1976

[GTB]

I got talking to a neighbour this morning and the subject got around to the dry/drought summer of 76. My father and uncle have been saying that there are many similarities between the dry spring this year and the spring of 76. Apparently there had been a cool easterly wind all spring and then it turned to a warm/hot easterly wind which blew all summer. I remember all the grass burning off and all the springs drying up. We had to pump water up from the river for the cattle. We had an old fordson major with a pto driven pump and around 500 yds of black alkathene filling into old bath tubs. I seem to remember the first rain arrived on Talybont show day, August bank holiday Saturday.

I'm sure a lot of you will have memories of that year?

 

[Tim W]

The big difference between 1976 and now is that I have aged a bit

In '76 the dry summer was great ---- we sat by the lake drinking cider and swimming when we got a bit hot . Gone down hill ever since I reckon
Now I've gotten a responsible attitude and too much cider gives me a hangover or sends me to

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Thankfully I was nothing more than a twinkle in my dads eye that year

 

[KMA]

Remember driving over the back road from Heathhall to Auldgirth, Just after Dalswinton you come over a rise and can see a lot of the Nith Valley from Dumfries to beyond Thornhill, it was like the Sererengeti, even the trees were brown and every watercourse was just shrinking puddles getting more and more crowded with dying fish. Pretty unforgettable.

 

[phillipe]

in 76 @Gator had no internet,nothing changes

 

[S J H]

Grandad bought 3 new cars and 3 colour teles from 7 acres of lettuce in 1976. I think a lot could change yet, we're only in May

 

[Yale]

Grandad bought 3 new cars and 3 colour teles from 7 acres of lettuce in 1976. I think a lot could change yet, we're only in May

Hopefully as the grass isn't really growing.

 

[Clive]

I'm too young to remember it but wasn't the thing about 76 that 75 had also been very dry and that compounded things ?

 

[AGN76]

It rained the day I was born, and that has set the tone ever since!

 

[AGN76]

in 76 @Gator had no internet,nothing changes

Who?

 

[Niteforce]

76 round here =loads of new tractors P reg . everyone says it was P for potato.!!!

 

[phillipe]

Grandad bought 3 new cars and 3 colour teles from 7 acres of lettuce in 1976. I think a lot could change yet, we're only in May

why did he buy 3 teles? watch all 3 channels at once?

 

[S J H]

why did he buy 3 teles? watch all 3 channels at once?

3 brothers

 

[phillipe]

excellent,

 

[pycoed]

1976 - the year I met missus, what a summer to be young! My favourite swimming pool up on the Beacons was too warm for refreshment, so we took to swimming in a pool on the Usk near Cray where my mate had caught an 11lb salmon a couple of years previously.
We only had water on from 06:00 to 06:30 then 18:00-18:30 so it was a rush to get home from work, get showered then off to Swansea to meet her.
A perfect summer of sun, swimming, sex & cider <sigh> these days cider sends her to sleep, we haven't been to the beach for 2 years .......... & don't mention the other!
Oh I do wish it was 1976 again

 

[CrevisbigX]

Thought 2012 started off dry like this then it started to rain and never stopped.

 

[GTB]

Thought 2012 started off dry like this then it started to rain and never stopped.

Yes it did indeed.

 

[Baker9]

The summer of 76 was great, I had just left school and had started my first job in an office. I remember sitting out side the office before it opened at 9am watching the talent walking down the street in their mini skirts and the school girls also in their minis. I was 18 at the time so it was ok to be interested in them, different now as I am a lot older.
I remember it as the endless summer, the summer of 95 was very warm and dry also as we had no rain for six weeks in July and August.

 

[Wheatonrotty]

I'm too young to remember it but wasn't the thing about 76 that 75 had also been very dry and that compounded things ?

Being considerably younger than you i cant remember it either, but it was in the era of ripping out hedges and moving ditches. One brook that normally runs all winter was moved by Dad and Grampa in September 75 and didn't run until September 76.

 

[turbo]

They tell me we had snow here on June 1st in 76 and that was the end of any moisture untill october