to ask for your reminiscences of summer 1976?

[kitnkaboodle]

... if you're old enough! An earlier thread about air conditioning (and this month's weather) has led me to think about that year.

I was 12 and can personally remember (in the Midlands) ALL the grass being dry and brown, not flushing the toilet and being told off by my aunt for running a tap unnecessarily. It wasn't desperately hot, was it? Just very sunny and dry for week after week. I remember my mum saying it started in (..July?) and carried on until October, when storms broke it. She said that you could plan ahead what to wear or do, as you knew it was just going to be bright blue skies when you opened the curtains each morning.

Not sure how actually accurate all that is!

Oh, and the ladybirds. I used to collect them in yogurt pots and make ladybird houses out of moss and earth for them.

I was younger than 12 but can just remember it. I didn't live in the UK, we lived on an island in the Med. My sister was born that year and she cried a LOT. We had a massive garden with huge carob trees in it and there was a field nearby with almond trees in it but I wasn't allowed to go in it because it was full of snakes, I still went though. We went to the beach a lot and I pretty much ran wild as we lived on a huge military compound so were relatively safe.

A few years later I remember my Mum saying that 76 had been the only decent summer the UK had had in years and we'd been living in a hot country for it anyway.

I was a sun-worshipping teenager who was sent to relatives in Canada for the summer. Where it was rather gloomy and chilly. I was gutted to be missing out on weeks of the heat and wore my leather biker jacket with more attitude than strictly necessary.

I was born in 75, so obviously have no memories, but my told me there were swarms of lady birds everywhere. No doubt you remember.
He also told me that he took me over to New Brighton and the bumpy slide was literally covered in lady birds, and had to be temporarily closed.
Where all the lady birds came from and why there were so many is anyonE's guess.

I was in the early stages of pregnancy with PFB. I was very sick and lost 10 lbs in a week. Travelling up and down to London by train was just awful. The trains were like ovens on the way home....

DH and I also moved ourselves (to save money) with a hire van and my parents to help.....

DayLillie

We always shared bath water.

Magimedi and but mainly - brimming over here!

I was about 6. I don't remember too much! I do remember being in the paddling pool constantly though. I also remember my parents deciding that we were getting a swimming pool... sure enough it was dug out the following spring. Don't think it's been as hot since!

Oh, yy to the ladybirds! I remember my Aunt's dog sticking his face out of the car window and when he brought his head back in he was covered in them

Ooooh - the year I got married ( howling gales in March!) we had a brick in the toilet, all the washing up water was thrown on the garden- my mint died! We went on a walking holiday to Derbyshire in August, and we were not allowed on most paths due to fire risk . Shared baths .... :)

I was six.

We had one of those big rectangular paddling pools that were made of a metal frame with the plastic stretched over and little seats in the corners.

Mum would put about two inches of water in it and me and my little sister would just lie in it for ages to try and keep cool.

Dad would then use the water to water the plants in the evening.

That's about all I can remember

I was only 4 and about the only thing I remember is the drifts of dead ladybirds. I have a vague memory of being bathed in the kitchen sink, but then Mum did that all the time anyway!

Sharing bath water wasn't really that unusual then and bath night in our house was always Sunday.

It was the year of my first holiday abroad! In May half term. As soon as we got back it seemed to just stay hot. I was 11 and prone to fainting in the heat.

We had a brick in the toilet and a sign that said, "Don't flush the loo, unless you have to!"

Ladybirds in massive swarms that didn't exactly bite, but could give you quite a nip with their knees.

Stand pipes and cracked earth, brown grass.

"The long, hot summer of 1976."

It is still known to us as 'the year of the drought"

Many old people disapproved of T shirts saying "Save water, bath with a friend".

Waking up every morning and just assuming the sun would be shining.

Falling in love - fond memories even if he did turn out to be an arse.

Seeing Bob Marley at uni.

I was 9.

All the grass was brown and crunchy.

We had our water turned off and used a tap at the bottom of the road, although I don't know if this was for whole days or just several hours a day.

My parents worked in a university and a hospital, both of which had their water supply left on so they showered at work.

My friend and I got a right royal bollocking from my mother for having a fight with some ice cubes in our kitchen, supposedly for wasting water but I think she was probably more angry about the mess.

We had to use our bath water to water the vegetables.

I was 12. I remember our water was shut off and only turned on twice a day for an hour or so. So the dishes piled up and stunk. You had to time your bath carefully and be quick about it. All the tar on the roads was melting and so you had to be careful not to carry it in the house on your sandals. I lived in shorts all summer.
I was babysitting two boys who's Mum worked short days nearby and it was so hot we spent all day trying to stay out of the sun. It was an awful summer. I remember walking to the beach with my Mum a few times and getting so sun burned I couldn't sleep.

I was 11 and remember dancing outside in the rain when the drought finally broke.

I was 11.

It was hot for weeks and weeks. I remember my parents being very upset because their pride and joy clematis over the front porch died. Mom still talks about this and she has altzimers.

I remember me, my dsis and friends stripping off to pants and my dad hosing us in the garden. Imagine that now!

There were articles in the paper how to keep cool and one told you to put your wrist pulse under cold water. It worked and that introduction to the science of biology made me become a nurse.

I was 17 in 1976 and can remember everyone frantically saving bath/washing-up water to use for the garden. (If we have a hosepipe ban now, I do the same thing - hard habit to break).

We went to Cornwall in our caravan that year. It was great, we were camped next to a river and I got a lovely, golden tan (completely different colour from any other tan I've ever had, for some very strange reason)

I don't remember the ladybirds, but do remember we had a huge ant problem. Had to keep our Corona pop bottles in a tub of water as a deterrent. My Mum made a cake one Sunday, put it in a tin, and as one of us lifted the tin lid to take a slice, the whole cake practically jumped up and walked away by itself (carried off by the ants). A lasting memory

I was 16. Just taken O Levels in June and had the whole summer off! It was relentlessly sunny and hot. I wore jeans and cheesecloth shirts for months on end. I was on a school trip in Devon when it broke.

I spent my days covered in coconut oil in the garden. Elton John and Kiki Dee were top of the charts with Don't Go Breaking My Heart.

I was thin.

I remember sitting on the patio with my older sister spending hours over the summer squashing tiny little red spiders that we called blood suckers!

No one else my age can remember them but we've got grainy old pics of us doing it so they definitely did exist in the summer of 76!

Aaaah! Cheesecloth - so comfy. Where is it now?

tiny little red spiders that we called blood suckers!

I remember them. We called the blood suckers too