The Summer of '76
Discussion
It was the relentlessness of it that I remember. Everything you touched, day or night, was warm. There were no cool surfaces to lean against for a bit of respite. Except in Marks & Spencer where it was cold enough for the shop assistants to wear their cardigans.
We were sitting in my in-laws' garden one evening when the rain eventually started. We just sat there getting wet, laughing our heads off.
We were sitting in my in-laws' garden one evening when the rain eventually started. We just sat there getting wet, laughing our heads off.
With these feet said:
I hate it, my Dad would play that and stuff like "When will I be with you again" by the 3 Degrees constantly on the Amstrad Tower System.
Cant remember if this was the year we got a Sony Betamax video player. One thing I learnt (indirectly) from my Dad was research before you buy and dont buy the first one on offer!!
"When Will I SEE You Again" - a number one for The Three Degrees in 1974. I know one of the members of this group quite well.Cant remember if this was the year we got a Sony Betamax video player. One thing I learnt (indirectly) from my Dad was research before you buy and dont buy the first one on offer!!
I think Panasonic launched the VHS video recorder in 1976. Sony's Betamax came out a few years later.
The general public in the UK didn't really start buying video recorders until around 1980-81.
Eric Mc said:
With these feet said:
I hate it, my Dad would play that and stuff like "When will I be with you again" by the 3 Degrees constantly on the Amstrad Tower System.
Cant remember if this was the year we got a Sony Betamax video player. One thing I learnt (indirectly) from my Dad was research before you buy and dont buy the first one on offer!!
"When Will I SEE You Again" - a number one for The Three Degrees in 1974. I know one of the members of this group quite well.Cant remember if this was the year we got a Sony Betamax video player. One thing I learnt (indirectly) from my Dad was research before you buy and dont buy the first one on offer!!
I think Panasonic launched the VHS video recorder in 1976. Sony's Betamax came out a few years later.
The general public in the UK didn't really start buying video recorders until around 1980-81.
It was a bit of a lottery to decide which format was going to win out. I decided to go with VHS in 1981 because it had already become the dominant format in the two biggest TV markets at that time, the US and Japan.
In Ireland, especially outside Dublin, Betamax appeared to be more popular.
In 1976 home video recorders still seemed to be off in the future and we only saw them on Tomorrow's World.
In Ireland, especially outside Dublin, Betamax appeared to be more popular.
In 1976 home video recorders still seemed to be off in the future and we only saw them on Tomorrow's World.
I remember 1976 I was 9....
I bought my very first LP "top of the pops - 1976" had a picture of a lady in a bikini on it....
I remember playing out until it got dark, we played football on the field near us which had trees everywhere so we had to dribble the ball around the trees. We used our shirts as goal posts.
I remember having water fights with fairly liquid bottles filled with water. I think that year my mate got a Raleigh Chopper bike and one of my other mates got a Raleigh Grifter, I had a racing bike and we all put cards near the wheel to make a motorbike noise.
Fantastic times, probably "rose tinted specs" Can I go back please, you don't realise how easy life was.... carefree times
- Pete
I bought my very first LP "top of the pops - 1976" had a picture of a lady in a bikini on it....
I remember playing out until it got dark, we played football on the field near us which had trees everywhere so we had to dribble the ball around the trees. We used our shirts as goal posts.
I remember having water fights with fairly liquid bottles filled with water. I think that year my mate got a Raleigh Chopper bike and one of my other mates got a Raleigh Grifter, I had a racing bike and we all put cards near the wheel to make a motorbike noise.
Fantastic times, probably "rose tinted specs" Can I go back please, you don't realise how easy life was.... carefree times
- Pete
prg123 said:
I remember 1976 I was 9....
I bought my very first LP "top of the pops - 1976" had a picture of a lady in a bikini on it....
I remember playing out until it got dark, we played football on the field near us which had trees everywhere so we had to dribble the ball around the trees. We used our shirts as goal posts.
I remember having water fights with fairly liquid bottles filled with water. I think that year my mate got a Raleigh Chopper bike and one of my other mates got a Raleigh Grifter, I had a racing bike and we all put cards near the wheel to make a motorbike noise.
Fantastic times, probably "rose tinted specs" Can I go back please, you don't realise how easy life was.... carefree times
- Pete
I was 9 too, and I did exactly the same as you! I bought my very first LP "top of the pops - 1976" had a picture of a lady in a bikini on it....
