WTF did people do before A/C?.

[Jack_Dawson]

And this is coming from someone in SoCal 4 miles from the coast! I can't even imagine what un A/C'd people in Houston are doing. :beer:

[rockymountaindem]

1. That's a real hang up for me when it comes to time travel

There are lots of interesting time periods from the past that I could see myself in, but not without AC and toothpaste. And, as the great Philip J. Fry once said in regard to women from the past, "I'd prefer someone from the era of shaved underarms".

[Jack_Dawson]

3. LOL...nice work

BTW were you at Invesco when Barack was there?

:beer:

[rockymountaindem]

6. Indeed I was, but I was seated behind the stage so I only had a view of his shoes

and part of his lower legs. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Plus the people in that area got to see everyone as they were entering/leaving the stage area, so we gave some special love to Bill Richardson, Bill Ritter and the others.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Jack_Dawson!

They had swamp coolers, front porches, lots and lots of cool drinks, the old swimming hole, stuff like that.

And eventually, their children grew up and INVENTED air conditioning!

I'm about 2 miles from the ocean in SoCal too, and we have a/c.

:hi:

[Jack_Dawson]

4. CP!

Can always count on you to make me feel at home. Here's one for ye. And it's OK if you don't drink - we can call it Dr. Pepper.

:toast:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. I'll have whatever you're having!

Who says I don't drink?

I don't imbibe often, but I greatly enjoy it when I do!

:toast:

[csziggy]

31. AC was invented about 50 miles from here to ease fever patients

By Dr. John Gorrie in Apalachicola, Florida - his patent is dated in 1851. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gorrie

But it took a long time and cheap electricity to make it universal.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

33. My dear csziggy!

I did not know that...

Thank you!

:hi:

[TheCentepedeShoes]

93. There is a John Gorrie

Elementary School in Tampa
I thought that was very appropriate

[csziggy]

96. I didn't realize that! Cool, in more ways than one, LOL.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. I know what we did in Houston in the sixties.

We suffered.

We had a couple of window units but the whole house was not air conditioned. Rich people had central air.

Many a night I had to stay up and I couldn't sleep because it was 85 degrees or more and high humidity.

The entire South would not have increased in population if it wasn't for AC.

It gets hot around May and doesn't cool off until November...really.

[Captain Hilts]

51. Correct. There would have been NO massive migration South. nt

[raccoon]

68. We did the same in SC in the sixties, and earlier.

:hi:

We suffered.

The house I grew up in, we didn't have central air nor window units. Some of the first places I rented as a young adult didn't either.

I don't know how we slept. Mama said the house we lived in when I was a pre-schooler, we slept on the screened porch at night in the summertime.

"The entire South would not have increased in population if it wasn't for AC."

You got that right!

I remember once I saw a church marquee that said:

WHENEVER YOU MISS THE OLD TIMES, JUST TURN OFF THE AIR CONDITIONER.

[susanr516]

69. Yep.

My grandparents lived on a farm in Central Texas. Almost all the houses had big covered porches on the north side. Lots of windows, a fan in every room. We went swimming in the creek a lot. In the heat of the day, you stayed in the shade and waited for sundown. I spent many summer days there when the temps topped 100. I now live along the Texas Gulf Coast and I will say that high humidity heat is ten times worse than dry heat. Five solid months where it never gets cool, not even at night. On the plus side, we almost never have freezing rain. We can go three or four years without it being below freezing.

[Critters2]

7. In Iowa, we spent every minute we could in water...

Swimming pools, lakes, etc. My mom would even take my sibs and me to our cousins' in Springfield for a week or two in the summer, because they had a "dug-in" pool. Or we'd go to my grandparents' farm, and sit outside in the cool breezes until late at night. At home, we slept downstairs, on the living room and dining room floors, because it was cooler than the bedrooms upstairs. People would go north--to Wisconsin or Minnesota--as much as they could.

And, as someone else pointed out, a lot fewer people lived in hot places. Air conditioning has brought about major changes in this nation.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. We didn't go to a pool.

There was a city pool but Mom didn't want to get in contact with other peoples' cooties.

Mom thought swimming pools were frivolous. Her sister put one in her backyard in West Houston -- below ground. The sister's hubby,my uncle, said later that the exercise he got there prevented a heart attack. They also had a pool after they retired to Kerrville.

So it wasn't frivolous at all.

My folks thought anything that was fun and interesting was frivolous, apparently.

My mom turned bright red, cussed, and she had sweat rolling down her neck.

[Mind_your_head]

22. Yeah, what "was it" with that generation?

Having ANY sort of fun *ever* was not allowed/a BAD thing!

THAT attitude....It still haunts.....

(hey....this spell checker is bad. My spelling of attitude looked wrong....I spelled it attatude and attitude and DU's spell check said "ok" at BOTH spellings! Just saying......)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

26. I think it's the Depression kids.

My dad was born in 1911, my mom in 1921, grandmom in 1898.

They ALL thought having fun was frivolous. Only rich people in Hollywood had pools, I guess.

I was "frivolous" for going on vacations (HORRORS!!) and getting on a jet plane and going to other states (HORRORS!!) after I was grown. My folks did not ride in a jet until 1986. Neither of them had been in a plane since World War II. Dad was on B-17s and Mom's uncle was the very first crop duster in the U.S. -- he flew her to Florida in an open cockpit cropduster and put her luggage in the poison hopper!!!

We had an attic fan that did nothing but blow dirt and hot air around. You have to take the water out of the air, otherwise, a fan is like putting yourself in a convection oven and cooking faster.

And in suburbia, we did not have high ceilings or tall windows. I have seen one neighborhood in Houston with mansions with basements--off N. and S. MacGregor. Houston houses don't have basements. They are on concrete slabs mostly.

[Wapsie B]

41. I remember many a hot day spent in a livestock watering tank.

It was sitting on the side of the yard filled with water like a wading pool. Very nice!

[csziggy]

97. I'm about ready to buy one of those - 24" deep and 6' in diameter

It will be sturdier than those blow up pools and last a whole lot longer.

[rurallib]

92. windows were always open. The hose got a workout also

We were outside all day usually in the shade. Our house had a screened in back porch that we slept on from June to September.
As a kid we could sleep til @9AM while it was still cool.
And we used the basement a lot.
We finally got AC when I was 14 but we really didn't use it much. We have AC here, but we still don't use it much.

[newcriminal]

9. They were really hot.

[Joe the Liberal]

10. It must have been brutal......

Who ever invented the A/C deserves the Nobel Prize!

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Willis Haviland Carrier.

The Father of modern Air Conditioning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Carrier

Never won a Nobel Prize though. There isn't one for engineering or mechanical devices.

On edit to add that it was indeed brutal. I live in SW Florida and in the days before AC, this area of the country was virtually deserted in the summer months, with the exception of the native peoples, farmers and fisherman. The "Snowbird" effect is still very much real today.

[Kali]

12. they suffered, they went to higher/cooler ground,

they adapted daily activity to take advantage of cooler mornings/evenings, they built with the climate, they were tougher than most of us are

[texanwitch]

13. When I was growing up we had fans, both window and ceiling fans.

Houses were built for summer, high ceilings and lots of windows.

I never remember being that hot, with ac you don't know any better.

I go out now in the heat, you get used to it.

Just wear a good straw hat and drink lots of water.

June and July is worse for me then August.

September is almost here, now if we can just not have a hurricane.

[AllenVanAllen]

14. We now officially live on the surface of the sun.

When I was a kid here in Houston we didn't have AC but what we did have was a huge attic fan in the center of the house that would create a pretty good breeze when all of the windows were open. I don't remember it being this hot though. We just had our hottest July on record and we still have two more months of this. Not to mention the rest of hurricane season.




Houston 11:05 CST.

