# Summer days prior to air conditioning



## Fyrefox (Sep 26, 2019)

When growing up in the 1950's and 60's, air conditioning during the summer months was a rarity found most often in movie theaters and expensive stores.  I can remember going to grocery stores with my mother cooled only by large stand fans that pushed the  warm soupy air around.  School classrooms likewise had only one stand fan, if you were lucky!  

Cars likewise were cooled only by open windows, and you'd hope your parents would get the car moving up to speed so you could suck in air from cranked down windows.  Car upholstery was often vinyl, which really got hot when the vehicle sat in the sun. Wearing shorts when your bare legs hit that heated vinyl brought home the meaning of pain!

What memories do you have of coping with summer heat before air conditioning became commonplace?


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## Aunt Bea (Sep 26, 2019)

I remember my grandmother's Galaxy 500 had metal buttons in the upholstery that would heat up like branding irons on hot summer days.

The only solution to the heat that I remember was sleeping outdoors in the yard!


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## moviequeen1 (Sep 26, 2019)

I also grew up in the 50's and 60's,our family never had air condtioning for summer months
We had our screen in windows wide open or had fans circulating the rooms.


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## fmdog44 (Sep 26, 2019)

We had an old house built in 1875. I was large and stucco. We lived in a Suburb of Chicago. It was not bad because my dad installed a powerful fan in the upstairs window that drew the air though the house when the windows were open. Now living in Houston I can't imagine living without AC.


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## gennie (Sep 26, 2019)

Air conditioning is like everything else -- we don't miss what we never had.  We've spoiled ourselves and now have many 'can't do withouts.'


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## StarSong (Sep 26, 2019)

In the late 50s or early 60s my parents put a room AC in a large multipurpose room that could be closed off from the rest of the house.  We all gathered there during sweltering Long Island summer days.  

Like other posters, hot cars with burning seats and viciously hot metal dashboards were a part of my childhood that I don't miss one bit.


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## hollydolly (Sep 26, 2019)

Well apart from the larger stores and cinemas...the OP has just described the last 3 years here in the south. Most people do not have any AC in homes here in the UK , so with temps up to 100 degrees the last several years , we've all been suffering with just oscillating and ceiling fans to try and cool down ( almost  useless)...


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## JustBonee (Sep 26, 2019)

Living in NE Ohio back then, I don't recall intense heat waves like we have now.   Lived with open windows and  fans in the summer months, and we seemed to do alright. 
Remember getting our first room A/C for the bedroom.  Felt like a big deal... .


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## hollydolly (Sep 26, 2019)

Bonnie said:


> Living in NE Ohio back then, I don't recall intense heat waves like we have now.   Lived with open windows and  fans in the summer months, and we seemed to do alright.
> Remember getting our first room A/C for the bedroom.  Felt like a big deal... .


 Climate change, gotta be!!  The hottest part of the Uk is here in the south and East..temps in the summer aside from occasional unexpected bouts of very high temps once every few decades tend to stay around the  low to mid 80's, and as you say Bonnie, windows open etc would suffice ..but this past 3 years  and especially the last 2 have been up as high as 102 here, and the humidty really high , just far too hot to be without AC or pools... , and a real conern for the elderly and those suffering from breathing problems!!


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## JustBonee (Sep 26, 2019)

hollydolly said:


> Climate change, gotta be!!  The hottest part of the Uk is here in the south and East..temps in the summer aside from occasional unexpected bouts of very high temps once every few decades tend to stay around the  low to mid 80's, and as you say Bonnie, windows open etc would suffice ..but this past 3 years  and especially the last 2 have been up as high as 102 here, and the humidty really high , just far too hot to be without AC or pools... , and a real conern for the elderly and those suffering from breathing problems!!



"Climate change, gotta be!!"  ... for sure!   ....  Everything has changed,   and probably will continue to only get worse.


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## jujube (Sep 26, 2019)

Back then, cars had what we called "440 air conditioning".  You rolled all four windows down and went 40 miles per hour.

As for hot car seats......I still have a mark on the back of my right thigh from sitting on a metal seatbelt buckle while wearing short-shorts. 

