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 😂

That's fine. I know I sound like a miserable cow. I'm just saying. I'm off now. I've shit on the thread a bit. Sorry @DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen Just can't understand why people keep always bringing up Summer of '76, like it's the only hot, dry summer we have ever had. As I said, we've had quite a few more since! And we get hotter temperatures these days than we had then.

I'll go now. Sorry ...

I was 12 and due to start secondary school after the hols. I didn't want it to end.

My poor mum was pregnant with me too. She wasn't as far along as your mum though as I was due late November.

I remember it too. I was 9. We still played out and nobody wore sunscreen or hats or carried water bottles.
I’m not saying that any of the above means that these things being normal now is in any way wrong, I’m just saying that’s how it was 🤷‍♀️

Oh yes, I turned 16 that year hence my Mumsnet name! What a wonderful heady summer, post O levels, met my husband who was 19 at the time. We're still together nearly 5O years later, despite me bobbing off to Uni without him 😁

I would love to go back to that era. Rose tinted specs and all. But sometimes I watch TOTPs on BBC 4 and I'm transported back.

In that era, my parents/grandparents had street parties, most didn't have cars, didn't need them. Corner shop. Just remembering what must have been the good points :)

OP must have been a big 5 year old to ride a chopper. My brother had a Raleigh Chipper age 7and the other had a Raleigh Tomahawk age 8. The Chopper was a heavy beast.
I remember my mum buying us an ice cream when we were on a walk the only time she ever did because she could never afford treats but I think that day it was a necessity.

I was 20 flat sharing in Shepherd's Bush. London became a 24 hour city temporarily with tables and chairs on most pavements. I remember the sounds of conversations drifting on the air at 2am as it seemed no-one could sleep.

Yes I remember that!
I spent weeks ‘revising ‘ at the local lido, not really focusing on Caesar’s Gallic Wars, too busy flirting with the guys and flicking my hair. Had a fab tan, didn’t do that well in my exams though.

Yes, both myself and my sibling had chicken pox, and were left home alone all day in the baking heat, covered in spots and camomile lotion, trying not to itch, or murder each other.

I was mid teens. It wasn't just the grass that died: everything did. Trees died. You'd get bitten by ladybirds looking for moisture.

playing out all day, and getting an ice cream from the van nearly every evening. Our road was made of concrete slabs with pitch between them and it all melted and we dug it out and made little sculptures from.

I'd forgotten the ladybirds, but there was a huge number of crane flies that year, and they got stuck in my hair. Awful.

I'd forgotten the ladybirds too, but now it's been mentioned, a vivid image of squished ladybird has popped into my head. Yuck.
I suppose it's the endless sunshine and ensuing drought that makes summer of 76 so memorable to Brits over a certain age. Even as we become accustomed to (moaning about) higher temperatures, we're just not used to summer being summery for the entire season.

I remember it and it did stand out amongst all the other summers ever!

I was 13 and my grandmother died . I was furious with my parents because I had to miss my friends birthday party to go to Devon to clear her house 🤦‍♀️
We are still close friends now.Summer was fun playing in the sea and on the beach whilst my Mum and her bestie sipped G&Ts on the beach !

I wasn’t born but the family story is my dad had enough of the heat, tipped a bucket of water over himself, went outside and slept in the garden in his boxers

Yes I was living in the tropics at the time and it was around 45 degrees in the shade. We'd had a huge cyclone earlier on that year so the place was still in chaos.

I can relate after yesterday!😂

True, there’s been many longer and hotter summers in subsequent decades. The thing is, it was the first really long hot summer that many of us can remember. We’re talking the 1970s, a decade in which the weather was usually cloudy and grey all year round. To have this sudden stretch of Mediterranean climate was amazing, despite the aggressive ladybirds.

Ditto, although I don't now have skin cancer. I'm sorry to hear that you do.

I do, it was my O level year. After the exams were over I just remember being in the park with my friends and my boyfriend, with lovely weather day after day.
I also spent a lot of time watching cricket because the West Indies were touring and they were amazing to watch.

I was 14 and spent endless days in my grandparents garden listening to the Alessi Brothers Oh Lori on the radio.

@pinesofrome I too have skin cancer. Just diagnosed last week.

I've got no one else to ask now but,

If water had to be collected from stand pipe, presumably that meant people couldn't get a bath or shower? Could you put the washing machine on? I know people less likely had showers then and less people had washing machines etc

Just thinking practically. Somehow I can't imagine people compromising as much as had to be done back then.

Yes it was the summer I did my a levels and left school. Brilliant weather but a bit hot for my factory summer job!

You wouldn't have been able to use a modern washing machine but could have used a twin tub which you could fill with a bucket. You would have a shallow bath (not a shower) which you might have to share e.g. with siblings or partner. Either that or wash with a flannel.