[susanr516]

72. It has been hellish in TX this summer

I'm in the Coastal Bend and we haven't had more than a few drops of rain in months. Thirty straight days of highs over 95, and still at least two months to go before there's any hope of a real cool front.

[AllenVanAllen]

85. The drought has been terrible.

I hope you can get some rain soon.

[SammyWinstonJack]

75. Like seven inches from the midday sun. Melting here in San Antonio.

Hottest July on record here, too. x( I can't wait for cooler temps!

[AllenVanAllen]

83. Try and stay cool. We've don't go out unless we have to!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. If you look at older Midwestern houses (something I noticed when

I moved back from Oregon), they're built for the climate: big screen porches, lots of trees around to provide shade, deep basements to fight the summer heat.

My mom tells of a heat wave in the 1930s in Milwaukee. She and my grandparents essentially lived in the basement during the day. A couple of nights, it didn't cool down at all, and since it was impossible to sleep in the house, they (and much of the rest of the population of Milwaukee) went down to the shores of Lake Michigan to sleep. They took blankets, sheets, and pillows and staked out a spot, since it was always cooler by the lake.

My parents had friends who were missionaries in India. They said that they slept on the roof on extra hot nights, with a pan of water handy so that they could wipe themselves off if they got too overheated.

[dembotoz]

46. porches

we would have the fan on in the house.
we would sit out on the front prorch and vistit with the neighbors.

Lots less crime back then becasue everyone was on their porches and you couldn't get away with nothing without someone seeing you and ratting you out to your parents.

[crim son]

17. If you read some of the civil war memoirs,

you get a very clear picture. They suffered! I think they also adapted, to a degree. Imagine being a woman in a muslin blouse & skirt & crinoline. OMG.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. According to To Kill a Mockingbird

"Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum."

[crim son]

62. Oooh, what a description!

I'm sure it's exactly right.

[begin_within]

58. Isn't there a scene in "Gone With the Wind" where the servants fan the ladies while they sleep?

[crim son]

63. Yes, there is! While they napped before the evening's cookout

I think. Can you imagine being one of the servants?

[TheCentepedeShoes]

95. But Scarlett

got dressed and sneaked downstairs to put the move on Ashley and throw knick knacks at Rhett

[crim son]

105. She was never affected by the heat, apparently. :P n/t

[LuckyLib]

18. I grew up in the Central Valley of CA -- 100+ degree days in summer

and we hardly noticed as kids. Played outside, ran in the sprinklers, went to the community pool, ate homemade popcicles and ice cream. The grownups drank beer!

[AllenVanAllen]

24. Isn't it funny how kids are so great at accepting

certain things that adults are so conditioned to have aversions to. :)

[LeftyMom]

25. Running around barefoot on the street when it was 105 outside...

Ah, my childhood...

[begin_within]

59. When I was a kid heat did not bother me at all,

and I even lived in Phoenix from when I was 17 to when I was 20, the intense summers there still didn't bother me that much. However there is no way I could ever live there now... I can't stand the heat.

[proteus_lives]

19. Sweat.

And bitch about it.

[Ptah]

20. Here in Tucson, the men sent the women and children to the mountains.

[NJCher]

106. yep, same here in the northeast

The men would stay in the city and work and come to either the Poconos or the shore to join their families on the weekends.


Cher

[Inchworm]

21. Lived where the weather suits their clothes

The mountains are chock full of cool summer breezes and ice cold creeks.

:)

[DarkTirade]

23. Perspire profusely.

[sasquatch]

27. They avoided living in places where people it isn't sustainable to live

The lizard brained corpratist decided to move people to unlivable parts of the country because they knew they would act like lizard brained repiglicans and vote accordingly. This explains the baby boomers and southerners.

[datasuspect]

34. the republican party started in Ripon, WI

and the democratic party started in Murfreesboro, TN

in fact, the south was a democratic party stronghold until Reagan.

