ENJOY A SUMMER YOU’LL SELDOM SEE AGAIN

THE last time a summer as summery as this stretched out before us was 1976, when some of us were too young to form a rounded view of Scottish weather.

We imagined the beach in Aberdeen was packed with bronzed families in bathing cozzies every summer and that splashing around in the North Sea was simply what Aberdonians did in July.

We took playing outside in the summer holidays for granted, believing whatever the game, it would happen in a heatwave.

Combine Harvester by the Wurzels was big that summer. So was Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee.

To this day, both evoke cloudless skies, molten tarmacadam bubbling up on the road outside our house and mothers slapping sun cream on kids before every playing outside session.

Playing outside, incidentally, was what we called it back then. Little boys would turn up on their mates’ doorsteps and ask parents if their progeny was coming to play outside.

Without handheld telephonic devices, it was the only way to do it. In the absence of said devices, it was also reckoned to be the most fun that could be had in the summer holidays. Some reckon it still is.

I know to some youngsters summer 2018 may feel like nothing special – but trust me, you could be middle-aged with a bad leg like mine before the next Scottish July that does the month justice rolls around.

So do yourselves and the national obesity crisis a favour.

Off with the phones, out in the sunbeams with you and get those loafing limbs moving.