Who remembers the summer of 1976?

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

2 weeks of weather like yesterday,over 30 degrees and 45 days with no rain.

I was 5, I remember endless playing late in the evenings, dad digging a hole and lining it with tarpaulin and filling it with water so we had a paddling pool , riding my chopper bike that my parents bought from our neighbour as he'd outgrown it and lots of ice creams 😂

It's just really struck me that this was pretty much half a century ago. That back from the summer of 76 and we'd have been talking about who remembers the Jazz Age and the General Strike and cloche hats and silent movies.

Oldoldoldoldoldoldold I feel so OLD 😅

Our teacher did this in the playground!

My dad partly cooked an egg on the bonnet of the car!

Yes I know. Why are you telling me that?

Sort of - but I remember the lady birds mostly.

I was 9 and I have photo's of me in a bikini with long socks on! I was a bit weird. I remember people working in the fruit picking industry/and/or green houses jumping in a pool and dying of the shock, god knows where that memory comes from but it obviously hit me as a child.
I also remember that ladybirds, omg, they were everywhere. I was probably in Clacton On Sea.

I think the ladybirds were around 1970 unless we had a load more in 1976…?

I was 8, I remember going to an outdoor swimming pool and the steps were covered in ladybirds . I've told people this over the years and people looked at me as though I was mad. I'm so glad others remember the ladybirds ! I remember the 6 week summer holidays generally as being wall to wall sunshine and heat .

I was 7 and have such happy memories, endless sunshine and playing out with friends. There was a freedom in knowing that everyday was going to be warm. In my head everything from Summer in 76 seems soft and faded and glowing and very dusty.
I do remember wearing a pair of mustard dungaree hot pants with a heart shaped pocket on the front a lot, I think my mum made them for me. I adored them.
It was so hot we used to sit on the pavement and poke the melting tarmac on the road with sticks, it felt like the whole world was melting and turning to treacle. My mum wasn’t happy when I came home covered in the stuff. You had to peel it off.
Oh and the lady birds. My walk to school was through a playground and the ladybirds for some reason all collected in the path. Squashing them was unavoidable and the crunch was awful. The whole Summer was magical, sort of messy and free.

1976 was definitely famous for them.

@DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen- I was wondering what your understanding of scarce is. People didn’t have enough drinking water & you were splashing around in a paddling pool. Every drop was sacred that summer.

No I wasn't splashing around in a paddling pool all summer, dad dug a small hole and filled it with a few inches of water ,it wasn't an Olympic size swimming pool. It was probably instead of using bath water.

I remember it vividly. I was 22 and living with a boyfriend in a gorgeous flat near Wimbledon Common. Spent long days wandering on the Commons or along the river bank at Putney.

I'm trying to imagine the paddling pool,how was the water not absorbed back into the ground?
Genuine question, I'm interested.

Tarpaulin, like a pond, few inches of water , a puddle is probably a better description!

Puddle!?
That would have been a LAKE to us.😂

😂

I remember it was really slippery as my sister was 18 months and kept going flying, no one seemed bothered 🙄😂

I was 13 , thankfully spent the summer with my grandparents, my aunt and uncle lived nearby. Aunt was a teacher at a school with a swimming pool so spent every afternoon there. I was a really lovely summer holiday, although it was sad seeing all the dead fish in the River Wye because it was so low

I've loved reading this thread! I was yet to be born, but my sister was a toddler that summer. My mum remembers running out into the garden with no clothes on, with my dad, when the rain finally started!

I was 6. I remember having tan lines

My mum & dad got married on the 26th June 1976 in the middle of London! The funniest thing is when you look back at photos they are all in long sleeves, my granny wore a coat! They must of been boiling! Especially the family that had come down from Scotland!

soft and faded and glowing and very dusty.

@Jackdog39 That's a lovely description and strange because if I think about memories of that summer I remember the light being different, more yellow/golden somehow. We've had plenty of hot summers since (especially where I am and recently) but not that light.

It did rain late June. I was bridesmaid at a wedding around that time in London.