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 do, I was 13. We went to Skipsea on the east coast in a caravan, 6 kids and mum and dad. I remember getting burnt and swimming in the sea and it not feeling too cold for once.

I was 11. Lived by the sea and went to the beach almost every day. The sand was dry and cracked. I do remember the terrible fires in the local heathlands with the flames jumping across the roads and green goddesses being bought in. Scary.

Thanks @CaptainMyCaptain yep I can understand that.

I fainted in school after a day on the beach, was diagnosed with heat exhaustion and spent two weeks in bed eating boiled eggs with a lot of salt.I missed all the end of term exams

I was 7 and had just moved from Singapore and couldn't understand why everyone was talking about the heat. I'd not known any different and thought it normal. How wrong I was!

I remember eating cider ice lollies playing in a dried out river bed.

I think we remember long hot summers that somehow etch into our lives. '76 for many of a ..ahem..certain age was a carefree time of childhood or youth. It's never the same when your lives move on and you get older. Nostalgia produces a strong emotion.

Sorry to hear this. If only we knew then what we know now about sun damage. Tans were considered to be healthy and were totally encouraged. I remember my aunt doing piles of ironing in the garden in a bikini!

I was 9 and remember eating salads for tea every night for weeks. The stand pipes. And the ladybirds! And I remember the corner shop having no chocolate in because it would just melt on the shelves.

I do.

I was 22 and I had the best holiday of my life.

I was at university working my summer vacation and it didn't rain from May to September. Water was turned off twelve hours a day.

Not the same

Not as long and not as intense

Um

We did have washing machines! Some still twin tubs but the automatic had been invented then

And you had to compromise - standpipes supplied the only available water!

Yes I remember glorious never ending summer days and lots of ice creams! I remember I had too many one day and had tummy ache and my mum called the doctor!! Running through grass and giggling a lot! I was so happy ;) thought it was me being nostalgic so glad you said it was real!! 😛

I was a young teen. I babysat a couple of boys while their mum worked mornings and The water would be shut off due to the drought so there were no clean dishes, I had to wash up quick when it came on and fill the kettle.
I remember the ladybirds everywhere. I hated stepping on them.

Another one remembering the ladybirds, you couldn’t walk without treading on them. Nobody I know irl seems to remember them so glad to see I’m not imagining it. Also can recommend the book a pp mentioned, “instructions for a heatwave”, found it on a bookcase in a hotel in Crete one summer,

I remember it. I don't feel that it was massively hot but the temperature was nice (for me, then) and we didn't have rain for weeks and weeks and weeks. The lawn didn't need cutting. It didn't grow. I remember going outside when the first shower came.
Water is such a wanted commodity in some places. Decades after 1976 I stood next to a woman when we were washing our hands in the basins at the ladies' loos. We were in the middle east. I was a tourist. She was local, I guess, from her clothes. She got some soap on her hands and perhaps a wee drop of water and then she rubbed it all very well. She didn't put the stream of water on again until she used it to rinse her hands. It was an unintended lesson on how to wash your hands with a minimum of water. I'm a bit more careful since I watched her.

Edit to say there was definitely a swarm of ladybirds one summer.

My dad quotes that cricket commentary! Legendary.

Ah, the summer of 76. I will never forget it. There should be a song called ‘The summer of 76’

I don't know which year it was but surely it was Brian Johnson who said it and then he had a terrible time trying not to burst out laughing while he was commentating and he said to ??? Agnew, "Stop it, Aggers", because I suppose they were all giggling so much. Sorry I can't remember Mr. Agnew's first name.

I was 8 and we got our first colour TV for the Montreal Olympics it was a rental with a 10p slot in the back!!
I remember our headmaster explaining to us at assembly we only needed 2-4 inches of water in to bath in.
my shoulders got badly sun burnt on holiday in Wales visiting relatives and we stayed in a caravan that still had gas lighting 😄

That was the "Leg Over" - absolutely hilarious!

I remember being sunburned so badly that both my arms came up in huge blisters and I was utterly miserable. Do not remember any ladybirds.

I don't really remember it, I would have been 4 or 5, but my mum was very pregnant with twins so would have struggled through that time. It was hard enough for me almost 28 years ago being very pregnant with my eldest

I was 10. I remember there being stag beetles everywhere. And gazillions of ladybirds and flying ants.

I ended up in A&E with severe sunstroke on a drip it's a very distant memory as I was only young.