Prolonged British summers. Do they exist?

Everyone was flat broke in the 50's but we were all the same,there was no such thing as envy,no buy now pay later,the only people with cars were GP's,no TV's,if you were sick you still went to work,you took your own teeth out or waited until they dropped outand on average you had morals,values and principals and standards

 

I remember the '3 day week' very well but I don't remember it being in *that* heat! It had a stronger effect because it was in the winter of '74 - started in January. We kept working without power and I remember the important thing from our point of view was the lack of light to work by.

Although factories had a 3 day week shops had a five day week with two hours of power in the morning and two in the afternoon. We kept working in the late afternoon and early evening because we made our own lights. Apart from having a few small fluorescent caravan lights running off car batteries we made hundreds of oil lights. We used 4oz jars, filled them 75% full of clear mineral oil, laid a metal clip across the top of the open jar and had a piece of string gripped by the clip and dangling in the jar. The string worked as a wick and we used them like candles. all we needed to do was top up the oil every so often. don't know what 'Elf & Safety would say about that

'76 was a really hot summer for months. We had a bumper crop of blackberries from the garden and froze well over 200lb. We found the last of them in the bottom of the freezer last year .

There were plenty of hot summers and a number of quite long summers but nothing quite like 1959. The early part of the year was a lot warmer than usual (I seem to remember it hit 70F in Feb) and the summer started in April and went right through to October. I think it still holds the record for the driest summer. I ran a veggie stall in a market in the East End of London and I remember that when we weren't busy, during the excessive heat in the middle of the day, we sat underneath the stall (it was a large barrow) to try and keep cooler.

I seem to remember that 1955 was quite a dry summer with temperatures around 90F (low 30'sC) for a couple of months. That was my first year working on the stall and I nearly gave up because of the heat in July/August.

I think that the mid 90's were also long hot summers.

Don't get me started on reminiscing otherwise I might have to write another book!

 

Good morning all, the unions had their place and did offer a certain amount of protection to the workforce, but they were allowed to much rope and to much power,but as you know absolute power corrupts,whether it be an M.P, A union Official ,A policeman,A Celebrity,Council Official, A forum Moderator (Admin) and the vast majority of people including yours truly,its in our Genes

PS.These are personal observation's made on my travels in all walks of life and many different locations,and are not for or against unions in any way,and if anyone is offended by this post,then you should get a thicker skin (only joking)

 

1959 started my first job Hod carrying for 14 bricklayers