[sasquatch]

38. Bad example

[hippywife]

87. And Oklahoma once had

the largest chapter of the IWW in this country. I love it when people overgeneralize. :eyes:



:hi:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

43. Unliveable? You mean like frigidly cold areas?

That's what constitutes unliveable in my book.

[Captain Hilts]

50. It is FAR easier to heat a house than to cool one. nt

[sasquatch]

73. Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner

[datasuspect]

55. seems like close to nine months of winter in chicago

i'm from there originally.

shit's all fucked up from mid-october to mid-may. that's almost half the fucking year.

everything turns to gray. super short days around xmas.

snow and ice for an excessively long period of time.

i live in texas now. the summer starts trending hot in mid april (sometimes with a few cool days before may) and starts to trend cooler in mid to late september. and even in the middle of summer, the worst part of the day is between 10 and dark thirty. you can acclimate to it and the temps are actually very pleasant with cloud cover and afternoon thunderstorms (at least in the gulf coast area where i live).

between that time you have some GORGEOUS weather.

winter sucks mighty ass.

[susanr516]

77. Ten months of the year, I love it in TX

Aug and Sept, we spend either burning up or worrying about hurricanes.

I wouldn't last five minutes in a Chicago winter.

[NewJeffCT]

65. you mean nobody lived in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia?

Central America, etc? Those places are often hotter & wetter than anyplace in the US.

[sasquatch]

74. Yeah, but the white european lizard brains build and live in houses that aren't suited for their-

envioronment. So they need to waste even more resources to try and deal with their shitty planning.

[LanternWaste]

82. Anasazi? Cherokee? Mestizo?

Anasazi? Cherokee? Mestizo?

[krispos42]

28. They left the area to the lizards and spiders

And stayed up in their nice, temperate climates, making snowmen in the winter and watching the leaves change color.

:-)

[valerief]

29. Sweat. nt

[csziggy]

30. I grew up in Central Florida in a house with no AC

Summers were hell with the humidity. We slept with the windows open. When cheap box fans came out, we loved them - put one in the window and let it blow all night. We fought over who got to sleep in the bedroom with cross ventilation - the other bedroom was a small oven.

I don't remember any AC in the elementary school I went to, though there may have been. It opened in the late 50s, so it's a toss up as to whether it would have. I do remember the windows that went from counter height to the ceilings on the north side and the smaller line of windows at ceiling height on the south side of the classroom being left open most of the time.

During the summers, we'd go visit my grandmother at her lake house. It was still hot, but the breeze off the lake and being able to swim made it bearable. After the church was remodeled and had AC, we'd sign up for summer church school just to get in the cool rooms. Or spend afternoons at the remodeled library which also had AC about the same period. In earlier years kids would go the theater for the afternoon even though it was not air conditioned, it was cooler than outside, but it was condemned and our mothers were not going to drive us to the neighboring town for a movie.

The new junior high had AC and the city started a summer arts & crafts program for kids that was really popular for obvious reasons. When the first "indoor" mall was built in our town, half the town seemed to spend afternoons wandering around in it just to get in the cool air.

But mostly, we just drank lots of water, sweated a lot, and lived with the heat.

[SeattleGirl]

32. Melted. Actually, when I was a kid, I would head to the nearest

body of water I could find and stay there.

[Tiggeroshii]

35. Probably died

That's my guess anyways :shrug:

[MilesColtrane]

36. They stank.

[XemaSab]

37. I have no idea

It gets up into the hundreds here and stays there for weeks on end, and I really cannot imagine how horrible it would have been to have no AC.

[jobycom]

39. Lived up north. And moved real slow when they didn't.

That's why we southerners drawl. Takes too much energy to talk Yankee-fast in the heat.

[RebelOne]

40. When I was growing up in South Florida,

I did not have air conditioning. I would spend a lot of time in front of fans. This was during the '50s and '60s, so not too many people had AC.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

42. I grew up without AC.....my dad opposed it on principle. Said it made him feel closed in.

And yes, Maryland in the summer does get hot.

