My Thoughts
and Feelings about Air Conditioning
The basic concept behind air conditioning
is said to have been used in ancient Egypt.
Reeds were hung in windows and moistened with water. The evaporation of water cooled the air
blowing through the window. In 1902 the
first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented. In 1950’s when I was born the residential air
conditioning became just another way to keep up with the Joneses. My parents did not know the Joneses, so I
grew up without the luxury of air conditioning.
Stop and ask yourself in 2014 is air conditioning a luxury? Yes, I read
that last week in an article written by an Omaha writer that called air
conditioning a luxury. Would you buy a
house without central air? What about a
camper/RV? Is air conditioning just a
want and not a need today? Is AC a
luxury in 2014 in NE?
I know there are people who are still
camping in tents without AC. I talked
with a couple last week while we were camping in 90 degree weather. I had to stop and talk about how that camping
without AC brought back memories and not good ones. We camped during the summer months when the
girls were younger. We had pop ups
without AC. We spent a lot of our
vacations in Missouri visiting my parents.
Mo gets really hot during the summer, and I can remember being so hot
that the sweat is dripping and I can’t sleep.
I would walk the campground in the dark due to being so hot in the
camper. I just wanted to catch a
nighttime breeze, but just came back from the walk full of nighttime mosquito
bites. You are not asking yourself, why
didn’t I just turn on a fan? That was
how those without AC keep cool in the 70’s and 80’s. We are camping and fans need to be powered by
electricity. I do remember having a few
of those plastic battery powered hand held fans. We also had the hand held non battery fan
powered by how fast you could wave a piece of paper, magazine or whatever you
found to move the air around. After the
girls grew up and no longer wanted to travel with us, we got a small travel
trailer with hard sides and then the bunks popped out of the sides, like our
pop ups did. I was so excited that they
were making small campers now with AC. I
would not have to listen to Pat saying that it is too hot to go camping. We took that little camper to Florida and
loved every minute of the trip. We also
could stop and pull over and make and eat lunch in our little camper when on
the road. We soon moved on to bigger
fifth wheels, and then to our latest and maybe last (if I have it my way) Class
A- RV that has two air conditioners.
I do complain about camping at times when
Pat comes in the RV and closes up the windows because it is too humid for
him. The RV air conditioners are not
like quiet home units. Windows shut, AC
running, TV on and then Pat asks me a
question or tells me something that I CAN NOT HEAR. He wonders why I am not doing what he
asked. At times when the AC is on in the
RV or at home, I open up the bedroom window during my nightly 2:00 wake up
call. I love waking up to the smell of
fresh air and the birds singing. I did
make the mistake once or twice opening the RV window and then smelling the odor
of a nearby feed lot. We city folks tend
to be more sensitive to that odor than you farm folks.
Those who are older can travel back into
memories with me before you had no AC.
You- youngins, will learn a little history on how your grandparents grew
up without AC and survived. Most homes
in the 50’s and 60’s did not have central air conditioning. If your family had money you may have had one
window air conditioning in a room that everyone slept in on those hot humid
nights when the breeze did not blow. That
meant the kids slept in lawn chairs. I
do remember sleeping in a lawn chair when little but not because of one window
air conditioning but lack of an extra bed for me. Heaven forbid would I have slept with a
sibling and share a bed, I was the oldest.
We did not have any window air conditioning units that I remember. My parents may have gotten one after I moved
out. Isn’t that the way things are? We tried to keep cool by various
methods. Fans, wet towels, ice, living
outside, spending time in a creepy brick basement full of bugs, and if you were
lucky, it had a cement floor vs dirt.
Oh
youngins I am off topic a little but when I was in 2nd grade we
moved to a house at 1403 Elm that had an outhouse. That is a toilet, that you used for number
one and two. My father soon built a
septic tank and installed one toilet.
Yes a family of 6 only had one bathroom back in the day. Plus we did not even have a lock on that
bathroom door. I can remember fighting
with my mom about taking a bath, since I hated using that bathroom with no
lock. Plus I was clean in the summer,
since I bathed in the three foot swimming pool that we had in the
backyard. We did not use chemicals to keep
the water clean, so it probably was not very clean water but it was a way to
cool off when you don’t have AC. Some
older neighbors did not have electricity. So they used an ice box to keep their
food cold. That meant the the ice man
made weekly deliveries down our dirt dead end street in the hollow. If the Bedrosky, Doughtery, or Connell kids were
out he would stop and give us a chunk of ice.
