Air conditioning has become a ubiquitous part of our lives. We work in it, drive in it, and live in it in our homes. Even the cheapest built tract homes have central heat and air installed. And most older homes have had air conditioning added, whether central or with multiple window units.
But go back to our childhoods, and odds are there were a lot of windows open and fans running in the summertime.
We thought nothing of speeding down the highway with all four windows down in July. Sure, mom's hair would get messed up. But she would much rather deal with that than burn up in the heat.
And school in September! There we were, miserable after that much-too-short summer vacation, and to top off the agony of being back in class, it was at least 90 degrees in the room!
Most tract homes built before the mid 1960's simply didn't include the expensive option of air conditioning. Our home, built in the late 40's, had a floor furnace for heat. That was it. Summers involved having every window in the house open, and fans running everywhere. At night, a fan would be placed in a window to draw the cooler night air in.
And you know what? We didn't sit around complaining about how hot we were. We got used to it! It was life.
In 1967, dad sprung for an evaporative cooler like the one pictured. The concept is simple: water runs down big panels on each side of the unit. A large fan inside draws air through the water, evaporating it and getting cooled in the process. The cooler air is circulated through the house. You opened a window at the other end of the house to let the air escape.
They work very well in dry air, not so well where it's humid. Northeast Oklahoma is a humid place, but the swamp cooler did cool the air down enough that it was a good buy when air conditioning was still prohibitively expensive.
Movie matinees were another welcome summertime diversion. The tickets were discounted, and you got to sit in cool heaven while the movie played. Of course, that made the heat at home seem temporarily unbearable. But, you soon got used to it again.
I get a kick out of folks with narrow ranges of comfort. Every office has them: freezing at 70 degrees, burning up at 73. Ironically, many of these permanently dissatisfied individuals did just fine as kids when the living room temperature was in the upper 80's.
Comments (3)
We had one of these when I was in grade school in the 50's. We lived in an upstairs apt. until I was 12 and my grandmother visited us ever so often and stayed a while. One summer she had enough of the heat and went to Gambles downtown and ordered one of these. Boy, did I love this thing! It only cooled the front room, but at least it was a relief for one room anyway.
Liz KS
Posted by Liz | May 3, 2007 1:59 AM
Posted on May 3, 2007 01:59
Great post! From my own site in 2004:
In dog day Tulsa summers of yore, before air conditioning was affordable, the water cooler (now called a swamp cooler or evaporative cooler) was popular. It consisted of a large fan (looking as if it could be internally powered by a large rodent) which pulled the hot outside air through dripping pads kept soaked by a water pump, and blew the cooled air inside.
It was fun to get in front of the blower and adjust the vertical metal louvers to hit you full in the face; there was a distinctive sound and smell (from the wet pads, no doubt). I'm trying to remember the brand we had, maybe Artic or Olympic...
Posted by Mike Ransom | November 28, 2008 9:04 AM
Posted on November 28, 2008 09:04
Ah! The days without AC! That was us until about 1968. We always had those big black government fans working. Dad worked for the Federal Government and had access to many of these fans. Many days spent cooling down by waiting for the Good Humor man to come by and we buy popsicles. Going to the local grocery store was a great way to cool down. They had the coolers that were always cool! We also had our blow up swimming pools to keep us cool! We eventually got the window unit that went into the parents bedroom, but we were aloud to hand out in their to keep cool. Never had central AC to just recently. I remember in our little Maryland suburbs, everyone would sit out on the lawn with lawn chairs and a unbrella. Or just sit out on the front stoop. We did the open window thing with our car like Ron mentioned. Riding in a convertable was also a treat.Never had AC in school. And they never closed school if it was to warm. I don't really remember to much hot days in school. I do a lot of Civil War reenacting and living histories. Those experiences really give you a sense how ruff it must have been without electricity period! Even today, a good old front section of the local newspaper can be used to fan yourself!
Posted by Rivers End | June 6, 2009 6:44 PM
Posted on June 6, 2009 18:44