Heritage Hints From Mama – Days Before Air Conditioning
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Today my mother, Janice Davis, shares her memories of the summer days before air conditioning! I sure enjoyed reading this and hope you will, too. Gratefully, Christy
Do you remember the days before air conditioning? We got our first air conditioner when I was five years old and we moved into our new home. I remember the noise that it made. Until we got used to it, the sound was deafening.
Before we moved into the new home, we lived in a small house in a close knit neighborhood. We had a box fan that was installed into a window in the living room. All of us kids would sing into the fan. It made singing a great pastime as it threw the words back out at us. It didn’t hurt that we also had the cooling breeze in our faces.
My grandmother had a small oscillating fan that sat on a table in her living room. We loved to put our finger on the center circle of the fan as it spun around. The grownups always fussed at us and told us that we were going to cut our fingers off and not to do it. I think the danger of it is what encouraged us to always give it a try. No one ever cut their finger off that I knew of though – but that isn’t to say that today’s fans couldn’t accomplish such a thing (in other words, don’t try this at home!).
We lived next door to my grandmother. I remember one day that my cousin and I wanted to play in my house. My grandmother kept us during the day and we weren’t allowed to go in house because my parents were at work. We decided that if we were sweating really bad that my grandmother would be worried that we were too hot and would allow us to go there to cool off (We had air conditioning but Mama Reed didn’t). We went to the hose and doused ourselves from head to toe with water. I’m sure my grandmother knew what we had done but she let us go next door to play. I can still remember us trying to decide how wet we should be in order to be convincing enough.
Thinking back about the hot days of summer, I didn’t really remember the heat so much as the memories of the summertime days. Playing with friends and family and enjoying the carefree days took over the memories of how hot Southern summers were. I hope that you have nice childhood summer memories also.
All of these are memories that our children will never know. I don’t remember thinking that it was so hot outside or anywhere else we went. There was no air conditioning in stores, churches or restaurants. Everyone was used to the heat and seemed to cope pretty well.
Kids would get up in the morning, eat breakfast and then head outside for a day of play. There was no reason to stay inside since the temperature inside was usually at least 10 degrees hotter than outside. We ran, played in the hose, built clubhouses, and caught honey bees in fruit jars. Heat sure didn’t slow us down any!
Now parents have to try to get their children to go outside and play. Children nowadays are used to being inside where the air conditioning keeps the house nice and cool but I can’t help but think they’re missing out on one of the best parts of a childhood.
Do you remember the days before air conditioning? Do you remember playing in the hose because it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk? Did you have a large box fan in your window?
I look forward to reminiscing with you in the comments below and remember, Mama loves you!
Love,
Mama
Life is too serious to be taken seriously.
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Yes!!! I remember all of that ! What a great childhood I had,too! It saddens me greatly that children of this day and age will miss all that. Sometimes progress is really regress.
Now I live in Michigan and it get warm here but the lake seems to keep us cool here. Just wanted to thank you mama we did got to the family reunion!! It was a long drive for my 2 children but my great aunt was so happy to see us all.
We didn’t have air in our house until I was about 4 or so and then there was a big air conditioner in the kitchen/dinning room and a small one in my folks room ( my dad had arthritis in his knees and the fan inflamed it.) We kids slept under the attic fan. In the hottest part of the summer we would drag out mattresses in the dinning room and sleep under that one. But the attic fan was much more fun. We’d pin our sheets to the wall around the window and it made the most wonderful air filled tents. I actually miss that now.
Our schools didn’t have air in them either until I was in about the 5th grade, and then what we had didn’t work very well, so mostly we just kept the windows thrown open and let the fresh air in.
We played in the water sprinkler and my favorite was in summer showers. We play in the water puddles left behind for hours. I still remember the feel of that warm water after the hot cement heated it up. We’d eat ice cold watermelon on the back porch and see who could spit their seeds the fartherest. And I remember chasing the ice cream man blocks away just to split a popcycle with my little sister.
Yep those were good memories, but not sure I could handle that kind of heat any more.
I once told a yankee friend that we down south were closer to heaven than they were up north. His reply was that it seem from the heat we were closer to something alright but it wasn’t heaven!
