It's the summer of '76 and I'm off to the corner shop on my bike....

[barbedwired]

And I'm getting an orange mivvy, and some fruit salads

I'm six. I've got 5p to spend at the corner shop. That'll get me some fruit salad chews, some cherry lips and a drumstick lolly in a white paper bag. The grumpy shop owner might shout as us as he doesn't like children very much.
My mom has given me a pop bottle to return and says I can keep the 2p deposit.
The paddling pool is up in the garden and later my friends will come round to play in it until they get called in for tea.

Happy days.

I love Spangles. Trying to suck them til you get a hole in the middle. Those and fruity Polo's.

I and my siblings have chicken pox and are sitting in a tiny round paddling pool with an inch of precious water (from the standpipe down the road) and covered from head to foot in calamine lotion.

This thread has made me smile, those were fantastic times to be a child.

I am getting used to my new bedroom in our new house, i like looking out over all the gardens from my bedroom window, but the lawns have all gone yellow. It is strange being home and in a new place, as I have been in boarding school for a year.
I will cycle with you to the shop, I want a Midnight Mint choc ice, or maybe a Count Dracula lolly with the red “blood” centre.

Ooh my friend has got her paddling pool out. The big rectangular blue one with red seats at the corners. Better than the baby bath under the lilac tree. All the kids on the road wander up and down the road in swimming costumes. Innocent days.

I'm a bit sad because I've had a row with she's-my-best-friend-I-hate-her Lorna over whether Donny or David are best. This has replaced the old wrangle over whether lemon or pink is the best colour.
I like Donny (fave colour: purple; fave food: icecream, according to Jackie).
I also prefer Blue Peter to Magpie.

I am terminally uncool.

I'll go on my Chopper and ride over all the brown grass. Spangles for me too please and a packet of Treats.

I am wearing a long cheese clothe tie waisted skirt & short top to work & boss doesn't care & the tube is so hot like an oven & people make it worse by smoking in that crowded place.

I am two and sat in my pants in the washing up bowl in the garden. My mum had to do to the standpipe for the water. I only know this because we have a photo...

Blackeyedsusan. You can come and play in my pool if you want. It's just like you said!

My swimming costume is made of towelling. The top half is red, the bottom half is blue and it has a (pretend) belt on it.
The dog likes to play in the paddling pool too.

If the newsagents is shut the 'Outdoor' a couple of shops down might be open and they sell sweets as well.

A quarter of cola cubes for me please and a fruit jubbly.

I'm 11 and think my cheesecloth dress is the best thing I've ever owned.
Dad is painting the outside windowsill white but is losing his patience as they are now red spotted, due to the ladybirds getting stuck there!
He may cheer up later when Seaside Special is on. He enjoys watching the ladies dance in their little bikinis. Such good family entertainment 😁
Hope mum has bought an arctic roll today!

I’m in Mrs Clarke’s corner shop waiting behind an old lady buying sliced ham which is cut by one of those machines that goes forwards and back, meat slicer? I’m buying 20 Embassy Regal for my dad and getting a 10p mix up with lots of fizzy cola bottles and pink shrimps.
I love this thread!

You can all come and play in my 'pool' of you like, my dad(wearing cut off denims and sunglasses) dug a big hole,lined it with black bin bags and weighted the sides down with stones. He must've got the water from the stand pipe. My sister is 18 months and has slipped on the bin liners umpteen times and roared her head off yet no one seems that fussed and she just gets up and goes in again. It's one of the best days of my life

Lovely photo RustyBear.

**sister is 3!

I'm 6 and playing "who can stand on the pavement in bare feet" the longest with my older brother and sister. My Mother is melting cos she is nearly 9 months pregnant.

Pacers were lovely . I particularly liked the olde English and Fizzy Cola.

Oh, I was 11 in the Summer of 76 and about to start my first year (now Year 7) at secondary school

I am 13 and on a school trip to Germany. Sitting in a big cinema at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg watching a film about the history of the company. In the stifling heat, I am wiping my hands on a little lemon scented handwipe that I tore out of its packet. Have never seen anything like it in England before.

Can you get me a Whizzer and Chips please? I'm a Whizkid, obviously! Who'd be a Chipper?

My gran's come to visit because I'm starting school soon. I'm well prepared because she brought me a red furry pencil case, a purse with real pennies in it and a school blouse with blue circles all over it.

We play all day in the back green with the girls from upstairs. Their dad scares me because he is bald. We wear swimming costumes or nothing at all, and play with ripped up grass and an abandoned chair.

I'd like a tin of tiny licorice pieces, I can't remember what they are called. Obviously I'm buying my mum 20 embassy tipped, she collects the vouchers.

I'm 10 and blissfully unaware that before the end of the year I will be living in Lancashire, the land that draught forgot.

A packet of Taytos when they were only 5p!!

And some apple drops...out of the glass jar

I’m ten and I’m scared of all the grasshoppers that have appeared everywhere, so I’m inside listening to The Stylistics.

I might go out later to play Kerby on the road, in between the cars driving down and pipping.

Our purple Chopper is the envy of the neighbourhood, but my sisters and brothers put the seat too high for me, so I’ll never master it. They’re all in the garden playing with my cousins - they’ve even started skipping now. Bumper car, bumper car Number 48....

Anyway, Starsky & Hutch is on tonight, yay. Swoon.

I'm at the Radio One Roadshow in Exmouth, lounging around on the grass and listening to the music while my brother desperately tries to blag himself up on stage!

I've got a bottle of Cherryade Corona and I'll take it back for the refund in a bit. But first I have to eat this choc ice, which is a huge treat as we don't have a freezer at home and they are 'too expensive'. Then I have to go and do the ponies, but they'll be fine and too lazy to do anything in this heat.

Must remember not to ride in shorts again, still have the bruises....