The Summer of '76
Discussion
I was thirteen too, and remember syphoning the bath water onto the lawn some evenings. The soap scum looked good as a tide mark around the grass, very fetching.
Water fights in the estate - getting very upset when the big boys upped the ante by using buckets when all I had was a lousy borrowed water pistol.
Luckily on an estate there are always others to play with - we never took a summer holiday so we had to fill the days kicking about. Literally.
Somehow the shade of faded brown grass just matches the seventies so well - is that where BL got their colour inspiration for the Maxi?
Water fights in the estate - getting very upset when the big boys upped the ante by using buckets when all I had was a lousy borrowed water pistol.
Luckily on an estate there are always others to play with - we never took a summer holiday so we had to fill the days kicking about. Literally.
Somehow the shade of faded brown grass just matches the seventies so well - is that where BL got their colour inspiration for the Maxi?
Really great that so many here are in the age group to remember that year and love some of the photo's...more please!
It's true what a few have said about staying out all hours with your mates.
Pack your float rod, loaf of bread, maybe 1/2 pint of maggots and a packed lunch and off we went, only came home
when it was getting dark.
Thursday nights was Top of the Pops.
Red bus rovers on a day trip to London.
Crackerjack on a friday.
AA films at the cinema.
We had 2 holidays that year, a week each at Tenby and Bigbury Bay.
Someone invent a time machine........
It's true what a few have said about staying out all hours with your mates.
Pack your float rod, loaf of bread, maybe 1/2 pint of maggots and a packed lunch and off we went, only came home
when it was getting dark.
Thursday nights was Top of the Pops.
Red bus rovers on a day trip to London.
Crackerjack on a friday.
AA films at the cinema.
We had 2 holidays that year, a week each at Tenby and Bigbury Bay.
Someone invent a time machine........
HOGEPH said:
Got my first real six string
Bought it where there's a pick and mix
Played it 'til my fingers bled
It was the summer of '76
Yeah I had one of those Woolworths guitars too (I think it was a 'Sakai' and a JHS 6 watt amp). Bought it where there's a pick and mix
Played it 'til my fingers bled
It was the summer of '76
I would have been 10 in the summer of '76 yet I still remember it like it was last year; my Step Dad had sold his Mini Cooper S* by then and had a huge (to a 10 YO) 3.3 litre pea green Vauxhall Victor estate. Our legs would stick to the plastic seats and if it had been parked in the sun we had to wait about 10 minutes with the doors open, before getting back in for fear of being melted into the seat plastic.
It broke down on the way to a holiday in Cornwall and my Mum and Step Dad spent all of the holiday spending money (and more) getting it fixed and ONE night in an expensive hotel (the only one nearby that had vacancies). Of course as kids we didn't know this at the time, so it was a great adventure to us and a holiday we always remember due to the 'posh hotel' and the amazing weather (all our other caravan holidays seemed to be two weeks of rain
).* Apparently I didn't speak to him for 3 days after he sold the Cooper S, perhaps that was why he offered me the RS2000 he later bought when time came to sell it.
Edited by OldSkoolRS on Tuesday 8th July 16:59
One of my favourite years.
Started secondary school in Clapham
Saw Jaws at the ABC Croydon
Spent some of that summer up and down Brixton High Road (mum was working in a shop and took me with her)
Went with my Dad in a hired Datsun 100A to view Milton Keynes - we moved there the following year.
Had my Raleigh Chopper nicked in Stockwell.
Going to Brockwell Park outdoor Lido (used to be packed in the summer)
Getting my first Dr Martens
Buying Action comic (Hookjaw, DeathGame 1999)
Started secondary school in Clapham
Saw Jaws at the ABC Croydon
Spent some of that summer up and down Brixton High Road (mum was working in a shop and took me with her)
Went with my Dad in a hired Datsun 100A to view Milton Keynes - we moved there the following year.
Had my Raleigh Chopper nicked in Stockwell.
Going to Brockwell Park outdoor Lido (used to be packed in the summer)
Getting my first Dr Martens
Buying Action comic (Hookjaw, DeathGame 1999)
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.
Cardboard box? You were lucky! I remember what we called blood mites. Little red insects that if you squashed them would leave a little dot of red. Just don't see them now.
Ice cream nearly every day.
The thunderstorm that ended it. The dark clouds coming the hill to the house.
That's it. I'm old and senile.
I was five too. I just remember long hot day playing in my parents garden and we also had a static caravan at Sheringham. Happy Days.
I'm sure there were loads of yellow/black Ladybirds too, and millions of those tiny little red spiders you used to get in the Seventies.
The last summer prior to starting school too.
I'm sure there were loads of yellow/black Ladybirds too, and millions of those tiny little red spiders you used to get in the Seventies.
The last summer prior to starting school too.
GTIR said:
Dog Star said:
ETA: just found a pic of me and one of my sisters in said dinghy on said holiday
Yeah. She looks like she's really enjoying it!
Exactly what I thoughtAh yes, '76
I was 13 and can honestly say that for me that year stands out against any other.
It seemed to go on forever, and it was hot in a way that I've never experienced since, either here or abroad.
On reflection it was however a very bad time to be playing with matches. I remember starting a small grass fire that caught on to a gorse bush. In a flash that bush went up and within seconds the whole heath of gorse bushes was ablaze. I can remember looking back from 3 miles away (having cycled as fast as I could without pausing) and seeing the horizon thick with fire and smoke.
I genuinely thought I had set the world alight and was beside myself with worry
Edited by RDJ on Tuesday 8th July 19:41
Morningside said:
Late summer reminds me of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNy5KltSNLQ
They're doing that here right now!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNy5KltSNLQ
plasticpig said:
E31Shrew said:
Got posted to RAF Brawdy for the whole summer. Had to lie around on the airfield all day taking airframe numbers for a FOD. Survey ( Foreign object damage! )
18 years old and not a a care in the world
Six year old and spent the summer keeping cool in the sea at Newgale. IIRC 76 was a bad year for Brawdy as they lost 3 or 4 Hunters. I saw one of the crashes but I think that was in the autumn half term rather than the summer.18 years old and not a a care in the world
I seem to recall that one of the Hunters was flown by a pilot from the Iraqi Air Force. He became disorientated and hit the ground at full tilt , nose first, the remains were popped in a skip,,,,,,or so they say!
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff