We sweat!

Yesterday a group of us were trying to remember what was our first automobile with AC. I think we got AC in a house about the same time. We did not get house AC until 1982.

How did we deal with summers. Opened the windows at night, had fans. We did a lot of beach and parks.
We presently have house AC but hubby does not like it on at night or likes a fan blowing on him. So I have a small fan that blows over my side of the bed and an open window on my side.

My best friend lived on a farm. I hung out at her house alot and she at mine. After dinner her dad would always say, "Well come girls, let's go". At that point we would run and jump in the back of his pick-up truck and off to the lake we went, every night swimming. That cooled us off alot and we had so much fun.

My family never, ever had air conditioning. After I married, we used window ones for at night. They made so much noise back then though and the one we had in our bedroom kind of rattled somewhat. One night that happened --- my husband jumped up and yelled, "Well come on in !!" I about cracked up laughing myself back to sleep. He thought someone was banging on the door. We still laugh about that.

Fans,,and more than one,,,, we would put a cool rag around our necks...use the outside hose to get our hair wet with the cold water..or jump in the cow tanks when we were kids,,,spray each other with hoses,,,run thru sprinklers,,use those old galvanized tubs on the farm and would put cold water in them to sit,,,,there was a multitude of things we did to keep cool,,,after chores our parents would take us to the pool for the afternoon,,,that was a treat!! Believe it or not we survived! :)

Oh Mom I forgot about the old galvanized tubs! All the kids on the block would drag their tub to one kid's house and we would get on our swimsuits sit in the tubs and get served lemonade & cookies by someone's Mom! Such fun!

Oh the memories you guys bring up. We did the fans and galvanized tubs and on our farm we had a pond. We would swim in it along with the water moccasins! We were young so it didn't scare us and it sure felt good on a hot day.

My Dad got a tax break for Water Conservation when he put in a 32' pond on our farm...But it wasn't too long before a whole community of snapping turtles took over. You could see their shells gleaming in the moonlight as they lined the banks of it at night. We used to run under the hose that mom would hang on the clothesline,OR sit in the tubs like you guys did,

(My brothers would band together & get Lucky Dummy me (8yrs) to bury their turtle's leeches in the barnyard! Those boys cheated me at cards too all the time!)

After when I was grown I would take a hand towel and wring it out damp and lay it over my torso and keep cool that way day or nightl Nowadays I use a jar with ice in it.. My daughter calls it "the jar of life!"

NDY

We never worried about the heat when I was young. When my parents had their dream house built in 1952, they had an attic fan put in. That would be our only air conditioning for years and it was great. My little sister and I had the best place to sleep because the inlet was right outside our bedroom. Our house had a long hall that ran from the front door to my parents' bedroom at the back of the house. There was a window that was at the end of the hall in the bedroom and it became the outlet for our new evaporative cooler. It blew water cooled air up the hall to the rest of the house, but was used used only during the day because it wouldn't go into the two other bedrooms. Next came a series of window refrigerated air conditioners. It wasn't until all the kids left that they decided to install central heat and air. I had had to buy a small window unit for my bedroom because I worked the night shift at a radio station and had to sleep during the day and have the door closed. This may sound crazy, but I believe air conditioning has hurt people more than it helped, because we can no longer tolerate any type of hot weather. Before air conditioning, hot days were no big deal. Now, when the temperature hits 85, we turn on the AC and in Texas, that comes early in the spring and stays till late fall.

We never need A/C in the house as we lived on the ocean in northern CA.
When we took care trips that was hard. Five of us windows open, parents smoking in the front seat, yuck. All that made for such along drive to the So Ca beaches, 8 hours.
When they quit smoking I made their next car have A/C a must. I had great control over my parents, LOL.

Ever heard of Swamp Coolers?? We had one of those. Worked pretty good. Just made the house smell like a river bottom. They still sell them in some of the farm stores around here.