Our first air conditioner was a puny little window unit we put in our bedroom window.  During the first heat wave of the summer, we moved the TV up there and would all huddle our bed to watch it.  Our daughter slept on our bedroom floor on her mattress until it cooled down.  Periodically the unit would "ice up" and we'd have to let it melt while we sat around and whined about how hot it was.  Thank goodness, there weren't that many really hot days in Michigan.

When we first moved to Florida, we only had a window unit in the living room and when it got really hot, we ALL slept in the living room. 

I can't remember particularly suffering back then.  Now, I'd probably just shrivel up and die without good air conditioning.


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## fuzzybuddy (Sep 27, 2019)

Many moons ago, when I was young and poor, I lived in a " railroad" apartment with only two windows- no fan. We went through a 'heat wave" of over a week. It was in the 80s at nite when it 'cooled' off. I just couldn't take the heat anymore, I had to spend my last dollar for an air conditioned movie theater seat.  As I got to the theater, there were these black clouds fighting in the sky. Then there was this curtain of rain moving across the valley. But right before the rain pelted you, was this beautiful cold blanket of air. It felt so good. Then the rain hit you, and washed all that heat away. I don't think I could have stood the heat one more second. Feeling that coldness was so refreshing and wonderful, I remeber it like it was 10 minutes ago, not a half century ago.


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## RadishRose (Sep 27, 2019)

Back yard kiddie pools, running through the sprinkler all day, the pool at the park, weekends at the beach.

But in the house was awful. We had one good fan and sometimes I slept on the floor.


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## C'est Moi (Sep 27, 2019)

We had a whole-house attic fan that was wonderful at night.   Open the screened windows and turn on that fan seemed like heaven.


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## RadishRose (Sep 27, 2019)

C'est Moi said:


> We had a whole-house attic fan that was wonderful at night.   Open the screened windows and turn on that fan seemed like heaven.


Those fans are wonderful! We had one in a new apartment complex many years ago, it was up the the ceiling of the stairwell.


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## Lc jones (Sep 27, 2019)

I remember we had been transferred to Fort Benning and the building that we lived in did not have air conditioning in the middle of a Georgia summer. We could only afford one fan and it was an oscillating fan so it went back-and-forth between the children’s rooms and our room all night long we managed to sleep through it and we spent most of our days at the swimming pool and getting ice cream treats at the snack bar. It’s funny but we never complained and we were very happy. That’s not to say that I don’t love my air-conditioning especially in Florida summer LOL


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## Don M. (Sep 27, 2019)

luckily, I grew up in Denver, and seldom worried about getting too hot.  We were only a few miles from the front range of the mountains, and there were a few days when the temps soared for an afternoon, but when evening came, the nice mountain breezes quickly cooled things down.  However, that was 60+ years ago, and between the urban sprawl and the warming climate, even Denver is now feeling the Summer heat.


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## Pecos (Sep 27, 2019)

We left Northern Idaho for West Texas when I was nine years old. Outside the change in weather was tough on us, but inside we were blessed with the cooling breeze from an old fashioned "Swamp Cooler" that added much needed humidity to our thick walled adobe house.


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## Trade (Sep 28, 2019)

I lived in Florida and didn't have air conditioning in the house until 1986. None of the schools I went to had air conditioning until I got to college. On hot summer nights I used to take a shower right before I went to bed. At the end of the shower I would turn the water all the way to cold and stand under it as long as I could stand it, which wasn't very long. Then I would get out of the shower dripping wet, not even touch a towel, put on a pair of boxer shorts with no shirt, get in bed, and turn on a box fan that I had on top of a chair next to the bed and have it blow directly on me while I was dripping wet, and go to sleep that way.

I can remember sweating in class. Constantly swatting gnats away from my eyes and ears, and then at the end of class getting up out of my desk chair and having my shirt stick to the back of the chair from being wet with sweat. Sometimes it would leave a brown stain on my shirt from the varnish on the chair. Kids would be walking around with wet spots on their shirts or blouses under their arms from the sweat.

Having to stop at a traffic signal at a busy intersection was pure misery. You could feel the heat rising from the hot asphalt as you waited for the light to change so that you could start moving and at least get some air flowing back in through the open windows.

