The Long Hot Summer of 1976

I spent the afternoon in our north facing living room with the curtains and windows shut and watched A Place in The Sun! The outdoor thermometer crept up to 34 in the shade which is no temp for man nor beast to safely enjoy. I had spent the morning on trolley duty at the hospital which wasn’t as hot as I expected it to be . The worst bit was the walk uphill home and I drunk a bottle of water on the journey. Away in the distance I saw a stupid human walking a black dog. Mental!

I decided to take out my box of old photos and came across a few of my first holiday with my two friends Avril and Fiona. We went to Blackpool to an apartment which cost us 15 quid a week each. We spent afternoons from 12 to 4 in the Bierkeller, drinking steins and making new friends and singing and the long tables. It was fabulous! We would tumble out into the heat and this pic is of one day we decided to cool down in the sea with our clothes on. I have no idea who these guys are - we must have met them at the session lol! The last pic is me at the end of the week lookin g seriously awful haha

We’d have some food , I don’t remember ever eating much, then we would head back to the Bierkeller again! We met this crowd of guys from Paisley and hung out with them at times. Towards the end of the week we discovered we had not enough money way for food and drinking out so something had to give. Hmm not much food eaten for the rest of the week ….. no credit card in those days… On the Friday night before leaving the next day, all the folks we met at the BK decided we would have a beach party as the BK was just across from the beach on the front. We all conga’d down singing our words to the Alex Harvey song ‘we’re going to the party, we’re going to the Blackpool Beach Party’. We arrived on the beach and we’re singing and dancing when not long afterwards the bloody police arrived and told us to get home!!! Spoilsports.

I arrived home on the Saturday an absolute wreck and was off ill for two weeks after it. My mum was not impressed but I did’ t give a shit we had the best time.

And we met the Paisley guys after the holiday which was another story in itself!!! Big mistake!