The Summer of '76
Discussion
NoNeed said:
Oh yes I remember the good old 70's with my dads Hillman Hunter that we couldn't use at weekends because that is when he was fixing it. I also remember those real itchy blankets in winter with frost on the inside of the single glazed wooden framed glass. Th toilet was down the garden so t night you either froze, well actually you wouldn't freeze because you would always tread on something in the garden that made you dance or you used the bucket. Come to think of it I also remember the tin bath that got put in front of the fire where you would quite literally be burning on one side while freezing on the other, oh those were the days.
Luxury. Monkeylegend said:
motco said:
I had an MG Midget and the top was down continuously for weeks at a time.
Same here, had a 1971 Midget in teal blue which we bought so we didn't have to take MiL and FiL out every weekend as they didn't have a car. Within a week they had bought a Ford Capri.It was my first convertible and we had the roof down all summer.I remember being pulled over by the police after a drag race way from traffic lights with a TR6, straight past a police car, well in excess of the 30 speed limit. He told us to slow down a bit and sent us on our way, those were the days.
Edited by Monkeylegend on Monday 7th July 21:57
I don't specifically remember that summer (I was 6) but I do remember hot summers as a child.
"Come back when it starts to get dark" my mum would say and we'd be off playing in the woods, farmers field in the straw (and once I had a ride in an open cab combine), jumping off the garages into straw, riding our home made bikes, doing a catamaran on our skateboards down a bloody big hill and corner, kissing girls (Yuk!), stealing Mars bars off the back of the milk float, touching willys with Gary Northwood (turns out I wasn't gay after all), holding onto the rear of the milk float on our boards, running across the flat roofs if the houses, shooting the neighbours washing with my air gun, running through the woods in my Clarkes Commando shoes, etc
"Come back when it starts to get dark" my mum would say and we'd be off playing in the woods, farmers field in the straw (and once I had a ride in an open cab combine), jumping off the garages into straw, riding our home made bikes, doing a catamaran on our skateboards down a bloody big hill and corner, kissing girls (Yuk!), stealing Mars bars off the back of the milk float, touching willys with Gary Northwood (turns out I wasn't gay after all), holding onto the rear of the milk float on our boards, running across the flat roofs if the houses, shooting the neighbours washing with my air gun, running through the woods in my Clarkes Commando shoes, etc
can't remember said:
Us kids dug a hole in the tarmac on our avenue, using lolly sticks, so we could play a game of marbles. My mother went crazy when I went home with tar on all my clothes.
The hole was there for years. It was like a monument to that summer.
The hole was there for years. It was like a monument to that summer.
fourpointsixgt said:
12 years old, we persuaded our considerably wealthier auntie and uncle to join us ( mum, dad, 4 kids) camping in Woolacombe with their 3 kids for 3 weeks.
That's where we were!!! I was 8 and My dad had a Peugeot 504 Family Estate (a petrol one that was crap, he got a diesel the next year) towing a CI Eccles Amethyst. We stayed at Mullacot Cross Caravan park and my overwhelming memories of that holiday are- the utter total rage I felt as there was a really spoilt kid in the next caravan and he had a little Italjet motorbike. I was soooo jealous. I actually think that this single incident a. got me into bikes b. made me a hugely materialist tw@t
- staying on the beach at Woolacombe as long as possible when the tide went in by building huge dykes out of sand
- floating around in big rockpools in a little inflatable dinghy
ETA: just found a pic of me and one of my sisters in said dinghy on said holiday
- my sisters and mum playing "penny falls" at the arcades in Ilfracombe
- ice creams when we got off the beach - my mum would never want one, but would want to try all of ours. Cue maximum rageface.
- brown grass and big cracks appearing in the lawn
- did I mention Spoilt b
d with the motorbike? Grrrr.Happy days.
Edited by Dog Star on Tuesday 8th July 09:32
keslake said:
....Anyone else old enough to remember that crazy, hot year?
Summer of '76, I had just turned 16, our all-boys school had merged with an all girls school in the May of that year. 
Summer of '76, I remember it well, but in truth I suffered horribly from hay fever and asthma.
Summer of '76, I took my O levels, failed miserably.
Summer of '76, I left school and got a job....
Summer of '76, my first girlfriend dumped me, broke my heart.
And it all went downhill from there. It is nice to think back, through those rose-tinted, selective-memory sunglasses, but in reality it was not as much fun as I'd like to remember.
GTIR said:
I don't specifically remember that summer (I was 6) but I do remember hot summers as a child.
"Come back when it starts to get dark" my mum would say and we'd be off playing in the woods, farmers field in the straw (and once I had a ride in an open cab combine), jumping off the garages into straw, riding our home made bikes, doing a catamaran on our skateboards down a bloody big hill and corner, kissing girls (Yuk!), stealing Mars bars off the back of the milk float, touching willys with Gary Northwood (turns out I wasn't gay after all), holding onto the rear of the milk float on our boards, running across the flat roofs if the houses, shooting the neighbours washing with my air gun, running through the woods in my Clarkes Commando shoes, etc
I hope Gary Northwood is not reading this!"Come back when it starts to get dark" my mum would say and we'd be off playing in the woods, farmers field in the straw (and once I had a ride in an open cab combine), jumping off the garages into straw, riding our home made bikes, doing a catamaran on our skateboards down a bloody big hill and corner, kissing girls (Yuk!), stealing Mars bars off the back of the milk float, touching willys with Gary Northwood (turns out I wasn't gay after all), holding onto the rear of the milk float on our boards, running across the flat roofs if the houses, shooting the neighbours washing with my air gun, running through the woods in my Clarkes Commando shoes, etc
I forgot about skateboards. The local council promised us for years that one would be built... it was, 20 years later.
