In message , Metman2012
writes
After all, we all know that summers in our childhood were better than
they are now. But does the record confirm this?

Maybe I'm exceptional in lacking a pair of rose-tinted spectacles but,
with the glorious exception of 1959, I remember an awful lot of cool and
wet weather in the summers of my childhood (especially when we had
arranged to go to the seaside for the day!). The 1950s and 1960s were
not a vintage period for British summers.
--
John Hall
"One can certainly imagine the myriad of uses
for a hand-held iguana maker"
Hobbes (the tiger, not the philosopher!)