Dog Days of Summer

The last couple of weeks have been so hot that I actually have worn some sleeveless tops.  That's hot folks, because all summer I wear sleeves, wraps, even sweaters, as I shiver in the air conditioning.  In our climate controlled world about our only experience with the heat is as we trot from our air conditioned cars to an air conditioned building.  (Farmers even have air conditioned tractors!)

My kids probably don't remember ever not having air conditioning.  (We did survive a couple of years on the farm before adding central air but we still had a room air conditioner.)

It was a different world back when I was growing up.  (This is not an "I walked 10 miles to school.." saga, but almost!)  Remember, my mom was the one that vowed not to return to the farm until she had electricity and running water, guaranteed.  It's amazing how quickly things change.

The first building air conditioned was.....the New York Stock Exchange. I guess that's a place you need to "keep your cool"!  That was 1902.  A man named Alfred Wolff installed a system using a waste-steam-operated refrigeration system.  He called it "comfort cooling".  It operated successfully for 20 years. 

1902 also saw the first office building air conditioned...the Armour Building in Kansas City, Missouri.

It was 1929 when the first room cooler goes on the market.  This refrigeration unit used sulfur dioxide as a refrigerant and had a capacity of one ton (12,000 BTUH) and was located outside of the house or in the basement.

By 1931 the first year round central air conditioning systems were on the market.  However, cost kept them very exclusive until the 1960's, when they became more affordable in new homes.

By 1947 window units were being mass produced.  That year 43,000 were sold in the U.S. 

I was born in 1949.  We didn't have a window air conditioning unit.  We had fans. I grew up in the '50's and '60's.  I vividly remember the one friend who had a window unit.  We would all crowd around the unit and let the frigid air chill us.  It was a rare treat as the unit was in her parent's bedroom!

Having air conditioning has completely changed the way we live. 

Before AC everyone spent more time outside.  It was just cooler under the shade trees than inside in the stifling heat.  Kids left the house and hunted a cool place to play.  My favorite spot was under some massive hydrangea bushes beside a neighbor's house.  There we would gather in the cool dimness and design imaginary homes and build roads and houses in miniature cities out of leaves and twigs.  When a mother decided we needed to be checked on, she would produce a pitcher of lemonade or koolade and we would flock to the front porch swing to sip deliciously cold drinks.  Nothing comes close to the feeling of a slippery, drippy, cold glass on a hot day.

Cars weren't air conditioned and being sweaty was just a fact.  People didn't stress over it.  Ladies learned to wear cotton dresses that wouldn't show "wet" with a drastic color change.  Light pastels and darks seemed to work best.  I remember we had a plastic mesh seat cushion for the driver's side that was about 1 inch thick.  The purpose was to give you some space for air to circulate so you didn't arrive at your destination too damp.  We also had floor vents that could be opened to let air rush in.  It would blow your dress up to indecent heights, but oh, it felt so good!  Everyone rode with the windows down and the air blowing in.  It gives you a whole new appreciation for the "helmet hair-dos" of the 60's.  Enough teasing and hairspray and a tornado wouldn't move it.

Meals would generally be light and cool, especially as the kitchen heated up during the day.  Supper would be fruit and cottage cheese, cold cut sandwiches, jello salads, meat salads, or my favorite, frozen fruit salad and lots of sweet, iced tea.  After supper everyone would gravitate to the yards where the air was noticeably cooler than the hot air trapped in the house.  The adults would relax under the shade trees or on the porches, often with a small chore that could be done outside.  Daddy might tinker with some small repair while mom would snap beans or even fold clothes.  Neighbors would drift by to visit or share some garden bounty.  The kids would gather for games of kick-the-can, hide and seek, croquet or badminton. (If you lived in the country you had to make-do with your siblings as playmates but you also had creeks to cool off in!)

As night fell you would retire to your bed and hope for a cool breeze.  Most homes had a window fan that would be used to pull air in the open windows.  If you were lucky, you had a big attic fan that would create delightful drafts of air as it pulled the hot air out and the cool nighttime air in.  I talked my mother into making my bed up from the bottom, so I could sleep at the foot in front of the open window.  I loved lying there in the moonlight listening to the evening sounds from outside.  A distant dog bark, a meandering cat's yowl, cars passing, music from a radio in someone's house, soft conversations from lingering adults, katydids chirping their wings together, whippoorwills calling everyone to bed, owls hooting the beginning of their nighttime hunts, and the crickets and frogs adding their chorus to the concert.

Yep.  It was a different world.  Now we stay inside and watch television or play on the computer.  We text, talk and message from one air conditioned spot to another.  We wear sweaters if we are going to a public place. 

Would I give up my air conditioning?  Heck no!  It also means that people are less cross, cranky, sleep-deprived, and just plain ornery.  I'll keep my air conditioning and just slip on this sweatshirt, thank you.

But I do miss the fellowship and friendliness of those soft, summer evenings.