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 😂

I was 5. I remember drawing posters to encourage folk to save water. A wise owl might have been involved.

My sisters and I used to walk up to meet my Dad from work dressed only in our pants.

I was six and huge areas of the countryside and woodland near to us were destroyed by fire. There was a field opposite our house which was totally burned, and I remember watching from our house as the flames came right up to the pavement across the road. I was terrified it was going to leap across the road to our house.

@pinesofrome
I was also revising for my 'O' levels in the garden, in a red velour bikini. I remember going inside to make myself some cheese on toast for dinner. Put the telly on and reluctantly chose the cricket, since unlike the test card things moved occasionally. Just started eating when the commentator, to fill in while waiting for something to happen said "The bowler's Holding.....the batman's Willey". I nearly choked on my cheese!
Next day in school before my next exam I asked my friends "Hey did anyone watch the cricket yesterday afternoon?" but their scornful glances at such a silly question silenced me.
I've told several people over the years and I'm not sure any of them believe me - apparently there's no copy of it anywhere, but it happened I tell you, it happened!

I remember our yellow lawn! Well light brown I suppose.

I have never heard of the summer of 76 until this year! I have seen it spoke about on here and all over tik tok it sounds horrific 🥵 I struggle with anything over 20!

Good grief! I wasn’t expecting a story like this!

I was also 1. My DM said it was a massive saving on baby clothes as she just didn't bother dressing me.

I also have a picture of me sat in a bucket of water, and was brought up on the tales of swarms of ladybirds.

Yep I remember it well. I was 12 and we had 10 weeks of heatwave altogether, we lived near the sea and it was a glorious summer. I don’t remember being quite so hot and bothered as I have been this last week though 😅

I remember seeing smoke from fires a few miles away. Everywhere was so dry, our back lawn was brown. I used to play bare foot in the garden and the ground was so hot underfoot. People were discouraged from having too many baths or flushing the toilet too often. I was nearly eight at the time of the drought and remember it as a happy time eating choc ices. I don't remember the ladybirds though.

Yes it was wonderful!

A girl in my school got a visit from the police after she dialled 999 and asked for an ice cream van! 😬

I was 21 with my own flat. I don't remember the ladybirds at all although I have heard about them since. I remember it being hot and having to save water but I don't remember having a problem with it.

I was 5 too op! I was a bridesmaid on the only day it rained! 😂

I was a teenager and we were holidaying in Cornwall, it wa the best holiday ever. I remember a lot of hay and straw lorries heading south to Devon and Cornwall because there was no grass for the beasts.

I was young and single and working in a High St bank in Southampton which I think held the record for the highest temperature that summer,
No air con and we use to close at 3.30pm in those days so it was even hotter when the doors were closed !
Managers bought us ice creams every day,they were even allowed to remove jackets and ties once we were closed.

Gosh yes. I had just finished year 10 and we went to stay with family in Denmark where there were swarms of ladybirds and a jellyfish invasion in the sea as it was so warm.
We then went to Sweden and I remember coming back with the brownest tummy I've ever had. It was flat in those days.

I do, I was 9 during the summer, turned 10 later in the year. Mass football matches, 50 + kids on a local pitch that turned to dust. Long days in the sun..
Baths no more than a couple of inches deep!
Roasting in the mobile classrooms at school. Lessons out on the school fields.

I remember fainting during this time.
I don’t remember the ladybirds though.

I remember it! I was a little girl and it was a very warm and sunny summer, we went camping to the West Highlands. It was also an Olympic year and I sprained my arm trying to emulate the gymnasts by doing handsprings on my granny's couch.

I was 8 & we moved from Portsmouth to London that summer. I thought the heat was a London thing! Can remember tarmac melting & going swimming a lot.

I remember it - I was 7, and remember playing out in the heat, paddling in the stream (or what was left of it), going fruit picking with mum and all the other women and kids in the village, the grass turning brown, hosepipe bans. We just got on with it really - and no air con in those days!

Ha: I was going to say I remember the ladybirds too (I was 5). And our house was being renovated so the back wall was just taken off, or that’s how it was in my memory anyway. I climbed into my bedroom on a ladder as there were no stairs and had my bath in the garden in an old tin bath

I was 8. We went to the TT races in the Isle of Man and visited some friends staying on a campsite. The kids' crayons had melted, it was so hot. Later that summer we went to visit my Dad's uncle in the Midlands and I couldn't believe there was no sea to swim in to cool down (we lived on the coast).

I was 10 and my dad made us a hammock for the garden under the shade of the trees. My older brother used to tip me out of it.
And the ladybirds! My best friend and I collected dozens of them in the school grounds and tried to keep them in a "farm" but they kept escaping...
My poor eldest brother was taking his O'Levels that summer and had terrible hay fever. It must have been horrendous.

Was it only 2 weeks? 😲 In my young child's mind, it went on forever. Went to the local outdoor swimming pool all day, every day.

I was four and remember going to Blackpool on holiday. The one and only year it was warm enough to go in the sea!