I remember playing out until it got dark, we played football on the field near us which had trees everywhere so we had to dribble the ball around the trees. We used our shirts as goal posts.
I remember having water fights with fairly liquid bottles filled with water. I think that year my mate got a Raleigh Chopper bike and one of my other mates got a Raleigh Grifter, I had a racing bike and we all put cards near the wheel to make a motorbike noise.
Fantastic times, probably "rose tinted specs" Can I go back please, you don't realise how easy life was.... carefree times
- Pete
You posted this topic on July 7th, I was 3 years old on that very day and remember exactly what I did, we moved from Leicester to Norwich and I remember it being madly hot, Mum and Dad sitting outside on deck chairs and me running round my massive new garden. Probably remember it as we have Polaroids of us arriving and sitting outside that night.
Also remember the road melting under the removal truck, which I had never seen before, as it left there were tyre marks where it had melted.
Don't remember anything else about that year really apart from that Brotherhood of Man song that seemed to play constantly.
Also remember the road melting under the removal truck, which I had never seen before, as it left there were tyre marks where it had melted.
Don't remember anything else about that year really apart from that Brotherhood of Man song that seemed to play constantly.
Eric Mc said:
prg123 said:
I remember having water fights with fairly liquid bottles filled with water.
Sounds like you made a breakthrough in materials technology. You should have patented it.Or perhaps you meant this -
WOOOOOOOOSH!!!!
Super bouncy balls. We used to chuck them on the road to see if they would bounce over the house. Nine times out of ten they would...and then they would be lost
Eric Mc said:
Sadly, the summers of the 1970s were not particularly "endless". Apart from the scorcher of 1976 and a fairly good 1975, the summers of the rest of the 70s were pretty mixed. 1974 and 1977 were awful I remember.
They may have been, but looking back as someone who was 9 in 1980, they felt like they were endless.
Morningside said:
Bicycle pump, football adapter, bi-carb of soda+vinegar and drainpipe...
WOOOOOOOOSH!!!!
Super bouncy balls. We used to chuck them on the road to see if they would bounce over the house. Nine times out of ten they would...and then they would be lost
Lol, i forgot about the bouncy balls!WOOOOOOOOSH!!!!
Super bouncy balls. We used to chuck them on the road to see if they would bounce over the house. Nine times out of ten they would...and then they would be lost
We also used them for long range knock down ginger....why did they call it that?
keslake said:
Lol, i forgot about the bouncy balls!
We also used them for long range knock down ginger....why did they call it that?
Bouncy balls, I had forgotten too, trying to get them over the house was always a great way to loose your new one. We also used them for long range knock down ginger....why did they call it that?
It came from a song....
Ginger, Ginger knock on a winda.....
Or something like that.
I remember we decided to do this one night at the 'old grumpy gits house' but rather than just knocking on the door and running we put a massive branch against his door that we had found.
We all carried the branch up to the door, knocked on the door and ran, but our mate Phil was stuck between the branch and the door. As the door opened he fell into his hallway. The look of sheer terror on his face as he tried to scrabble out over the branch with the 'old git' trying to drag him in by his ankles is something that I will never forget. We all stood at the end of his drive wetting ourselves.
The other classic was hedge jumping, trying to clear the street as a race over everyones back gardens without breaking something, or someone or getting caught.
Making as much noise as you could if you were in the lead so the owners came out and caught the poor fat kid at the back.
Grabbing hold of the streetlights and shaking them as hard as you could to make the wire inside rattle against the pole. The trick was to try and get them ALL to rattle while running down the road.
I don't ever remember it getting dark. It must have, but I just don't remember.
Finding a load of dirt and making a track for your matchbox cars.
I don't ever remember it getting dark. It must have, but I just don't remember.
Finding a load of dirt and making a track for your matchbox cars.
My dad used to live in a road of Victorian terraced cottages in north Watford as a boy, and he with four brothers, used to tie fishing line from knocker to knocker to knocker, criss-crossing the road. Start it off by knocking on the first door and when they open theirs, it knocks on the next one, and so on. No cars in Watford in those days so it worked. The very thought of the chaos that must have resulted makes me chuckle even now.
StuntmanMike said:
Eric Mc said:
Sadly, the summers of the 1970s were not particularly "endless". Apart from the scorcher of 1976 and a fairly good 1975, the summers of the rest of the 70s were pretty mixed. 1974 and 1977 were awful I remember.
They may have been, but looking back as someone who was 9 in 1980, they felt like they were endless.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff