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i dont have a/c now. i live on the gulf coast, its 94 outside and 77 inside. ceiling fans, lot of them, covered porched. windows not pointed west. lots of trees, insulation and nothing dark color on the house. my power bill runs $44 a month
Both before and after air conditioning, people used the technology they had available at the time to try to beat the heat. No one knew in 1950 what would be coming down the pipe in the future, and we don't know that today either. Fans were a big thing back then (as they are in Hawaii for example today), and you could always go play in the sprinkler in the afternoon and go to the movie theater at night.
Live in an old Victorian house in Wisconsin. It was built with wonderful cross-ventilation. Have a whole-house fan installed in an upstairs central room. After dark we turn it on to pull in the night air. Also had ceiling fans in the bedrooms,kitchen and den. We're also under lovely old maple trees. We do just fine without AC.
I rarely do air conditioning anymore except on hottest days - my central air went out and all I have now is a small window unit. I hate having the house closed up - I have enough of that in winter so I just adjust my activities - wear only cotton and take a few more showers. Plus there is a certain nostalgia - we never had it growing up and we survived ok. If the power ever goes down there are many who will be in for a shock trying to do without. I hate to think of winters without power.
All I know is the heat didn't bother me nearly as much when I was a youth(or yout) as it does now.
I just consider it an excuse to be lazy, to sit on my patio more often with the fan on and a glass of iced tea reading a good book. Some like it hot I guess that includes me. The humidity is a little harder to deal with but I take it as a challenge and don't feel that I'm suffering the worse for wear.
Grew up in Texas before A/C in homes was standard. Would bathe and ensure you got your hair wet so you cold be cooler when you tried to fall asleep, but fan blowing and crickets chirping sleepless nites are ALL too familiar!!
As Escort Rider said you suffered the heat, but then not having ever lived were a/c existed everywhere it wasn't the level of suffering it would be now.
There were fans, of course, which if you were lucky would cool down the house somewhat at night. The local movie house was "air cooled" and a big break. Our local library had been the gift of a super-rich family to the village, and it was made of marble inside, with extremely high ceilings and big fans - so it was cooler than most places in town.
For little kids and youngsters of various ages there were assorted swimming holes, ponds and the wide creek that flowed through town. In the Forties the spot for grade school kids was at the foot of one of the dams on the creek at the edge of town. The drawback was that some kids would always get a bloodsucker or two or three attached to them. However, there were always some mothers there, and they would have a container of salt to put on the leeches or the ladies who smoked would burn them with their lighted cigarettes. I remember seeing Hepburn and Bogart in "The African Queen" later on, and there was a scene where Bogart got leeches on himself and freaked out. My thought was, "Huh?"
But on the whole summer was sweat, sweat, more sweat and then dry out, and change clothes and sweat some more.
i dont have a/c now. i live on the gulf coast, its 94 outside and 77 inside. ceiling fans, lot of them, covered porched. windows not pointed west. lots of trees, insulation and nothing dark color on the house. my power bill runs $44 a month
I lived in a tiny apartment in midtown Manhattan with no cross ventilation and no a/c, and a ceiling fan in the bedroom and one in the living room really did the job.
Wow, Retriever, I always thought the joke about stinky French people was a joke, but it was 1980 when I was there so things must have changed since then and the 50's and 60's, or even before that.
My first visit to Paris was in the late '70s, and I was truly shocked by how many well-dressed, stylish people absolutely reeked of perspiration odor. My second visit to both Paris & Rome was in the mid '80s, and the situation was unchanged. That incident inside the dome of St. Peter's Basilica--where I encountered that group of incredibly smelly French tourists--took place during that mid '80s trip.
It is entirely possible that hygiene has improved in France since that time, and I can only attest to what I experienced as late as the mid '80s.
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