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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Sure do remember. School was the worst though.
Remember sleeping at the end of the bed cause it seemed cooler? Or it got so nice and cool right before dawn, with the air coming in from the fan.
Catching lightning bugs? Running and playing after dinner, in the dark.
MiniSplits would be the almost all Energery Efficent heating and cooling resource
I lived in Holland for 4 years and I would say YES and NO. People (and I included) did ride their bicycles to neighboring cities that were maybe 30 to 45 minutes away. But I don’t know of anyone who would ride their bicycle for 3 or 4 hours. They would simply take the public transportation that is so readily available.
Yes i remember the days of no AC like you said we played outside most of the day. No video games or telephones and we were happy little children. I also remember going to grandmas house and sitting out under a shade tree she would spread out a quilt for us kids and we would just sit there and talk. Does anyone now a days do that just sit under a shade tree and talk?
Thank you for the wonderful post, I loved singing in the fan when I was little.
Growing up my grandparents raised me, after my grandpa died we lived on a very tight budget and we used a box fan in the window till the last couple of weeks of August when the heat would get to my grandmother and she would turn on the window unit in the tv room. It was the only room that would be cooled off and we would bring her full size mattress in there and sleep on it.
Now my girls have a chance to see what it was like growing up without air or at least to have one room cool, right in the heat of summer our central air went out and now we are all sleeping in the tv room!
Love these memories! We had no AC growing up, but my mother had a system for dealing with the heat. In the morning the sun was on the back of the house, so the windows and blinds were closed and the the fan(s) were set to exhaust. In the afternoon, we switched everything over as the sun came round to the front. We turned the fan around to pull the cooler air in from the back and set the fan in the front room to push out the hot air. I should also mention that the blinds had to be lined up just so – Mother liked them to look uniform from the street!
We played outside every second we could as kids. I don’t think our parents knew where we were most of the time, but it was a safer world then. We knew to be home for supper, but then we were right back out until we were called in for baths and bed.
We played so hard and got into so much we had rings of dirt and sweat around our necks. We called them “dirt necklaces.” They were a sign of a day well-played. I can remember scrubbing off the dirt and cooling off in a quick bath, which helped me fall asleep in the heat.
I feel badly for the kids today. I can’t remember the last time I saw a kid with a dirt necklace.
loved reading all your memories! i live in WI (yah, one of those d– yankees) and we had never had and still don’t have AC. The windows and doors are always open to catch a breeze. (don’t tell any one but i’ll be 76 this fall). This has got to be one of the hottest and most humid summers that i can remember.