I don't know why, but 1976 has always seemed like a special year. Perhaps it is because it marks the end of an era more precisely than an artificial division by decade alone.

I was thirteen, living in California. I remember that it was the bicentennial year for the U.S. and there being commemorative coins issued for it. I had a friend whose parents were hippies. I remember that they used cigarette ashes to somehow help their plants to grow better and that they didn't flush their toilet after each use (to conserve water I think). Drugs (marijuana and acid) were readily available and may have been sampled by yours truly. I don't remember it being extraordinarily hot in Cali., as it apparently was in England. The following year we got to see Star Wars and my hippie neighbours took us to a "Save the Whales" exhibition/fundraiser.

"Does anybody else in here feel the way I do?"

Hi Daisy,

I think you are right that 1976 was a special year. Apart from the heat wave in England 1976 marked the early beginnings of Punk.

The play Abigail's Party, broadcast on Play for the Day in 1977 captures some of the spirit see [www.retrowow.co.uk].

By '76 the hippy era was on the wane. Something different was on the way, but we didn't really know what.

Retrowow

By 1976, we had abandoned hippy influenced clothing, like loon pants and tank tops. We did (here, anyway) try to dress like Peter Wyngarde, but straight jeans and pegs (anyone remember them?) were just around the corner. But 1976 will always be, for me, the year of the heatwave; dried river beds revealing embedded pieces of rusty bikes and prams, and newspapers like The Sun suggesting that we should share a bath.