But we managed okay. We had fans in every room, a large exhaust fan that we used at night, open windows. It only got bad on days when it got over 95, during which times we usually spent most of the day at the pool. But it wasn't horrible on other days. At least I didn't really mind.

Eventually my mom nagged my dad enough to where he broke down and agreed to get central AC. And I can't say that I blamed her....it was nice for the very hot days. But I think growing up without AC did give me a better tolerance for the heat and humidity. It's why Florida summers don't bother me in the least. Yes, I'll sweat a little, but I don't really feel uncomfortable.

Now not having heat in a cold climate....that's something I could never do.

[TZ]

45. Yick.

On the rare occasion that our A/C broke when I was a kid me and my entire family would move to the basement to sleep where it was relatively cooler. I can deal with having little or no heat in the winter. Can't deal with no A/C in the summer.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

47. Oh no way. I'm the total opposite.

It gets hot, you sweat a little, you go jump in the water and you have fun.

On the other hand, if it gets cold, your extremeties begin to sting or worse, go numb, and you pray to God that you have enough blankets or layered clothing to counteract it. And you stay inside. Yuck. No way to live a life.

[SacredCow]

44. You eventually get acclimated to it, believe it or not.

Not to say that you still can't get heat exhaustion.

As for those in this thread suggesting that southerners are stupid for living here... Tell me that again in February, when your temperatures have been below zero for months, and it's costing $300+ per month to heat your house. We've been consistently above 95° here for the past couple of months, and the highest utility bill I've had is $150. The rest were under $100.

[SammyWinstonJack]

79. Over 100+temps here for most of July and now into August and our

electric bill was $287 for June and $365 for July, that's with the thermostat set at 80. That is the highest we've ever paid and we've lived in this house for 11 yrs. I am dreading the August bill. :scared:

[SacredCow]

81. WOW!!!

Either you're living in a pretty big house, your AC unit is terribly inefficient, your local rates are extremely high, or a combination of the three!

My roommate (and it's his house, so his rules) keeps the thermostat set on 72 or 73, which means on the hottest days it's running damn near constantly. July was the $150 bill I mentioned.

[JVS]

48. They lived up north or travelled there during the summer

[Captain Hilts]

49. They did not migrate South in huge numbers. nt

[Shell Beau]

53. I wonder myself. Where I live, I think AC is a necessity not a luxury!

Today is a mild day. The high is 95 with a real feel of over 100.

[Arkansas Granny]

54. I grew up without A/C. Our bodies were acclimated to the climate and

houses were built with lots of windows that opened to take advantage of any breeze there was. People sat under shade trees or on porches a lot. After we got electricity, we also had a couple of big window fans. The only places I remember having A/C when I was a kid were movie theaters, a few hotels and a couple of the better restaurants in town.

[surrealAmerican]

56. People in big cities would sleep outside...

... in the parks or on the beach, wherever it was coolest. Wealthier people's houses were built with "sleeping porches" for those hot nights.

[UndertheOcean]

57. They died from heatstroke

[rurallib]

91. like my grandfather in 1935

[VaYallaDawg]

60. I was born 1940 in Panhandle of Fla.

Lemme tell you, that's the center of the universe when it comes to sweating. As a kid I spent many a night sleeping out on the back screened porch.

[alfredo]

61. Cold beer, shade trees, creeks, and basements. Sometimes we just

got in the car, rolled down the windows and drove fast. Sitting in front of a fan helped.

Drink a lot of water. Sweat

Actually, alcohol can upset your body's ability to handle heat, and the effects last for several days.

When I was a mail carrier I drank no alcohol during warm weather. On the route I'd drink at least a gallon of water a day.

