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iremember the fun of playing water bombs in the street with all the other children and their parents

Too hot to study-A levels ,

Living by the beach in clacton on sea this was fantastic for me as i could spend all day in the water ! The only downside was we got swamped with ladybirds that year .

Isn't it funny how your mind stores memories in little compartments but they come flooding back so clearly when something triggers them. In the very hot summer of 1976 I was in college and everyone I knew was making Ginger Beer from 'Ginger Beer Plants'. I had made about 3 batches, each batch of about 4 bottles, and they were being stored in the sun lounge. We had drunk a few of the bottles but there were about 9 left. This particular day, I came home and as soon as I opened the door I was surprised to notice a very strong smell of ginger beer. The extreme heat had caused the bottles to explode and my poor mother had spent the entire afternoon having to clear up the broken glass and sticky ginger beer. Needless to say the 'plant' was thrown out and I didn't make any more but I am tempted to have another go ?

I got married in 1976, in August! We were originally planning on the 21st, but had to go for the 28th, as MIL and FIL to be had booked a holiday and the dates clashed.

About 3 weeks before our wedding we went to the wedding of some friends. It was extremely hot, and the ceremony (a Catholic one) was very long. I fainted, and had to be taken outside!

I spent the next weeks absolutely terrified that I might do the same at our wedding.

Well, I needn't have worried. The enforced change of date meant that we were getting married on the August Bank Holiday weekend, and what does it always do in Britain on a Bank Holiday............?

Yep, it absolutely p#ss@d it down!

My children were very young and I remember us having a wonderful summer despite the stand pipes. We even camped out in our garden several evenings.

My second DD was in her first summer and a lovely easy baby after the trials of DD1. I had one of those big old fashioned prams (Swallow I think) passed on from a friend. One of those prams that goes on for ever. It had a large parasol with a fringe around and seeing DD's little legs happily kicking above the side of the pram in the sun, those little fingers coming up to grab toes, turned me broody. Very broody. And in May 1977 I gave birth to my DS! We'd only planned two DC. If not for that hot summer he probably wouldn't be here.

(And wasn't Laura Ashley wonderful? Those lovely long loose dresses that could be worn with nothing, but nothing underneath!)

Oh, Gypsy I remember those ginger beer plants! My last effort exploded in the cupboard under the sink! Around the same time as the corks from a couple of DH's homemade wines came off. Stored on a rack on the back wall of the garage they made deep dents in the metal door at the other end. Had the car been inside (fat chance) I think the windscreen would have smashed.

And then there was the home brew beer. All done in the name of saving money!

sunbathing in the park near the school at lunch times and getting my thighs burnt so badly that i have never done it again (REDHEADS LEARN).

Holiday in Weymouth, with friends. One of the best holiday I have had, 2 weeks of glorious sunshine. Scorchio!!!!!!

I was living in Scotland and sitting my A levels. I left school towards the end of June and started work a week later. No such thing as a gap year then.

I think this was the summer of the ladybird. Masses of them. I remember my son in the garden being covered in them. We spent some wonderful days in the garden, bumper crops but lots of watering.

Yes I remember it well I had just left school and starting my first job I remember my first pay packet and buying myself dangly earrings gypsy skirt and new pair of shoes! No money left for rest of week!! My dad who tanned easily sat in the garden and browned nicely! In the Octobe I met my husband and the following year married so young and Nieves but hey ho we celebrate our ruby wedding this April so lovely memories and good job done!!

I was pregnant with my daughter (due Oct) and had a 18 month old son. He lived in the inflatable paddling pool in the back garden. I was so envious of my neighbours, sunbathing in their bikinis. I can remember wearing a voluminous cotton kaftan to try to keep cool, with the minimum of clothing underneath!

I worked on a ward in a psychiatric hospital where we all wore asylum suits and tie.I recall the Chief Nursing Officer sending a memo round everywhere,"due to the hot weather all male staff may take off their ties and jackets".

Remember taking a trip to the Lake District and walking around a village that had been exposed under a dried out reservoir .

In 1976 I was seven years old and I spent the summer holidays riding around my neighbourhood on my fantastic bike. It was a Tomahawk, the smaller version of a Chopper and I loved that bike to bits.

Can't have been that good or that bad,mmmmmmmm can't remember

I had a 7 yr old, twins of 4 @ also child minded a 2 & 4 yr old. They all enjoyed playing in the small paddling pool in the garden. I also used to make a picnic lunch & take them all on the bus to a park with a large paddling/wading pool. A friend with 4 children, also came. The children all had great fun, but I remember having to be on my toes, as the 2 I was looking after tended to run off & I had to take them in a tandem pushchair - not an easy feat on the bus, no foldable buggys in those days! It's making me feel quite hot & exhausted now just thinking about, it even though it's pretty cold outside at the moment.

Taking my books down to the beach to 'revise' for O levels.

I had a nosebleed every day that summer, I stood in the garden the day it finally rained, it felt lovely.

I too was pregnant - I watched Wimbledon stark naked and 8 months pregnant!

What a year - I was 15, going on 16, and will remember it fondly for ever as a year of "first times": first trip abroad, first kiss, first proper ( part-time) job, first diet, even! I loved the music, the heat, everything. Back then, I saw it as the beginning of my future, the exciting threshold of adulthood, and looking back now I think I was right. If there was one year I could go back to, that would be it.

yep, i'm old enough. was at school and i remember playing endless games of tennis, and cooling our feet in the stream afterwards

a holiday in Cornwall. I thought we were there for about 3 months but my mum assures me it was only for 10 days, it was glorious