We would then use an ice pick and each get a chunk to suck on and try to
stay cool. Back then all kids played
outside, except maybe my sister Nan. She
did a lot of reading back then and currently.
She grew up to be a librarian.
You could also go to a movie to keep cool
because they had AC. To get into a movie
back in the 60’s tickets very cheap, maybe a dollar or less due to it was a
matinee. My friends and I would take a bus
to the Chief Theater on 24th St. in South Omaha every Sat. to see
the new movie that was showing.
Sometimes but very rare, if it was a really special movie, we would go
downtown to one of the many grand theaters that they had. Some are still standing today. The Orpheum and the Rose (Astro) are still
standing. Not sure what is in the place
of the Chief in SO, since I have not been along 24th St in a very long
time. I will just live in my memories
and remember it across South High. Not
sure if that is the right memory? There
was a bowling alley across from South and I think the theater was there
also?
One could take a bus to a mall and stay
cool in the mall. I did not do that too
often. Not many malls around, only the Center,
Southroads, and Westroads in the 70’s.
One could hang out at friends who may have had AC, but that did not
happen. I grew up in SO (south Omaha)
and my friends parents did not know the Joneses either. When I dated Pat in the early 70’s, he rented
a house at 312 Woolworth (I think that was the address.) from his grandma. No air conditioner either, so we spent a lot
of time seeing movies in the summer.
Gail G if you are reading this, did you guys add AC to that house? And how in the heck did all 5 of you live in
that house that no longer stands due to the huge tree and winds that destroyed
that house. You have your memories, as
we have ours of that house on Woolworth.
The first house that Pat and I bought when
we got married in 1974 had central air conditioning. Wow that was a surprise when we were looking
for a home. We had looked at a few in
SO, but settled for a house in Millard.
New houses in Millard were being built with AC. Ours was about 20 years old, yet had AC. We stopped seeing so many movies in the
summer or hanging out at Westroads. I
remember going to see the first Godfather movie and when the lights came on we
got up and left. We got to the car and
wondered why the movie did not make sense.
It was intermission and not the end of the show, so we went back to see
the rest. Pat still likes rewatching the
Godfather movies. Movie theaters are
even cooler in 2014. I have to remember
to bring a jacket if it is even in the 90’s outside. Just saw, “God is Not Dead” a really good movie
and I did not freeze due to remembering my jacket. I used to leave a sweat jacket in the car, so
I would also have one handy. I don’t do
that anymore. I learned the hard way
that the sun will fade a black sweat jacket in a short time.
Youngins besides some homes that were not air conditioned,
churches and schools did not have air conditioning. As a kid in grade school we were required to
attend mass every school day ,along with other required days, and since I was
in the choir we sang at funerals. That
church got so hot at times. We wore hot
wool like green uniforms with a white shirt.
No shorts and summer tops for school.
I remember fainting a few times during mass. The nuns would have us when feeling faint to
sit with our heads between our legs.
That is not making sense to me now.
I get the sitting part vs kneeling, but not the head part. We used anything that we could find to
survive and make a fan. Schools were just
as hot as church. We were trapped in that small desk with a nun with a ruler
waiting for some youngin to complain about not wanting to work due to the
heat. I do remember trying to teach in
some older OPS school without AC. That
was rough, and boy the smell was great with the older ones. Did they all forget to use deodorant on a hot
day? I later learned to supply deodorant
for my young adults to use just in case they forgot. Everyone knew where to find it in the
restroom. Some would need friendly
reminders, and at times we would borrow the shower at Central Middle for
extreme cases. Even AC schools went
without AC at times when things broke down, or electricity was lost. One time when subbing we spent most of the
day outside due to no electricity because some little or big sweetheart decided
to see what happens when you put a scissors into an outlet. Tough lesson to learn, but that is how one
learns through consequences.
Another way to keep cool when your home
did not have AC was to get a job. My
first job was at Thrifty Drug downtown next to the Grey hound bus station. It had AC, and working a grill or fryer during
summer, fall,or winter got very hot. Dishing
out ice cream for malts or other cold treats balanced out the hot grill
work. Most office jobs had AC so when I
worked at Mutual of Omaha and Northwestern Bell I was able to stay cool. Pat on the other hand spent time in the hot
boiler room at the Civic Auditorium. Maybe
that is why he likes to stay cool or maybe it is just a guy thing do to how
much men sweat?
Our
church that we attend has two new air conditioners that were recently
installed. The old ones would not keep
up and during one wedding one guy went to the local Wal Mart and bought a few
fans so the wedding could continue on.
It is now really, really cold. I
did not use the word cool as some would.
It is cold. I have to remember to
bring a jacket every Sunday and Wednesday.
In
fact today is Wednesday, July 2 and we are having some cool fall weather in
July. It is 3pm and 65 outside. It was so cool last night that a friend had
her fireplace going. She is always hot
and will at times crank the air up at church.
I did wear socks to bed. I am dressed in long pants and a long sleeve
shirt. I wore these to workout in at the
gym this morning. The gym is also a cool
place temperature wise ,and I understand why.
Some people workout and sweat. I
workout but I don’t sweat. I did get a
tad warm this morning during bicep curls with a bar with 10 lbs on each
side. The instructor had us doing a lot
of reps, so I had to roll up my sleeves.
But still no sweat. The last time
I did sweat was when I was walking around a lake with no shade and had walked 3
miles and it was really hot. I did enjoy
getting back to the RV AC that day. I
will wear these same clothes to church tonight but I will put on fresh
deodorant in case you are wondering along with one of my sweat jackets. I know youngkins you call them hoodies. I have a collection of them in a variety of
colors. I just bought a bright lime
green (glow in the dark kind of color).
The checkout guy even said it was very bright. I bought it to wear when walking and using a
busy trail. Since I can’t see most of
the bikers and walkers to stay out of their way, they sure better see me in my
green and say passing on your left. When
they do, I reply with a,” thank you”.
When they don’t, I have been known to yell back to them, “Passing on the
left.” Do they not understand that not
all can see or hear them passing by? Pat
got mad at me once for yelling that.
Then I got mad at Pat. They need
to be educated and someone needs to give them that lesson. So if you are a biker on a trail, don’t
assume that just because it is a wide trail and I am as far to the right that I
can go, that you don’t have to say those four words.
It
is interesting how words change when you don’t keep up with the changes. We used to call flip flops thongs back in my
day. I made that mistake once in a
classroom and the students who were awake and paying attention caught that
mistake, and thought I was talking about women’s underwear. I could go on and on about how I learned the
hard way about certain words that my daughters, students, or staff has shared
with me. I just reply with, “What, that
means that!”
I am torn about this whole AC
situation. I like it at times and hate
it at times. I really do like to stay
warm and not be cold. Back in the day
when other complained about hot flashes, I did not. I just enjoyed them, because I was warm. I just walked around the park behind us with
the dogs wearing my gray hoodie on July 2 and was glad I had it. It is cool, and my friend Karen probably has
been burning wood in her fireplace all day, or is planning on doing that
tonight when she gets home from church.
As I write this at the computer, I don’t have the window open, AC is
off, and I am just right, toasty and warm.
Pat does like to stay cool so that can be troubles at times, so I just
put on a hoodie/sweat jacket to wear during the day if it gets too cool. At night I have a warm blanket, but only one
during the summer. (two during the winter months).
You
have had long enough to think of an answer that I asked in the beginning. Is air conditioning a luxury in 2014 in
NE? Please comment on your
feelings.
I do understand that is some countries AC
would be a luxury but electricity is also a luxury along with fresh drinking
water. I also realize that stores and
shops in Alaska do not have AC. We
learned that when visiting Alaska last year, and they were having a rare heat
wave of the 80’s. I had been so worried
about freezing on that trip, but did not freeze.
Please comment on this subject. This way I know who are reading my blog. Also feel free to add your own memories about
living without AC. Thanks for reading,
because I am just trying to stay busy. In addition I feel that my brain is working
faster and I can type, read, write, a little better each time. I want to hope that the brain cells that I
lost two years ago are now growing back.
I can dream, can’t I? Even though
I can’t remember to turn off the light or stove or feed the dogs. I better go put on deodorant asap before church so I don’t forget.
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