Who grew up w/o A/C at home???

[carolmcb]

I was born in Brownsville, Texas. Not a hot as the upper valley but still hot. The first 2 homes I lived in didn't have central air conditioning. The first house had a few small fans. The second house had those small fans and 2 very large fans. One was set up in the doorway to my sister's and my bedroom. It was better than nothing but we still stuck to the sheets at night in summer. Then my father bought a room air conditioner for the living room and put his easy chair right in front of it. Only he was allowed to turn it on. So, we would have a cool living room at night until he went to bed. Then, he bought another air conditioner for the master bedroom. That could only be turned on by him when he went to bed. My mother wore wool socks, a quilted robe and a scarf to bed at night. He kept it so cold. My sister and I continued to stick to the sheets. Finally, when I was in Junior High School, we bought a new house with central air and heat and joined the civilized world. It was wonderful until I went to school.

My elementary school only had those big fan that rotated trying to cover the room. You learned to only take a breath when the fan was actually blowing on you, the air was so hot. It would get so hot that the varnish on the school desks would soften and your skirt would stick to the seat. We didn't have air conditioning in Junior High School or in High School until we moved to the new High School. That was after Easter of my senior year. So we didn't have long in air conditioned comfort. Then, I went to the old Texas Southmost College for my freshman year of college. The old buildings that had been part of Fort Brown weren't air conditioned but the new building were. Back and forth between burning up and freezing cold -- I had a lot of sniffles that year.

Now, I can't imagine how we survived -- but we did. Recently, we went a couple of weeks without the air conditioning working properly. Fortunately, we had some unseasonably cool weather so we didn't suffer too much until we were able to get some in to get the unit working properly.

We are all spoiled rotten.

[Rakin]

I grew up on the west side of Ft Worth so the following was not a problem for us but...

When the FT Worth stockyards were in full operation and all those slaughter houses were processing cattle the smell could be overwhelming. I new several people who went to North Side High School that said when the wind was from the south the smell was terrible and it was difficult to concentrate on school work. Way back the school had no AC and you had to leave the windows open.

Hmmm.... I can smell it now.

[Stan41]

I grew up in the 1950's. Very hot and very dry. We lived way out in the country and didn't have electricity until about 1953. No fans, no refrigeration of any kind.
Stan

[SanAntoQT]

I grew up in San Antonio in the 60's. We had no a/c at home or at school, but I never remember it feeling as hot as it feels now! There was nothing like running around barefoot all day long, getting nice and dirty, coming into the house at night, taking a bath, having a bowl of ice cream, then sleeping with the windows open and the fan going.

Nowadays, I won't be caught without a/c! *lol*

[Lakewooder]

No AC at school until 8th grade - I can remember those fans after lunch lulling us to sleep - but of course Lakewood Elementary was built like a fortress and you could open the windows from the top or the bottom, plus there were transom windows into the hallways. I can remember sometimes the outside hall door would be open and a breeze would work its way down the hall..

One of my grandmothers never had AC - she died in 1974. She didn't want it -- she was born in 1885 and lived without electricity until the late 1940s when they 'moved to town'.

So, I know what it is like, ok?

But yeah, those attic fans did pretty well until it got really hot. My Daddy was always warning us not to close the doors and windows while that fan was on or 'the roof would come off'.

[Pete53FR]

I grew up in a 2 story house in Houston Texas, When I was 14 my Dad bought 2 window units and put them in Living Room and Kitchen downstairs. He said that it gets cool enough at night.

I am 64 now and besides Central we have Window Units in Bedrooms just in case.

[Pontificator]

For the most part, I grew up with A/C, but it was often marginal -- cranking, shivering, dripping window units that cooled the area of the vinyl couch. But very often, sleep would come after a shower, a dousing of baby powder, and a box fan set in the window to pull in the cooler night air. This makes for some of my best memories..........