The hot summer of 1976

Gail

Gail

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Seeing @Ontiken1 's pic of his Triumph in the summer of 1976 made me think back to those long hot days!!

If you're old enough to recall.....what do you remember most of that sweltering summer?

I was taking my O levels.....the very strict uniform rules at our all girls school were relaxed for the exams and we were allowed to wear t-shirts. What was equally unheard of was being allowed to take bottled water in as well.
 
I was 19 and in Ilfracombe and Woolacombe in Devon for 2 weeks that summer with 4 friends. We were all apprentices at Round Oak Steel Works, that's now sadly gone.
As well as being a memorably hot summer it was also the first time I had been away on holiday in my life. Up until then we made do with day trips as my dad was a labourer who chose to work through his holidays to get the extra cash to raise us and keep a roof over our heads.
I remember buying some new Levis jeans to go away in and chose to shrink them to fit in the Woolacombe surf.
Had my first holiday romance with a girl called Debbie from London.
 
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Early June was doing my 1st year exams at Leeds uni and later enjoying the free time at our local campus pub garden 'The Fav' or Faversham. Great life and no worries until the results came out.
 
Yes I can remember the very hot summer of 1976 :p
All the roads were melting and our shoes used to stick to the tar when we walked across the roads :)
I was only a young girl but I can remember it well :)
No sun cream either if it happened now people would stay indoors ;)
 
A year later I was in Torquay with the same group of friends, and woke up on the morning of 16th August to hear that Elvis had died. Can't believe it was nearly 40yrs ago.
 
I was the ripe old age of 10. We lived at 48 Belle Isle Brampton near Huntingdon and I went to Brampton Junior school (opposite the Harrier pub if it's still there). Great days out fishing with the old man on the river Ouse and a couple of small man made lakes. No family car, no Wi-Fi or computers and didn't come home 'till it was dark. Knock and run, conkers (no high vis or other PPE required), marbles and football. Much simpler times for all IMHO. Oh, bad hair doos and shocking clothing too boot.;)
 
Those were the days :p
Great days were my childhood :)
Lovely memories ;)
With my lovely sisters and friends ;)
Carefree days ;)
 
I had finished up college the year before going to night school. In 75 I had gone to job interviews and had accepted a job as a consumer credit representative for Continental Bank as I had majored in Finance. I had turned down a job with the government for the Department of the Interior working for the National Parks System. The following year, '76, was the Bicentennial of the US and they were hiring for Park Rangers for Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was in '76 that I realized what a mistake I had made. Banks are the worst companies to work for. Had I taken the job with the government, I could have retired after 20 years with a nice pension and benefits. You don't think of these things when you're a kid. My father had died 5 years earlier, so no fatherly advice. I used to drive down the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a VW Beetle whose engine I had worked on and made it into a hot rod. We used CB radios back then and everyone on the road was asking me if I had a Porsche engine in the car. Should have gone back to school for my Masters. Water under the bridge.............. Frankie
 
FRANKIE said:
I had finished up college the year before going to night school. In 75 I had gone to job interviews and had accepted a job as a consumer credit representative for Continental Bank as I had majored in Finance. I had turned down a job with the government for the Department of the Interior working for the National Parks System. The following year, '76, was the Bicentennial of the US and they were hiring for Park Rangers for Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was in '76 that I realized what a mistake I had made. Banks are the worst companies to work for. Had I taken the job with the government, I could have retired after 20 years with a nice pension and benefits. You don't think of these things when you're a kid. My father had died 5 years earlier, so no fatherly advice. I used to drive down the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a VW Beetle whose engine I had worked on and made it into a hot rod. We used CB radios back then and everyone on the road was asking me if I had a Porsche engine in the car. Should have gone back to school for my Masters. Water under the bridge.............. Frankie
Click to expand...
Hindsight is a wonderful thing @FRANKIE

"If"

Is a big word.
 
In 1976 I had a Triumph Vitesse, It was so hot I unscrewed the roof from the car and drove around without it. Later that year I bought a Marina TC. Wish we could have a summer like that again.

Mike
 
'76 saw me in my 3rd year of work at an agricultural engineering company, the harvest of that year was awful in so far as working on machinery which had been out in the hot sun, driven by a boiling hot engine and decided to break down.

Tony.
 
I remember it so well, I left my job as a houseparent in July. We were getting married in the September so was very busy. On 24th September there was a massive storm and our wedding day was cool and damp. It was a good day regardless of that and Richard even had a drink with the vicar in the pub before the ceremony.
 
S'truth, is it really that long ago Elvis died. As I said in my reply to Ontikens thread I had my first car with plastic seats, couldn't sit on them!. People were frying eggs on the pavement to prove how hot it was, was in Lands End with a school friend on a camping holiday. Ahh those summer days, the only way you know it's summer now is the temperature of the rain.
 
I was still at school in 76 bug remember the hot summer. Roads melting, livening in shorts when not in school and swimming in the mill pond. I don't however remember there being a hose pipe ban.
 
My main memories of the summer of 76 are thoroughly enjoying it except for all the heath fires around where I live. Every evening on the way home from work the sky in the east was full of smoke.
 
Ooh the summer of 76:)
This was the first time I went on holiday (on our own)
With Julie now my my wife. Down to Newquay in my mark 2 cortina
Did everything to make it like a 1600E my dream car of the time:)
Two long glorious weeks wall to wall sunshine young and carefree:)
One of our best holidays ever:)
Young ones of today think a heatwave is a hot Tuesday afternoon now:D
 
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