Heritage Hints From Mama – Days Before Air Conditioning
Today my mother, Janice Davis, shares her memories of the summer days before air conditioning! I sure enjoyed reading this and hope you will, too. Gratefully, Christy
Do you remember the days before air conditioning? We got our first air conditioner when I was five years old and we moved into our new home. I remember the noise that it made. Until we got used to it, the sound was deafening.
Before we moved into the new home, we lived in a small house in a close knit neighborhood. We had a box fan that was installed into a window in the living room. All of us kids would sing into the fan. It made singing a great pastime as it threw the words back out at us. It didn’t hurt that we also had the cooling breeze in our faces.
My grandmother had a small oscillating fan that sat on a table in her living room. We loved to put our finger on the center circle of the fan as it spun around. The grownups always fussed at us and told us that we were going to cut our fingers off and not to do it. I think the danger of it is what encouraged us to always give it a try. No one ever cut their finger off that I knew of though – but that isn’t to say that today’s fans couldn’t accomplish such a thing (in other words, don’t try this at home!).
We lived next door to my grandmother. I remember one day that my cousin and I wanted to play in my house. My grandmother kept us during the day and we weren’t allowed to go in house because my parents were at work. We decided that if we were sweating really bad that my grandmother would be worried that we were too hot and would allow us to go there to cool off (We had air conditioning but Mama Reed didn’t). We went to the hose and doused ourselves from head to toe with water. I’m sure my grandmother knew what we had done but she let us go next door to play. I can still remember us trying to decide how wet we should be in order to be convincing enough.
Thinking back about the hot days of summer, I didn’t really remember the heat so much as the memories of the summertime days. Playing with friends and family and enjoying the carefree days took over the memories of how hot Southern summers were. I hope that you have nice childhood summer memories also.
All of these are memories that our children will never know. I don’t remember thinking that it was so hot outside or anywhere else we went. There was no air conditioning in stores, churches or restaurants. Everyone was used to the heat and seemed to cope pretty well.
Kids would get up in the morning, eat breakfast and then head outside for a day of play. There was no reason to stay inside since the temperature inside was usually at least 10 degrees hotter than outside. We ran, played in the hose, built clubhouses, and caught honey bees in fruit jars. Heat sure didn’t slow us down any!
Now parents have to try to get their children to go outside and play. Children nowadays are used to being inside where the air conditioning keeps the house nice and cool but I can’t help but think they’re missing out on one of the best parts of a childhood.
Do you remember the days before air conditioning? Do you remember playing in the hose because it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk? Did you have a large box fan in your window?
I look forward to reminiscing with you in the comments below and remember, Mama loves you!
Love,
Mama
Life is too serious to be taken seriously.
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I’m 36 years old, and grew up in South Louisiana. I don’t remember having air conditioning until I was about 5 or 6. We did have an attic fan though. That sucker was LOUD! And you had to make sure all the doors were wedged open really well, or they would slam shut. I remember we weren’t aloud to go outside during the middle of the day and it seemed to rain every afternoon around 3 pm. I remember trying digging holes to China with my cousins, trying to dig out a replica of the Mississippi river and playing dress-up. I remember spending twilight and dusk catching lovebugs with my sisters. There was lots of icy cold watermelon, cookouts, camping and fishing. We have AC now, but there are times I would give just about anything to have one more day like that. To spend with my sisters, catching bugs in the gathering darkness.
Oh the memories that come flooding back when reading all the comments. The screen doors slammin’, box fans in windows and singing into them, playing “kick the can” and “red rover” with neighorhood kids after dinner until bedtime. We did not have AC at home until in my middle teen years and no AC at school until my 9th grade year. We survived. I wish my children had experienced some of this “good southern living” I grumble about living in the “retched humid south” in the summer months now but I cannot imagine life anywhere else. Thanks for sharing.
I live in MS and we didn’t have air conditioning until we moved into our new hourse when I was in the 9th grade. Even then my parents did not keep the house really cool (we had to be thrifty) because it would be too expensive. I spent a lot of my teenage years at my Great Aunt Theo’s house on weekends. She did have air conditioning, but we were camping and water skiing most of the time and that was without air conditioning. Life flies by! I no longer have my Mother or my Aunt Theo with me, but I’ll cherish all my memories forever!
I am 43 now ( did I just put that out for the whole wide world YES ) anyway I do remember only having box fans in the summer and those little gas heaters on the wall for the winter and we even had a wood burning heater/stove. and I do remember when I was little about 5-6 we had an outhouse. We had good times back then – cousins everywhere to play with. I could walk down to my grandmothers house thru the woods and the only thing to worry about was where the bull was at. We would have family reunions and just have a good time. My family was large my dad had 16 brothers and sisters. So we had plenty of family around all the time. My favorite time was when my grandparents would make homemade ice cream and take us to K-Mart. I have been working on my family research and just about finish. But when you start it – you just can not put it down. You always want to find just one more person. Thanks for bring back the good times – I am now trying to preserve them for my 6 year old.
I not only remember the days before air conditioning, I’m still living them. I manage, just as we did in the ‘old days.’ I open all the windows, run the fans, and wipe down with cold cloths if I need it. I shock people when I tell them I don’t use an air conditionerl
When I was a kid, I was outside from early morning till around noon, then my mom would make us come in and either stay inside or go ou in the yard and sit in the shade with a book till the worst of the sun had passe over. Then we’d be out again till suppertime, and once the dishes were done, we shot out the door and stayed out till nearly bedtime. Oh, those long, lovely days when summer meant vacation.
Oh what memories. We had a attic fan and box fans also. I had forgotten about singing in the fans. That was so much fun. Dont think my mama thought so as there were 6 of us kids. We also played outside all day long. Used metal garbage cans filled w/water from the hose as our swimming pools. We played Devil in the Ditch and all the other games you mentioned. Also we stayed out until dark when mama would start hollering at us to come in. Funny we didn’t mind getting wet in the garbage can but hated taking a bath at night. lol I think we were just too tired by then and just wanted to go to bed. Oh the days…
I lived in walking distance to my Granny’s house. All of these comments bring to me such treasured memories. When all of our chores were finished, I would trek off to Granny’s house. She would usually be watching a soap opera, sitting with a hand held fan from church. Sometimes we would lay across her feather bed and talk “of course at the foot of the bed”. I was raised in the 60’s in Lawrenceburg Tennessee.