And going to the beach thinking you were going to cool off in the water, only to step into the 90 degree Gulf of Mexico that felt like bath water.

But we survived and are better off for it, for that which did not kill us, made us stronger.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Sep 28, 2019)

For most of  my childhood I lived so far north that we called it "South Canada" so air conditioning wasn't anything we needed. Even on the occasions when we had a heat wave for a few days, nights cooled off so that it wasn't a problem sleeping. We lived in Hawaii for a while long before air conditioning, and I don't remember it ever being too hot to sleep.

Now? I prefer "real" air but without a/c...ugh! Our summertime nighttime temps rarely are lower than 75 with very high humidity so I turn the a/c on around 2 in the afternoon. As soon as I'm up in the morning, I turn it off and turn the control to "fan" and open my windows. Couldn't do this if my place was bigger, but being on the shady side of the house until afternoon helps to keep it comfortably cool.


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## Rosepetal1 (Sep 30, 2019)

Fyrefox said:


> When growing up in the 1950's and 60's, air conditioning during the summer months was a rarity found most often in movie theaters and expensive stores.  I can remember going to grocery stores with my mother cooled only by large stand fans that pushed the  warm soupy air around.  School classrooms likewise had only one stand fan, if you were lucky!
> 
> Cars likewise were cooled only by open windows, and you'd hope your parents would get the car moving up to speed so you could suck in air from cranked down windows.  Car upholstery was often vinyl, which really got hot when the vehicle sat in the sun. Wearing shorts when your bare legs hit that heated vinyl brought home the meaning of pain!
> 
> What memories do you have of coping with summer heat before air conditioning became commonplace?


I was a teenager in the 60's, growing up in NYC. I remember hanging out on my parents from stoop at night with my brothers and all there friends, laughing and joking around, just having a good time. We never got into much trouble because my mother was only an open window away. I often think about those times and what fun we had.
+


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## TravelinMan (Sep 30, 2019)

Fyrefox said:


> When growing up in the 1950's and 60's, air conditioning during the summer months was a rarity.



No such time! I grew up in the Arizona desert.  There was no life before A/C.


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## jujube (Sep 30, 2019)

RadishRose said:


> Those fans are wonderful! We had one in a new apartment complex many years ago, it was up the the ceiling of the stairwell.



Just don't turn one of those on when you have a roaring fire going in the fireplace...….memories of one Christmas Day in Orlando when we were DETERMINED to have a fire going.  Oh, we had a fire going all right......it just wasn't all in the fireplace.  It wasn't _too_ bad..... just a few scorched places on the rug and some plastic ornaments hanging from the mantel that had taken on some Salvador Dali-esque proportions.


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## Sassycakes (Sep 30, 2019)

*Before getting an Air Conditioner I remember most of the rooms in the house had window fans. It wasn't until my Dad bought our first Air conditioner that I learned what sweaters were for, because every time I told my Dad I was getting too cold he would say "That's what sweaters are for."*


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## Butterfly (Sep 30, 2019)

TravelinMan said:


> No such time! I grew up in the Arizona desert.  There was no life before A/C.



I pretty much grew up here in the NM desert, and everybody's always had swamp coolers.  Even the house my parents bought here in 1952 had a swamp cooler and it wasn't a fancy house by any stretch.  

Temps we get here and that they get in AZ just do not support life without some source of cooling unless you live in an old adobe house with foot thick walls.


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## fmdog44 (Oct 3, 2019)

The South is experiencing record heat nearly everywhere some area seeing temperatures of 100+. Very strange for October. It's 10AM at this writing and the temperature is 94 in Houston.


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## Pecos (Oct 3, 2019)

Butterfly said:


> I pretty much grew up here in the NM desert, and everybody's always had swamp coolers.  Even the house my parents bought here in 1952 had a swamp cooler and it wasn't a fancy house by any stretch.
> 
> Temps we get here and that they get in AZ just do not support life without some source of cooling unless you live in an old adobe house with foot thick walls.


Thick walls and a couple of big cottonwood trees.


