Memories of Summer 1976

[PistachioTiramisu]

If you are ancient, like me, what are your best memories of the summer of 1976? I had just started work - in an office without AC! - but we had flextime so I would arrive at work at 8 and leave at 4. I had a boyfriend with a speedboat and we went out in it every evening, taking a picnic which I had bought at lunchtime, and cooling a bottle of wine in the sea! They were idyllic times, but I never remember feeling too hot. Had the best suntan of my life that year - thanks Bergasol!!

Oh Laurie by the Alessi Brothers.
Strolling through town after the pub shut to the Chinese Restaurant and it being warm at 11.30 at night.
Putting a brick in the toilet cistern
Not having a fridge for most of the summer....

Also I think many people forget that '75 was hot too, then '77 it never stopped raining

I was a kid and I remember a friend having blisters and scabs all down her back due to sunburn. I remember being given water in washed up yogurt pots at Infant School. We went camping and I remember being really thirsty in the car (no water) and then throwing up when I had a drink in the tent.
The highest temp anywhere in the country in 76 was 35, so cooler than next week though

Being able to play out every day. (I was 8 at the time, and looking back I don't seem to remember it being too hot to play out, weirdly. I do remember swimsuits and hosepipes featuring heavily, though, despite the ban.)
Having to save bathwater/washing-up water to store in buckets beside the toilet to flush it with at the height of the drought. (Not to mention stickers in the school toilets saying 'How much precious water have you wasted today?)
Ladybirds. So many ladybirds!

I landed on my feet. Bored and restless, I got a job crewing a yacht. It was a very un-fancy yacht, and hard work, but I did spend the whole of that summer at sea. Caught my first (and last) ever serious sunburn. Had a load of adventures, witnessed some stupendous natural phenomena - both marine luminescence and meteor showers were off the scale that summer - and got very, very fit.

I remember going to Purley Way Lido in Croydon.

I remember how warm and sunny it was, even in the northern Highlands. We went camping that summer in Ullapool. Went back the next year and were rained out, necessitating an emergency dash to my great-aunt's house further south.

I was three. My brother was born. It was very hot.

I remember my Grandma giving me a little bowl of water to play with in the shade in the back garden so I could wash my dollies and their clothes. I think she did it so I could splash the water on myself too and keep cool.

Does anyone know what temperature it actually got to? I think the issue was the length of time more than the actual daily temp though.

I've got a memory at Infant School around that time of seeing giant green caterpillars, that I've never seen since.

Just listened to that song - haven't heard it for ages. Very evocative!

Exams! At our school we all sat English language O'level a year early to get it out of the way. God it was soooo hot in the hall. Our form classroom was a prefab outside the main school and we sweltered in there even more

And yes, a brick in the cistern. Mind you, where we live now it's going to be at least 39° for the next few days, so '76 seems like a mild summer to me now.

I was 5. Out in the garden with grass and patio with paddling pool. But I cut my foot on glass (in foot) and a doctor had to come round to see to it, get it out. Local playground. 🛝 got photos of me and friends and brother then.

I was 10. Remember going to the park with the whole class. No water bottles...no water! Feeling so thirsty.

Queueing for water in the road from the standpipe. Hours each day playing outside with friends. The news showing the reservoirs running dry. Salad everyday for tea. Don't remember anyone owning a bottle of suncream.

Oh my, was it open then? Now a garden centre but still has the diving boards. I live not too far from it.

It was really hot and it was my first awareness of how destructive extreme heat temperatures are in places that are not used to them. Our front garden faced north and I sat with our dog on the tiles in the front porch.

There was a Minister for Rain? I think.

I remember telling off my mother for chucking waste water down the kitchen sink. She said, oh well, it would be good to keep the drain clean!

The drought lasted 18 months. I hated seeing trees suffer and everywhere being dried to a brown crisp. It’s given me a life long appreciation of rain and I say that being aware that extreme rainfall is destructive in many parts of the country.

At work and had my 21st birthday which was hot! However didn’t do much! I remember buying summer clothes and wearing them all summer. Never did work anywhere with AC!

I was at primary school and all the girls had really cute red patent leather sandals from a local shop (Clarks probably) but then they were sold out so I got the blue ones. Just remember really fun and carefree playtimes on the field.

Oh god yes the ladybirds, so many of them leaving yellow spots everywhere. And I lived near woods and there were so many fires that I started having nightmares about them.

On holiday in Cornwall camping as a child. Boiled alive. Never been camping again and never will.

Filing up water bottles at a water station.

My pet rabbit overheated and died

I feel I remember it but I was 3 and probably too young but photos of that summer make me think I do. My older siblings really remember it fondly. It’s like we’d never had a good summer up to that point!

We had one of those massive rigid sided paddling pools with a slide. The photos show a mostly brown lawn, and about 10 local kids, nut brown and having the best time in there.

I was living in a seaside town with two under tens, so we spent a lot of time on the beach.
We also went to a few festivals, which somehow didn't seem to be the difficult enterprise with young children that you might think, possibly because I was younger, with more energy.
I loved the heat and we all drank gallons of water and home made lemonade. Not much cooking was done, mostly salads and cold stuff, which was fine.

My mum owned Sun cream, Ambre solaire and put it on us as kids. She might have used Sun oil. She’d been a real Sun worshipper in the past though and still was. I recall my mum wearing a Yohiji Yamamoto orange, black, white patterned designer silk scarf (was given to her at a fashion catwalk show) on her head and hair to protect it from the sun when she sunbathed in her black bikini.

I was driving a Triumph Spitfire, the roof was down all summer and my girlfriend and I perfected the art of jumping in (rather than opening the doors)!!