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!

My Mum was pregnant with me and she always talked about the summer of 76.

I was born in the October and my Mum said it was literally blistering hot sunshine every day from about Easter and she went in to labour and went to the hospital. Came out with me, to apparently torrential rain!!

We have them now - they are red spider mites that come out in hot weather. I think they favour bricks as a habitat, and are only dangerous to plants!

Now our bloodsuckers (in Wales) were butterfly/moth-type insects with red and black wings.

oooh on my 38th birthday this thread makes me feel young :)

Ha! Everyone gives me the face when i mention blood suckers!

Running around in just our knickers and vest we were 8 and 9!!!!

My sister getting her head stuck in a fence whilst doing tipple tails and the fire brigade coming out to her.

Walking on the pavement and being able to leave footprints where it had gone squishy.

The first half of the summer was spent in the river that ran by the estate. Your lilo could never be red side down or the pike would get you. But then the river got covered in algae and dried up - that put an end to our fun.

Aah, that long, hot summer! It was our first "long haul" holiday, a week in N Wales. The rivers and warerfalls were mere trickles?

We were allowed to eat in the street! Chocolate, lollies etc would otherwise have melted before we got home.

Seeing the tall ships in Boston harbour for the U.S. bicentennial.

My parents getting divorced.

I was 7.

I was nearly four and I remember falling into some nettles and stinging my knees and hands. We were staying on a farm for a holiday in the UK. My mum gave me cuddles and beans on toast to cheer me up!

I was 24. Sings "those were the best years of my life". and "oh. those summer niiiights".
I was engaged-spent weekends sleeping in the back of a van and walking round lake district. Long evenings outside country pubs. Three weeks camping in Glencoe. Nostalgic!

I was working in an office in Aldwich in London and I remember we used to take it in turns to pop down to the bank on the corner to cool down as it was the only place we knew that had air conditioning.

Also remember wearing cheesecloth dresses.

The best bit was the wonderful warm summer evenings. Sitting outside a riverside pup in a cool summer dress late into the evening.

The worst bit; dear god, the tube was a nightmare.

Revising for my O-levels in the garden and getting prickly heat.

Feeling bad at trampling on ladybirds, but they really were everywhere and the pavements beneath trees were carpeted in them.

Wearing floaty skirts and white cheesecloth tops with ruched waists, and very thin silk Indian scarves in beautiful jewel colours.

My father no longer devoting Sunday morning to washing the car because of water restrictions.

Feeling free and happy because I was sixteen, and my world was full of possibilities.

It was a lovely summer.

I remember everyone having water butts in the garden to gather used water for the garden. Can't remember the flowers and veggies, but the lawns were scorched brown.

Also remember a TV advert warning people not to flush the loo every time, and to not leave the tap running whilst you were brushing your teeth.

I was a toddler, my brother was a baby. My mum tells us that we spent the whole summer in the sea, she has a picture somewhere to prove it.

I was four. I remember water fights too with Fairy Liquid bottles- we all attacked my friend's dad who was sunbathing barechested in the back garden. I lived in a 103 house cul de sac and everyone had 3 or 4 kids so there were hundreds of kids roving around the houses and gardens pestering the (stay at home) mothers for biscuits and diluted orange squash. Only a few families had cars so our neighbour would pile about 20 kids into the back of his van and drive us to the beach. It was the first summer I remember and nothing ever came close weatherwise! God I'm old....

I don't remember the summer of 76 because I was only one. But I have a very vivid memory of not wanting to cross the road by the local shops because it was MELTING and the tarmac was all sticky. I was very small. I remember the smell very clearly and the red shoes I was wearing. Possibly I am remembering the summer of 77 instead, if that was hot as well?

I remember sharing bath water. I'm the oldest of the 4 of us, so I got to go in first
I remember the pavement being so hot it hurt to walk on it
I grew up on the edge of Thwtford forest and spent rhexwhole summer watching it burn and chasing fire engines

It was hot and we had a standpipe in the street.

Oh, and that must have been the summer my Dad showed me that you could fry an egg on the patio but I've done that with my DCs so I guess you can do it in any sunny spot really.

I was 9. I remember paddling pools in every garden, usually full of grass bits. Tarmac on my shoes all the time, brown grass and cracks in the garden. It was cooler in the house than outside. I had tan lines from my swimming costume that I wore all the summer holidays

We had swarms of daddy long legs which used to cover our house at night. I think it was because the walls had insulation and the house was acting as a giant storage heater.

When we opened the front door in the morning, we were faced with a "net" of them up to the door handle. We just swept our way out.

Yeah, I remember the ladybirds. We had to clear the benches on the sea front before you sat down. Like others have said, the grass was brown. We lived near some hills which we could see from our house and there were a lot of fires that summer, the forestry commission were asking for volunteers to help when there was a fire. I guess with H&S now that wouldn't be allowed but they had fire beaters at the edge of the hills so people could help.

I was sixteen & did my O levels summer of 76, my brain fried my excuse for failing maths, swimming in the outdoor pool of the local boys senior school.
Yy to cheesecloth shirts & hotpants, with massive wedges from Shellys in Oxford street, happy carefree days.