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## hollydolly (Oct 3, 2019)

Rosepetal1 said:


> I was a teenager in the 60's, growing up in NYC. I remember hanging out on my parents from stoop at night with my brothers and all there friends, laughing and joking around, just having a good time. We never got into much trouble because my mother was only an open window away. I often think about those times and what fun we had.
> +









..*to the forum @Rosepetal1 *


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## Keesha (Oct 3, 2019)

What did we do before air conditioning?
Whined and complained a lot until we got air conditioning. 

We didn’t get central air but my parents did get an air conditioner for our living room and one for their bedroom which kept our house fairly cool. Enough that it stopped us from whining. Lol


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## Aunt Marg (Jun 19, 2021)

I remember sweltering days and nights well, but being younger I believe we were more resilient. Kids back in the day, and I was one of them, ran from morning until night, so when the call came for me to head home, I was exhausted, and once in bed, I was out like a lamp.

We kids ran under sprinklers, swam in our kiddy pools, and spent our days at the beach, where the scorching summer heat was nothing more than an occurrence. We were too busy to get hot, and I don't ever recall anyone complaining over being too hot.

When away from water, we'd find a shady spot under a tree or at the side of ones house and lounge around on the cool grass while dreaming and talking.

On nights when one of my friends in the neighbourhood would put on a sleepover, we slept in tents and/or tent trailers, and I can still remember the distinct smell of the thick canvas of tent trailers baking in the sun. We'd open all of the flaps up, have a slice of toast in the house, then make our way outside with flashlights to settle in for the night, gossiping into the wee hours.

I believe as kids the thought of being too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter, didn't figure into our fun, we just lived for the moment.

In my childhood home we had an old-fashioned round fan that sat in the living room, pushing what little air it did around the room and down a portion of the hall into the kitchen, and as a parent there was no concerning yourself over the sealing up the house after having everything open through the night, because with young and growing children, the doors were swung open and closed hundreds of times a day, which is what kids do best... in and out of the house every minute, of every hour throughout the day. 

I remember my mom had a plastic Rubbermaid popsicle tray thingy where she made up a jug of Kool-Aid or Tang, and filled each popsicle cylinder, then into the freezer the homemade popsicle tray would go and out would come refreshing homemade popsicles! Us kids lived off homemade Kool-Aid popsicles all summer long, and when times were extra good, we'd be treated to the Dairy Queen.

One of my neighbourhood friends had a fully finished basement (think cool temperature wise), and believe me, we kids congregated in it. There was a pool table, a ping pong table, a television, and a handful of beanbag chairs, and we made use of all! I remember it just like yesterday, the television on... Price is Right would be airing, as all of us neighbourhood kids would be busy playing games, ping pong... life was good and time stood still.

With my own children when they were young, I'd wet-down a washcloth using cold water, and give them a refreshing rub-down just prior to bed, but even with my own children I don't recall any one of them ever mentioning that they were too hot and couldn't sleep. Kids are tough.

Boy, what I'd give to relive a little of those lost yesteryear days.


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## bingo (Jun 19, 2021)

we had trees...big ...trees...lots...
they pave paradise  now...


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## win231 (Jun 19, 2021)

We didn't have central air conditioning until I was around 17.  
From age 4 - 16, I had several piano teachers (mostly Russian) who also didn't have (and didn't want) air conditioning.  I was a chubby kid & I vividly remember sitting & dripping for the whole hour.  The teacher would just open the window & chuckle.  And sweat.  

It's funny because now (after weight loss) the only problem I have is being COLD.  I'm only comfortable when it's at least 85; otherwise I'm dressed up warm.  I put 2 new air conditioners in my house but I only use them when I have company.  Same with my car air conditioner.  If I have no passengers, I don't use the air conditioner, even when it's 100 outside.


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## Pete (Jun 19, 2021)

Fyrefox said:


> What memories do you have of coping with summer heat before air conditioning became commonplace?


I was just thinking about this the other day when here in Texas it hit 99 with air so thick it was like a steam bath. Looking back my first home was on the East coast and usually only August was like this so we always tried to take our vacation that month and head to the shore in NJ for the ocean breeze. However what is an even funnier memory is when I lived in Northern Alaska for 20 years and when the temperature went over 70 I would melt from the heat..... 

