I remember trips across the Smoky Mountains to Indiana every summer to visit my Grandpa and Grandma. My Mom would get a galvanized bucket and buy a block of ice. She'd put three washrags in the bucket and during the car trip (all windows down) she kept the bucket at her feet and periodically handed an ice cold washrag to each of us. Our version of airconditioning. (My dad was a travelling salesman and he bought the first airconditioner that you could install in a car....it was literally a small unit that mounted under the dashboard and had three round vents that spewed cold air.
No air conditioning at home either. In the ranch house I spent my elementary years in, we had a big window fan in the kitchen that was designed to pull hot air out of the house; with all the windows open, it supposedly pulled a breeze through the house. I remember sleeping with my head at the foot of the bed because that was where the best breeze was. I also vividly remember wanting to sleep with my sheet up to my chin, holding on....my Mom arguing with me that it was too hot....but I was afraid that a witch would come and carry me off if I did not have hold of my sheet. (I refused to tell her this reason, though, because I knew she would laugh...)
In my high school years we lived on a small lake and had the value of that cooler breeze. However, I remember visiting one summer aas a young adult and refusing to budge from one spot in the den because there was a breeze in that one spot. During that visit, of course my mother was making homemade ketchup and steaming up the entire house....)
While living in Germany in the early 1990's , I was back to no airconditioning (of course it is only hot in June and July). We bailed out of the country back to the U.S. in June and came back in September twice, but the third year we were moving back and had to stay til mid July and it was HOT. There is a reason for European sidewalk cafes......restaurants are not airconditioned and you have to eat outside in July and August!
PURE BLISS!!!
Do any of you ladies of a certain age have living w/o airconditioning stories to tell? Let's hear them.
3 comments:
I don't have any stories to tell, but I have pretty much lived without air conditioning all of my life. I am by no means used to the heat even after all of these years!
I am a new follower from New Friend Friday, so glad to have found your blog. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Eloise
Mommy2TwoGirls
http://mommy2twogirls.blogspot.com/
Wow, that's hot! It's finally getting better here in MN, it's in the low 80's but quite humid which makes it uncomfortable! I've always been a weenie and had airconditioning. I remember my dad always trying to get my grandma to turn the air on when she was living alone but she never would. She said she grew up her whole life without it and she would be fine now without it. Stubborn! :-)
Growing up our cars did not even have air conditioning. I remember we suffered through the heat alot. Good thing we lived in an area where it also got below zero alot in the winter so we learned to appreciate the heat!! HA HA!!
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