I grew up in southeastern Oklahoma and we didn’t have air conditioning until I was about 12. I promised myself that when I grew up I would have a good job so I could always afford air conditioning. I, too, can remember sleeping with my head in the window just trying to get some air at night. Kids nowadays don’t know what they’re missing! We had to have good imaginations and be creative because we didn’t have all the expensive toys they have now. I also remember when people would drive into town and sit on Main Street in front of a store that sold televisions and had them setting in the front windows. People would sit in front of the store in their cars and watch the televisions. My husband said I should be embarrassed to tell that one.
How fun to remember back in the old days! Don’t mind telling everyone I’m 58, grew up in the hot Kansas sun, and these are my summer memories: No AC, but remember the water cooler where you had to keep going out to water it with the hose?…I loved laying in front of it while it spit out bits of water. I remember playing outside until supper, washing and drying the dishes which was my job, and then back out again until dark…always had to be home by dark and my parents never worried about someone snatching me up! I remember catching lightning bugs, collecting locust skins, skating with skates that attached to my hard soled shoes, playing hopscotch and Mother May I, and sitting on the big old porch while it rained…remembering the fresh smell of the rain hitting the dirt almost brings tears to my eyes. My friends and I pulled around a wagon looking for returnable pop bottles so we could have money to buy penny candy and cold bottles of pop for 8 cents at the small corner grocery store. I walked to my neighborhood school…there were no buses and everyone lived within walking distance of school. There were no hot lunches eaten at school…we all walked home at lunch time and mom had sandwiches, chips and koolaid waiting for us at the table. When dad got home at night, supper was always on the table and Lord help us kids if we weren’t there to sit down to supper because we always ate together as a family. My dad grew a big garden, and in the summer my mom and I canned pints and quarts of tomatoes, green beans, peas, corn, piccalilli, jellies, jams…what a satisfying time that was to put up what we would eat all winter long. My dad and brothers always fished down at the river which was a block or so from our house…caught lots of catfish which we fried and ate fresh…but also caught lots of big ugly old carp. There were just too many bones to fry those, but my mom and I would cut them up bones and all, and pressure can that carp. Open up a jar of carp, add cracker crumbs and an egg…and we had a great meal that rivaled salmon patties. I remember the housedresses and aprons my mother wore, the smell of the grass after my dad and brothers cut it with an old push reel lawn mower, tall goblets of iced tea and a jelly glass full of green onions on the supper table…Wow, I have got carried away, haven’t I? Memories just keep flooding over. Love your site and thanks for letting me share these precious memories.
I was out most of yesterday and just now reading this but I can so relate to not having Air-condition. I am older than you and we didn’t have it at all .. Mother had a little fan in the kitchen but that was all. We kids played outside all the time and hardly thought about the heat. I think we were just used to it. I had a pair of roller skates that hooked to your shoes and wore my skate key around my neck. I skated all day long . No one had to lock their door at anytime , so we could run in and out as we wanted. Today , things sure has changed. The Good Old Days are gone forever and that is sad… The children today like in a technical world and no one leaves their doors unlockked these days as it is a
dangerous world out there. We older ones do have our memories. Thanks for sharing. I want you to know that I dearly love your daughter. .
Janice,
I think we may be fairly close in age for I too can remember those long gone day’s of summer’s going outdoor’s early in the morning and playing the entire day away. But it was a different world back then. ; ) I would always turn a deep dark golden brown… and no I never burned and there was no need for sunscreen I don’t even think there was such a product out there then. All I can remember is Coppertone suntanning lotion and how I loved the smell. But then there wasn’t the danger from the sun like there is today. And I’m sure we got an occasional mosquito bite but did the West Nile virus exist then? I think not. The children of today most certainly live in a different world than we did. In today’s world we must now check to see how many child molester’s may live in our community. I didn’t even know we could do this till recently. It’s so scary. I have three precious grandchildren that I love dearly.
And it breaks my heart to see just how times have truly changed. Carefree day’s that we enjoyed as children I’m afraid are day’s forever lost… But we try as hard as we can to recapture some of those day’s and fun times that we had as kid’s and hopefully create some new lasting memories for our children of today. If we could just step back in time when life was simpler and time moved a little bit slower and huge old attic fans would bring in a welcome breeze on a hot summer night, oh how wonderful life would be! Anyway! I so want to thank you and Christy for bringing so much of your down to earth good ol wholesome family values to this site it’s such a breath of fresh air in today’s world. My grandchildren and I have enjoyed spending some of our summer day’s in the kitchen making something yummy that we saw on SouthernPlate.com . I do love the stories Christy share’s and now it’s so nice to hear some stories from her Mama.
Blessing’s,
Sheila