I always said in cold weather you can always add layers
but here in Texas 
there is a limit to what one can remove !


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## MarciKS (Jun 19, 2021)

wasn't the insulation in homes better back then, too?


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## Aunt Marg (Jun 19, 2021)

MarciKS said:


> wasn't the insulation in homes better back then, too?


Worse... many homes didn't even have insulation.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Jun 19, 2021)

I don't ever remember complaining about the heat back in the 50s when I was growing up and we had some pretty hot days. The tar would melt on the roads and you could actually see the steam coming off the roads in waves. 
I'd call my best friend and ask if she could come over and play, we would meet each other. Determine when we had to be home and plan our day.  
We would play under the sprinkler or go off to play in the woods where it was always cool. 
Never ever did we play in the house. 
Once in awhile my girlfriend and I would be given money to get an ice pop which was a real treat. 

After dinner my family would sit out under the trees, I'd play for awhile by myself and then joined them when it started to get dark.
Kids didn't get together after dinner when I was young.
My grandpa would light what we called punks to keep the mosquitoes away and sometimes my grandma would bring out glasses of ice tea or homemade grape juice.
Finally they would pick up the lawn chairs and put them in the garage, My grandparents would say good night and make their way to their house which was next door to ours. 
My mom would give me a bath and if school was out I got to watch a little TV before going to bed. The windows were open and I slept like a log.


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## JustBonee (Jun 19, 2021)

Bonnie said:


> Living in NE Ohio back then, I don't recall intense heat waves like we have now.   Lived with open windows and  fans in the summer months, and we seemed to do alright.
> Remember getting our first room A/C for the bedroom.  Felt like a big deal... .




Oh my,  these old threads that resurface! 
...  how times have changed in a short span of 50 years ...

I not only couldn't live without an A/C unit,  I now have a large dehumidifier unit working with it 24/7. 

Like mentioned in above posts  - big trees,   and lots of them,   help.


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## Pecos (Jun 19, 2021)

Aunt Marg said:


> I remember sweltering days and nights well, but being younger I believe we were more resilient. Kids back in the day, and I was one of them, ran from morning until night, so when the call came for me to head home, I was exhausted, and once in bed, I was out like a lamp.
> 
> We kids ran under sprinklers, swam in our kiddy pools, and spent our days at the beach, where the scorching summer heat was nothing more than an occurrence. We were too busy to get hot, and I don't ever recall anyone complaining over being too hot.
> 
> ...


That is an excellent summary of how we lived as well. Frankly, we slept outside most of the summer in an old canvas pup tent that had no floor or screen door. I don't know if any snakes ever slithered in there with us, and I doubt that our old Cocker Spaniel offered much protection. From the open end of the tent we could see the full canopy of stars because "light pollution" was not much of a factor back then.

I am not sure how I would fare if I had to sleep on the hard ground again, but I was tough back then.


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## Aunt Marg (Jun 19, 2021)

Pecos said:


> That is an excellent summary of how we lived as well. Frankly, we slept outside most of the summer in an old canvas pup tent that had no floor or screen door. I don't know if any snakes ever slithered in there with us, and I doubt that our old Cocker Spaniel offered much protection. From the open end of the tent we could see the full canopy of stars because "light pollution" was not much of a factor back then.
> 
> I am not sure how I would fare if I had to sleep on the hard ground again, but I was tough back then.


I remember those old bottomless floor tents of the past. What a blessing it was when the makers of tents added nice water-resistant nylon floors, fly screens, and waterproof rain fly's.

I remember all of us girls scattered around in a circle in a family sized tent, our sleeping bags towards the outside of the tent walls, us in the middle, we'd suspend a flashlight from the centre of the tent for light, and we never worried about being raped, abducted or murdered.

It was always (for the most part) a group effort when a sleepover was planned, everyone had their hands in on it. None of us kids had any money, but every now and then we'd be pleasantly surprised when a bottle of soda pop along with a large bowl of potato chips or popcorn was brought out to us to enjoy.