We had go-karts. Well, I say go-karts. They were in fact builders planks with pram wheels attached and by using a nail and hole arrangement you could join about 4 or 5 together as a train.
Our road was great being a dead end as you could race from the 'top road' all the way down to the garages.
Other great things were:
Kick post.
Riding your bikes over home made ramps.
Running over the garage roofs.
Going over the marshes to smoke...and cough your guts up.
Going to the beach and looking for old light bulbs that had washed up off the trawlers.
Moving all the straw bales to make dens and getting told off by the farmer.
Talking of dens, they were great. I had one with an electric light via a car battery.
Great times.
We then went to the 'Big School' and it was never the same after that.
remember it well, holiday in snowdonia, 2 weeks in Wales without rain, bet that doesn't happen often :-)
We built a tree house to get some shade. And long days spent in the neighbours swimming pool, bet they were glad they had a swimming pool and all the local kids would end up there every day.
We built a tree house to get some shade. And long days spent in the neighbours swimming pool, bet they were glad they had a swimming pool and all the local kids would end up there every day.
A summer like that now would bring the country to its knees.
You might even see kids playing in the open air and having harmless fun, that'd be something and imagine females sunbathing in a park.
For all the liberation we've gone through I think there was more flesh on show then.
I remember the scorching days, each seemed to merge into the other.
At age 10 I just played football everyday, shirts v skins with a rush goalie, drank orange squash which was always warm.
Didn't know air con existed, we just opened the car windows. Went to Brighton a few times and ate a lot of simple picnics.
Life's changed, not massive sea changes but in lots of little ways that add up. Kids now would moan if their drink came off the shelf and, horror of horrors they get their own can. As one of four brothers we would share a can between two.
I remember grass catching fire at the cub hut and being hosed down after playing sports or bike riding.
Reading this it all seems so simple, you could just be left to it. Nowadays kids seem to need to be entertained where we entertained ourselves.
You might even see kids playing in the open air and having harmless fun, that'd be something and imagine females sunbathing in a park.
For all the liberation we've gone through I think there was more flesh on show then.
I remember the scorching days, each seemed to merge into the other.
At age 10 I just played football everyday, shirts v skins with a rush goalie, drank orange squash which was always warm.
Didn't know air con existed, we just opened the car windows. Went to Brighton a few times and ate a lot of simple picnics.
Life's changed, not massive sea changes but in lots of little ways that add up. Kids now would moan if their drink came off the shelf and, horror of horrors they get their own can. As one of four brothers we would share a can between two.
I remember grass catching fire at the cub hut and being hosed down after playing sports or bike riding.
Reading this it all seems so simple, you could just be left to it. Nowadays kids seem to need to be entertained where we entertained ourselves.
Summer of 76:
Barry Sheene, James Hunt, Hosepipe Patrol vans, 'what a scorcher!', chopping the Suzuki 250 for a CB750 Four, commuting from Surrey to Devon to see the GF at weekends, skinny dipping in the Dart at midnight, ice-cold Guiness, Save water bath with a friend t-shirts, mini-skirts + bikini tops everywhere
What's not to like
Barry Sheene, James Hunt, Hosepipe Patrol vans, 'what a scorcher!', chopping the Suzuki 250 for a CB750 Four, commuting from Surrey to Devon to see the GF at weekends, skinny dipping in the Dart at midnight, ice-cold Guiness, Save water bath with a friend t-shirts, mini-skirts + bikini tops everywhere
What's not to like
motco said:
1970 1275cc in Blaze red - flat topped rear arches where yours were rounded I suspect.
Yes mine was the 1275 with round arches. Had great fun with it for a couple of years as my only car, sometimes wished I had kept it, but moved onto a Lotus Elan from there and then very swiftly onto a GT6. Lasting memory is hitting the roof of the parents car when trying to sit down.
Ford Cortina, plastic seats. My sister and me wearing shorts. Day out in the lake district, get back to the car, the seats were hot. Very hot. Insanely hot.
There is also the time when the clutch went on the cortina travelling up to family in manchester for an uncles leaving do - he was moving over to Australia. Mum won't go near a Ford since then.
Ford Cortina, plastic seats. My sister and me wearing shorts. Day out in the lake district, get back to the car, the seats were hot. Very hot. Insanely hot.
There is also the time when the clutch went on the cortina travelling up to family in manchester for an uncles leaving do - he was moving over to Australia. Mum won't go near a Ford since then.
Morningside said:
I hope Gary Northwood is not reading this!
He was my best mate at junior school so obviously I tried to Google him but there's nothing. We also shared a girlfriend but she went further with him. I'm pretty sure the whole willy touching episode was a ruse to discredit me with 'our' girlfriend!
Maybe he's dead. Serves him right the swine.
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