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!!

I was eight and remember only being allowed enough water to cover my feet in the bath. Also, going into the garden with my brother and dancing in the rain when it finally came.

“The Year of The Drought”! I was 11 that summer, in a decade where helicopter parenting had not been invented and kids were more or less expected to amuse themselves for the day. We lived near the sea, so a lot of the holidays was spent on the beach. I don’t think any of my schoolfriends lived more than 10-15 minutes walk away.

I can’t remember being baking hot at school (we had lots of trees around the playing field so I think quite a few lessons just happened outdoors).

At home I think we just had all the windows and doors open (crime wasn’t an issue).

I bet we still had a roast for Sunday lunch (though we might have had icecream instead of custard with the pudding). I seem to remember that we were early to buy a chest freezer, so we had a bountiful supply of icepops and lollies made from squash. I was jealous of a friend’s Sodastream.

The hot weather affected our TV reception (3 channels), so BBC2 was unwatchable thanks to French TV broadcasting on a similar wavelength.

We had swarms of ladybirds at one point.

Oh the summer of 1976! I was 15 and taking my O levels at boarding school. There were water shortages so we were limited to 2 baths a week of no more than 5 inches deep. I sunbathed on the terrace outside the common room in a halter top and shorts.
I finished my history of music paper an hour early so left the exam hall to watch the men's singles final at Wimbledon (on the television). I did pass, by the way.

My parents had just moved to Australia so the summer holidays were spent in the Australian winter 😭.

I was 22 and had 3 children under 3 and must have blanked it out 😂. The only thing I remember is moving into a maisonette.

We were on holiday in the Norfolk Broads. There were so many fish floating belly-up, killed by the heat.

At home we had a patio with smooth tiles that used to get very hot in the sun. Every summer my brother and I would dare each other to walk across it barefoot. But that summer it hurt so much that we stopped doing it. Instead, we put a baking tray on the patio and fried eggs on it. They didn’t fry as fast as on the hob, but they cooked!

I was 16 and taking my 'o' levels. We spent most of the summer in the river at the end of my Parents garden. Most of my friends were with me most days. We built a big float and my Dad tied it up to two trees so that we could swim to it and lie in the cool.

I was 14 and had a dental operation, so I was off school for the whole of Wimbledon fortnight. It was boiling and I could only east soft foods. So I watched all the tennis on a diet of strawberries, ice cream & milky ways. Bliss.

I had a one year old and a four year old, an alcoholic husband, mother going through a divorce as step father had got another woman pregnant and obnoxious 16 year old brother living with me. Oh I forgot I had a job I hated but had to do to pay the mortgage, not all boomers had a cushy life. Not my favourite year.

I was 10. I had chicken pox during the heatwave. So not only was i hot i was itchy too.

I was 18 and just returned from working in Italy. My then best friend and I, being at a loose end, decided to look for hospitality work at the seaside, but that was in May before there was any notion of the glorious summer to come. We really landed on our feet working at a motel in Wales with a swimming pool, every afternoon off and the best summer the UK has ever seen. We practically lived in our bikinis, went out on yachts and had endless parties and wine! If I could turn back time.

The epic thunderstorms when the weather finally broke!

How lovely to read your memories, which mostly seem to be good ones! Sorry for those who weren't so thrilled with the summer that year!

I remember climbing up the steps of a helter-skelter type fun fair ride once, and the steps were literally covered in ladybirds, you couldn't climb the steps without crunching them underfoot, which makes me feel really bad now looking back.

Water rationing

learning how to brush my teeth with a tumbler of water - still useful when camping

water pressure being dropped to almost nothing in the middle of the day and night (normal in the morning and early evening)

My sister and me and our neighbour friend all sleeping in camp beds in the garden for the night. The neighbour’s mum loved her garden and used to lay flat on the grass with her hosepipe to water the plants. She also used to take buckets of water to her allotment hanging off the handle bars of her bike.
Combine Harvester and You Sexy Thing on the radio

1976 was hot but not exceptionally so.
But what we did not have were the cooler weeks dotted in

It was the drought that was the important part.
Hardly any rain over much of England from Easter to September

https://www.rmets.org/metmatters/recalling-1976-drought-40-years

I was on a caravan holiday at the end of May. It bucketed down all weekend and on the bank holiday Monday. The weather turned on the Tuesday when most people had gone home. I don't think I saw rain again until I was at a friend's wedding in the September and I think we got the whole summers rainfall in one afternoon.

I wonder if the rest of the country had a dry bank holiday.

We moved house, my dad only got a couple of weeks off work in those days, so my mum had to do it all with me and my sister in tow. I was 3 and remember sitting playing with my Fisher Price garage on the floor of the empty house shut in one room so neither of us (or the cat) tried to escape while they were moving all the furniture in.

The smell when the rain finally came.

Drought was the biggest problem.

I had a tall handsome boyfriend and was considering losing my virginity to him, we were both 17, wore cheesecloth and pale denim and used to talk all night. I remember walking the streets barefoot.. which doesn’t make sense, as the pavements must have been hot.. but it seemed too hot for shoes! I was happy, carefree. Very good time.

If you did own sunscreen - and it was expensive then and limited choice - reluctantly forgoing the factor 2 and applying the dizzy heights of factors 4 or 6 (8 was for Spanish holidays only) 😂

16, O'Levels - we were allowed to wear sandals and no socks! I finished school after my last O'Level in mid June.

We lived at the coast and my friends and I spent every day at the beach or another friend's pool. We went back to the beach after tea to drink cheap wine and smoke Marlborough and Gaulloise. Ambre Solaire featured heavily. I also had a holiday job waitressing and a fabulous tan.

Washing up water was reserved to try to save plants in the garden and I remember someone frying an egg at Trafalgar Square was featured on the news.

I changed to a different 6th form and didn't have to wear uniform and my mum took me shopping just after the August BH and it was raining and rained constantly for weeks if not months. The end of that summer was very abrupt.

I’ve not heard that song in about 40 years!

my husband and I had been living together in our first flat for about six months when the weather got hot and I remember weekends spent lying in the back garden, covering ourselves with cooking oil, and burning 😆, and endless hours in the garden of our local pub, surrounded by their menagerie of lambs and miniature goats. My most vivid memory is of the night when the storm finally arrived to end the heatwave, and I spent about an hour barefoot in the garden getting drenched. The garden was on a slope and the end nearest our flat ended up with rain water thst csme nearly up to my knees. Unfortunately it also came into our basement flat 😆

As mentioned by a PP, I remember the melting tarmac on the roads. I remember every day being sunny and bright, and I was young and slender and imagined myself in love for the first time.