Spiders, snakes, mice, rats, bats, and skunks... little concerned us, and none of us had padded bed rolls or blow-up mattresses to sleep on, yet we all awoke happy as ever. We were living the dream.


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## Pecos (Jun 19, 2021)

Aunt Marg said:


> I remember those old bottomless floor tents of the past. What a blessing it was when the makers of tents added nice water-resistant nylon floors, fly screens, and waterproof rain fly's.
> 
> I remember all of us girls scattered around in a circle in a family sized tent, our sleeping bags towards the outside of the tent walls, us in the middle, we'd suspend a flashlight from the centre of the tent for light, and we never worried about being raped, abducted or murdered.
> 
> ...


And it is a dream that most of today's children are unlikely to ever have. Just being able to see the complete canopy of stars without the interference of too much city light would be a real treat these days. And a bowl of honest hot popcorn, wow! 
And of course with the parents all inside, the giggling could go on for hours until everyone seemed to just happily fade off into sleep land.


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## Aunt Marg (Jun 19, 2021)

Pecos said:


> And it is a dream that most of today's children are unlikely to ever have. Just being able to see the complete canopy of stars without the interference of too much city light would be a real treat these days. And a bowl of honest hot popcorn, wow!
> And of course with the parents all inside, the giggling could go on for hours until everyone seemed to just happily fade off into sleep land.


You captured the very essence of how all unfolded, Pecos! 

I often reflect on today's younger generation, how many will never witness or experience the great outdoors... how many will never get to observe a wild animal in it's natural habitat... how many will never take in the stars... how many will never breathe pure, clean mountain air... how many will never drink pure, clean, refreshing spring water, and the list runs long.

In many ways I often view my earlier days/years as a time where life was for the taking, a time where life was free, where life was built on the dreams of today, not the dreams of tomorrow, and where there was hope for the future.

This planet we call home sure has lost a lot of ground over the past 2-3 decades, and I just don't see it coming back any time soon.

My apologies for going off on a tangent, back to backyard camping for a moment, I remember how we'd watch satellites crossing the night sky, and catching a shooting star was the greatest of all, and we did it well into the night, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, and how we (at times) would spook ourselves silly telling scary campfire stories and such.

On those stifling hot nights, a good ghost or haunting story always had a way of creating a chill in the air, causing us to quickly zip up the flaps, and stare wide-eyed at the empty nylon walls of the tent, listening intently for any out of character sounds or movement. We were living in the moment... life was an adventure.


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## Giantsfan1954 (Jun 19, 2021)

Another NYC kid of the 60s here, remember some fire hydrants being opened with the spray caps, the beach, where sometimes navigating the hot sand was a horror!
Parents had an AC in their room,some heart trouble was present, my younger brother and I would sleep on the twin bed that was in there when it got really brutal.


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## Fyrefox (Jun 20, 2021)

In the summer heat and humidity in those prior to AC days, my parents would hang outside in the yard at night, which was always cooler than inside the sweltering house.  Eventually the mosquitoes would drive you inside, and as a kid I’d be given some ice cubes in a bowl to suck on.  I had an upstairs bedroom, and of course heat rises. 

My parents would go on summer vacations to lesser known beaches that were undeveloped at the time, renting small cabins that were hot, but at least the air was less humid.  We’d leave to start traveling there while it was still dark to get a few hours in on the road before the sun made the car into a rolling oven.  Still, I always looked forward to it!


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## JonDouglas (Jun 29, 2021)

Hmmm, I remember my father building a big and powerful electric fan that was a good 3 ft in diameter.  The thing was so powerful that it would nearly take off when started up.,  The fan sat on a heavy steel pedestal at the back of the house and would suck all the air out creating a draft from the front room through the dining room and kitchen.  That was our AC.  Years later I put a big whole house fan in the upstairs hallway of our colonial that would create a good bit of wind coming through whatever rooms had the windows up.


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## mellowyellow (Jun 29, 2021)

That old saying is so true, you never miss what you never had.


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## Aunt Marg (Jun 29, 2021)

Does everyone remember talking into a fan when it was going?

It sounded like a cross between an alien, a kazoo, and a voice box.