[fizzgig]

64. i still don't have a/c and it's pretty manageable, at least for the most part

our last place was great because it had plenty of windows to open and put fans in, ceiling fans in the bedrooms and was surrounded by huge shade trees.

the new place, however, is not going to be so pleasant. second floor, only three windows and absolutely no shade. the bedroom faces west, so it's pretty well uninhabitable from about 3 to 8 or 9 p.m.

we don't need a/c much here in northern colorado and i can deal without it at home, but i'd really like to get a car with it. station wagon with vinyl seats + the beating sun = i'm soaked with sweat after five or ten minutes and i lose a layer of skin when i get out if i'm wearing shorts.

[NJCher]

108. the woods

I noticed yesterday on my way to work that even several blocks away from the woods, it was distinctly cooler. It was pretty warm and I was driving with the windows and moon roof open on my car. All of a sudden, I smelled this sort of hummus-y smell and it was distinctly cooler. I noticed it because I was still blocks away from the woods, so a wooded area seems to put off "cool" for a ways.

Then I drove maybe five miles through the woods and it was so cool and peaceful.

I know trees and their shade really helps because when we first moved into our house, it was very hot in the summers. The west wing of the house was practically useless because of the way the hot sun would beat down on it.

So we planted trees which tower over the house 10 years later. Wisteria planted over an arbor on the west side completely obliterates the impact of the sun on the two west windows of my office. It is very cool, even without turning on the AC.




Cher

[FloridaJudy]

66. When I lived in Spain

Everything shut down for three to four hours during the hottest time of the day. The Spanish didn't invent the siesta because they were lazy - they invented it because it's the only sane way to live in a hot climate without AC. Of course, then they'd stay up long past midnight to take advantage of the more reasonable temperatures after the sun went down. They also went in for thick walls, tile floors and courtyard fountains to mitigate the worst of the heat.

I find myself reverting to the same sleeping pattern here in Florida when I'm not working. I've also bought a number of folding fans off of eBay to take with me when I'm out and about. Most are Chinese, but a few are Spanish.

Sensible people.

[LeftinOH]

67. Windows that open; transoms that let hot air dissipate -its not so bad.

[csziggy]

101. That is part of it - houses built to take advantage of breezes

And use the hot air to carry the hottest air up and out to create movement without electricity.

Look at the houses built before electricity and you will see those transoms and high windows. Big, vented attics to provide air space above the living area, and raised floors so cool air can circulate under the house. Wide overhangs to shade the sides of the houses. The houses were only one or two rooms deep so there was cross ventilation. In the country, the houses were situated so they caught the prevailing breezes or on a slope so the air rising up the slope provided a breeze.

Wide porches for even more shade and to provide ouside living areas when it the hottest time of the year and the day. Kitchens were a separate room, partly to keep the kitchen from heating up the rest of the house as well for safety's sake since fires could be better controlled away from the main house. Lots of Southern houses had an open porch to connect the kitchen to the main house and much of the preparation of the meals was done on that porch.

[crispini]

70. I didn't have AC when I lived in Thailand, lots still don't.

Remedy: Afternoon naps.

I think in general people just got less stuff done in the hot weather. I still have pretty weak AC (keep it at about 80 to avoid high bills) and I tell you what, I get really slooooow in the afternoons. Sometimes I go to Starbucks to get a dose of refrigeration.

[deucemagnet]

71. There was a great piece on a/c and American culture on NPR,

unfortunately, it's not available without signing up for something at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-54298006.html .

Anyway, the upshot of the story was that a/c had a huge impact on American culture and community by taking the people off of their porches and communal swimming holes and sticking them indoors. Fascinating story, I wish I had a link to the full article.

[SidneyCarton]

76. I spent two years in Brazil without A/C.

The answer is drink a lot of water, and sweat a hell of a lot. When its 95 degrees with 90% humidity at 6:30am, it isn't difficult to get up in the morning.

