Summer days prior to air conditioning

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.
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Thick walls and a couple of big cottonwood trees.
 
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.
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..to the forum @Rosepetal1
 

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
 
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.
 
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.
 
Fyrefox said:
What memories do you have of coping with summer heat before air conditioning became commonplace?
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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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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.
 
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...:) .
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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.
 
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.

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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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.
 
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.
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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. :)
 
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.

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

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.
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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