Baby siblings used to entertain themselves for hours at a time talking in the fan. LOL!


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## Chet (Jun 29, 2021)

Our little town movie theater had oscillating fans and you got a humid breeze on and off. Window fans and table top fans were the rule of the day. We took a ride in the car out into the country and up in the mountains to cool off, but returned to the same sticky valley. We swam in the lakes and the river and never saw a pool. When I was small, I cooled off in a round metal wash tub placed on the sidewalk. Church was hot. School classrooms were hot.


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## MarkinPhx (Jun 29, 2021)

I have no idea how people lived in Phoenix before AC. Of course, as previously mentioned, not many people did  I know back in the day many use to sleep on their porches and wet the sheets to keep cool...uh , wet them voluntarily I might add. I always have lived with AC  but I when I was a kid the family would take trips to Texas each summer to visit relatives and many of the relatives did not have AC. They had swamp coolers but it was still miserable.


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## Sassycakes (Jun 29, 2021)

*Reading this it brought back a memory to me. When I was  kid my Dad bought a new car. We were taking a trip from Philly to Georgia. My older brother and his family moved there because of his job, After driving for a few hours it was really hot in the car. So I said to my Dad "It's really hot don't you put the air conditioner on" He looked at me and said, "Oh my God I forgot this car had an air conditioner." He had just bought the car and didn't remember.*


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## gamboolman (Jun 29, 2021)

Grew up in Texas and we had Air Conditioning - so I was spoiled.

My Grandparents, were born in 1898 and 1899 and were Farmers in deep East Texas and did not have Air Conditioning.

One of my earliest memories is of my Grandfather plowing the fields with Mules.

They lived off the Farm and the Crops they planted and raised and sold. They also  raised Cattle and Chickens, had 2 X Wells (one on electric pump and one old well with a Pulley and Bucket.  I pulled many a bucket of water up from that well.  They raised  and sold vegetables and Eggs from a Stand by the Road.  They built the Farm House themselves over the years.

I would go spend afew weeks each Summer with them.  It was hot and humid.
All they had was a Swamp Cooler and in high humidity of East Texas it just blew Air that was not much below ambient temperature.

I remember the sheets would stick to you from the humidity.

Sleeping Porches were screened in and lots of folks would sleep on the Porch as it was so hot inside.

But I loved the Farm and helping my Grandparents on the Farm.

About 35 years after the Farm was sold due to my Grandfather passing away - my wife and I stopped by and I asked the old widow lady who lived on the Farm now if she would consider selling it.  She said no - but she let me show my wife a good bit of the Farm.  Brought back so many memories.

That is my Grandfather sitting on the Back Porch afew years before he passed.  I think the pic was taken about 1972 ish....  You can see the Swamp Cooler - ha !

The second one is me sitting on the same Back Porch about 35 to 40  year later when we stopped by as discussed above.  We probably need to go visit the Farm again now that I'm retired  as it's been near to 15 year since that picture and maybe they will consider selling now.


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## Becky1951 (Jun 29, 2021)

I remember my dad had one of these for our car. Its a fan or swamp cooler and he would put ice in it on very hot days and it blew in cool air.  Redneck A/C.


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## Pecos (Jun 29, 2021)

Becky1951 said:


> View attachment 171562 I remember my dad had one of these for our car. Its a fan or swamp cooler and he would put ice in it on very hot days and it blew in cool air. Redneck A/C.


I had one of those and used it on a cross country trip. It was a little better than nothing.


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## Fyrefox (Jun 30, 2021)

I can remember my Mother often saying, “_It’s summer!  It’s SUPPOSED to be hot!”  _My Dad used seat cooler cushions on top of the regular car upholstery that were basically reinforced heavy wire that allowed a little air to circulate around your back and bottom.  Everyone was hot and miserable, and as Dana Carvey’s “Grumpy Old Man” character might have said, “_...and we LIKED it!_”


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## Chet (Jun 30, 2021)

If you had a Plymouth Duster automobile you remember the large vent door below your left knee that forced air into the cabin as you drove, or the wing windows on all cars that you could adjust to force air into the car the same way.


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