[Orsino]

78. They sat in the window and hummed, I guess. n/t

[stray cat]

80. Or in Iraq where its even hotter - first off they were less whimpy.

[ceile]

84. Screw Houston! Try central TX!

In Austin we're in our 46th day of 100+ temps! Now, I was born and raised in Htown, and I will take a 100F day there than anywhere else. Native Houstonians who have moved to dryer climates understand.
My man and I decided the other day that the heat is root of our depression of late. It's too hot to have BBQs, pool parties, or even more than 5 people in your house (they may absorb your AC). Totally sucks!!

[hippywife]

86. I grew up without air conditioning

in our first two homes. Never had it until I was 13. The only time we noticed was at bed time. We had window fans in the bedroom windows and I would sneak downstairs and wet sheets and sheets of toilet paper to take back to bed and lay across my forehead. There were five of us kids in the same upstairs bedroom and my bed was the farthest from the window.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

88. We don't have A/C in Germany

we sweat like pigs and suffer. It's really humid here too. Five minutes out of the shower and we are sweating again. There is no relief. You should be ashamed of yourself, coming from 4 miles of the coast. Drink up bub, drink up. :spank:

[doc03]

102. Is that so they don't have AC in Germany?

I was there in the Army back in 1969-70 and never saw one. There surely has to be some AC in Germany these days, I was there one summer and it was pretty damn hot in the barracks.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

109. Some businesses

have them but not homes or apartments, sadly.

[Moondog]

89. They perspired. Sweated. Swat. Glowed. Whatever.

My family, when I was a toddler, back in the days before air conditioning, had a place up in the NC Mountains to which we would retreat during the worst days of summer. It still got pretty hot there during the day, but it was breezy and the temps dropped at night a lot further than they did at home in Miami. Air conditioning happened and, sadly, the place was ultimately sold off. I'd love to replace it.

[MrSlayer]

90. Stink. And probably quite badly.

People also didn't use deodorant back in the day. The "good old days" were probably disgustingly pungent.

[sarge43]

94. Fans, large windows, houses built off the ground for air flow,

ice shipped from the north in winter, packed in straw, stored in underground ice houses. During the summer, it'd be placed in boxes in the attic or upper stories. Fans would blow the cooled air thru the building.

There was a significant business in ice for the South through out New England and the upper Midwest between the Civil War and WWI.

[quakerboy]

98. They died.

Check the historical record. Everyone died. All through history, which until very recently had no AC, they all died.

[bikebloke]

99. I don't like air conditioning

I prefer just a fan. But this summer has been wetter than usual. Suddenly, I've been battling mould and mildew. So grudgingly, I've turned on the air conditioning to dry my flat out. An elevated electric bill is cheaper than a new futon. Luckily, my flat is only as big as a shoe box, so I don't have to keep it running too long.

When I lived in the Negev Desert, I had only a tiny little fan. One side of me felt fine, while the other sweltered. We waited for winter, just so we could sleep.

[doc03]

100. Back in my day we sweated, stank and we loved it. n/t

[wickerwoman]

103. My A/Cless summer in New Jersey,

I spent three months in a subletted room about the size of a walk-in closet with an oscillating fan about a foot from the bed. I took ice cold showers every few hours so I could cool down enough to sleep, drank ice cubes (they melted fast enough for me to sip continuously) and didn't wear very much.

In Shanghai, people without A/C spend the whole day in the subway stations playing cards or go to the bookstores and squat in the aisles reading until it starts to cool down.

[auntAgonist]

104. they ate their broccoli raw rather than heat up the kitchen

steaming it :)


:toast:

aA
kesha

[MichiganVote]

107. In Michigan whole communities were built throughtout the northern areas

usually populated in the summer by the families who lived in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and so on. Often the men would stay in the cities and the women and children would inhabit a home in central to northern michigan. You can still see the remnants of these small communities throughout the state.

For the kids who grew up in the city, in Michigan, we were at the public pools during the day and early evening and would sleep in the basements, out on the "airing deck" if your home had one or on the screen porch. We stayed up and outside much later than kids today. Much to the chagrin of the neighbors we played ding dong ditch alot.

It was hot, hot, hot...when the temp reached 80+ with michigan humidity.