summer 1976?

[kitnkaboodle]

... if you're old enough! An earlier thread about air conditioning (and this month's weather) has led me to think about that year.

I was 12 and can personally remember (in the Midlands) ALL the grass being dry and brown, not flushing the toilet and being told off by my aunt for running a tap unnecessarily. It wasn't desperately hot, was it? Just very sunny and dry for week after week. I remember my mum saying it started in (..July?) and carried on until October, when storms broke it. She said that you could plan ahead what to wear or do, as you knew it was just going to be bright blue skies when you opened the curtains each morning.

Not sure how actually accurate all that is!

[SoupDragon]

The only thing I remember with any clarity is that my dad diverted the drain pipes for the sinks and bath so that they emptied into a water butt in the garden for the plants.

[nulgirl]

I was born at the end of August that year and my mum remembers it as being a hellish summer as it was so hot and sunny with no respite.

[MyLifeIsFictional]

It was exceedingly hot for weeks. I remember we used to take out books and read them in the shade in the park

[ReggaeShark]

Pentewan Beach with my cousin. Lime green and white polka dot bikini. Lovely lad on the beach every day. We really fancied each other but never spoke.

[Goshthatsspicy]

I was five. I remember being boiling and playing in my baby sister's baby bath!
I had a pretty yellow skirt with beautiful primary colours. I can even remember the smell of our sun tan lotion. However Being the 70's it probably wasn't much use! I had a copy of 'Peter and Jane, the colours from that book (about them playing outside) is all intertwined in my memory of ' 76.

[Andrewofgg]

Working in a glass and concrete skyscraper without aircon - which accounts for my views on another thread - dreadful.

[GERTgert06]

It was a wonderful summer. I took my brand new baby out in his pram every day.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Cracks in the ground you could lose a small child down.

My dad's sweetcorn that he lovingly tended with any leftover bath or washing up water, it towered above our heads.

[grovel]

Gentlemen, for the first and only time, were allowed to take off their blazers in the enclosures at Henley regatta.

Loads of cars by the roadside having overheated.

My father did not wear his bowler hat to work! Yes, it was that hot.

[hopelessadventure]

Nothing. I too was born slap bang in the middle of that August. My mum has never stopped telling me how difficult it was and how I made it very hard for her. Lovely.

[HungryHorace]

I was in utero, born in early November. My mum hated that summer!

[Narp]

Cracked roads and pavements. Sundresses.

I was 6

[CarrotCakeMuffins]

Falling off my bike age 4, banging my head on the hard ground and spending the night in hospital due to concussion.

[ProfYaffle]

I was 4. All I can really remember is a bunch of us kids having a big waterfight outside our houses with washing up liquid bottles and squeezy lemons filled with water!

[Andrewofgg]

Wigs and gowns dispensed with in the Royal Courts of Justice. The sky almost fell in.

[florentina1]

We had just moved from a flat to a house with a garden. The kids were 5 and 3. It was a magical summer.

[DownAtFraggleRock]

there's a pic somewhere of me aged about 6 months sitting in a green washing up bowl of water in the middle of the lawn...would have been '76

I don't remember it, but I looked pretty happy about it

[Andrewofgg]

And then they appointed Denis Howell Minister for the Drought. He had been the first Minister for Sport and England won the World Cup, and then he became Minister for the Drought and twenty-four hours later it started raining and we had a very wet autumn. Now that's what I call a Minister . . .

[magimedi]

Only having water on for about 3 hours of the day (living in London) & in some places the only access to water was from standpipes in the street.

Denis Howell being appointed as "Minister for Drought" and the next day it rained!

[magimedi]

X post with Andrew - we must be of an age!

And btw Andrew, I'm a grandmother now & it is indeed wonderful!!!

[Narp]

Oh, I remember wearing a green Bay City Rollers T-shirt

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

Ladybirds everywhere!

Yes yes yes! Literally thousands!

[NapoleonsNose]

I was four and I vaguely remember my birthday party when it was so hot, all the children played in the garden naked. Would never happen now!

[DayLillie]

Sun, summer dresses, without the cardigan!

We had stand pipes fitted, but never used.

Bath water sharing

I remember waiting for the week of warm weather that is usually summer in 1977. It never came