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 wasn't alive but I do hear of relatives reminiscing about it. A bit like the 3 day week, good and bad tales!

Going to the end of the road to get water. Not sure if that was commonplace, or exactly sure why. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

I was four. I vaguely remember how hot it was even first thing in the morning. And I clearly remember sitting on my Auntie’s back step with my feet in a washing up bowl of cold water. And maybe there was a stand pipe in our street? Definitely you couldn’t just run a lot of water from the tap, it was restricted.

I remember it well - it was a wonderful summer. I was 19 and had been living with my boyfriend, now husband, for a year and we didn’t have a care in the world. We had a fairly grotty basement flat ten doors down from where we live now, but we had sole use of a huge garden, which was full of ladybirds. We had parties in the garden every weekend, and I can remember dancing around in the garden in the rain the night the big thunderstorm finally started.

I was exactly the same age as you! I vividly remember playing in the garden collecting lupin seeds, which I loved to do, with a knotted handkerchief on my head. But later in the day I felt SO ill. Assuming heatstroke!

Yes. I was only three. Remember being in the garden of grandparents house. My nan saying she was 'sweating cobs'.

Cool baths or a wipe down with a wet towel.
My Dad was into The Good Life and he used a pump to move water to the veg and soft fruit from the brook that ran past the bottom of our garden.
Tar bubbles in the road.

I'd just finished A levels and had a summer job with the civil service. The office was stupidly hot and it took me two days to find out where the loo was.
Can't tell you any more as I signed the Official Sectrets Act!

The evenings were mostly spent down by the river with my medical student boyfriend.

I do remember it, (I was about 8-9,) but quite honestly I get bored with people mentioning it. We've had quite a few nice, long, hot summers since 1976!

2018 was amazing. 4 months of solid sunshine, the whole country was brown (it was shown on a satellite image) through lack of water/rain, England did well in the football world cup, and it was a glorious summer.

2006 was a corker too, and I think also 2003 (and there have been a few more - eg, in the 1990s ... As I recall 1995 was a very dry and hot summer, and there was probably several in the 1980s.) Yet all anyone goes on about is the 1976 one! No-one under 55 can even remember it! 1976 was a hot summer, but we have had hotter temperatures since in the UK.

It's like the football. All anyone goes on about is 1966! I wish people would change the record. Every time we have a hot few days/a hot couple of weeks - people are like 'oooh but it's not like it was in 1976!' No it's not, it's bloody hotter these days! And I am pretty sure the over 30 celcius temperature only lasted for 2 weeks. It was a nice, warm, dry summer of course, but there have been some others since.

Not aimed at you @DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen Just a general whinge about people always going on about the summer of '76!

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Thinking this was nearly 50 years ago. Yet 50 years before then was 1926!

Which seems crazy, 1926 must have been well different compared to 1976, than 1976 is to today! Yes, different, but must have felt a world away in comparison.

Yes - I was 10, and remember a long summer holiday, playing outside all day, paddling pool in the garden, lawn turning brown…Not sure about the ladybirds though. There was a campaign to save water. Showers not baths; don’t flush for wees (poos only!) and put a brick in your loo cistern. Hosepipes were banned and some areas had standpipes I believe?

True. Standpipes as the water was cut off ( by area) for most of the day.

There was more than 6 weeks of drought. I remember when it actually rained ( in September), and loads of people came out onto the streets cheering and dancing.

I was 18mo and my mum was 8 months pregnant. She went into early labour and blamed me for being sticky and hot and bouncing all over her on a bus. My brother turned out fine, bit funny but in a haha way.

I do. I was 5 nearly 6 and remember endless days of playing in the garden, having a tan and even being allowed to use the one tube of Ambre Solaire that had been in the cupboard for years but had barely been squeezed by that point (it was a thick brown cream and it smelt amazing), sunscreen was clearly only for special occasions in the 70s. I remember my Dad finding a kitten that had been dumped in the brook behind our house and we kept her - Tibby. I also vividly remember queuing at the standpipe with my Mum for water during the drought.

So why bother coming on the thread?

It was 2 weeks of really high temperatures of plus-30, but the high temperatures in the twenties and drought went on for longer than that.

I was 5 , remember it being really hot, so hot the tarmac on the roads melted, the swarms of ladybirds and a neighbour fried an egg on their car bonnet ! The worst part was travelling anywhere by car as the seats were vinyl and red hot, and of course no aircon, that and not being able to use the metal slide in the park due to how hot it became during the day.
My back garden had a couple of shady tree's so my Mum put a paddling pool under it and filled it with used bath water, we lay in it while we ate homemade ice lollies made of milk and orange cordial.

I was pregnant with my second baby and halfway through the pregnancy...boy was it hot.

I was almost 14 and remember eating so many strawberries that I got a massive rash.

To state that I am a bit bored with hearing about Summer of '76. I am entitled to my views!

Noted.

Other people seem to find it interesting.

Yep, 50 years ago, and yet people still go on about it! 😂Like we've never had a hot dry summer since!

I was 16 and enjoying myself. My mum made me some bright red hot-pants (with the bib) and I thought I was the bees knees in them.

If you're bored then I suggest not boring yourself any further by talking about it.

Me! I was on holiday in the New Forest where there were lots of forest fires. We were staying in a house with a stream running through the garden. We spent most of the two weeks hopping in and out of the stream to keep cool!

I remember the aggressive ladybirds. These hitherto benign creatures started biting humans regularly. They never did it before the summer of 1976 and they’ve never done it since. That’s my recollection, anyway.

Id forgotten all about the ladybirds! The aphids must have wondered what hit them.