The Days Before Air Conditioning
I grew up in Atlanta. Lived in the suburbs in 1965, we had a big 4 bedroom new house in a new subdivision in North Atlanta, where the prosperous white folks live.
There were 200 brand new houses in our neighborhood, nobody had air conditioning. In 1965 I was 14 years old, our school wasn't air conditioned. Our cars weren't air conditioned.
My bedroom was on the second floor of the house, at age 16 I would get home from a day of working construction, it would be 85 degrees in my bedroom. I took a shower and went back to my bedroom, I had a floor fan, I turned it on.
It was Georgia. It was August. It was hot.
Today, we are so used to air conditioning, it seems like we would die without it.
There were 200 brand new houses in our neighborhood, nobody had air conditioning. In 1965 I was 14 years old, our school wasn't air conditioned. Our cars weren't air conditioned.
My bedroom was on the second floor of the house, at age 16 I would get home from a day of working construction, it would be 85 degrees in my bedroom. I took a shower and went back to my bedroom, I had a floor fan, I turned it on.
It was Georgia. It was August. It was hot.
Today, we are so used to air conditioning, it seems like we would die without it.
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yes sir we were tougher back then too
men made of steel and ships made of wood0 -
grandad bought this in 1919...they stayed in the basement some in the summer and hung sheets on the south and east open porch and watered them for their AC...my central air system is MUCH better 0 -
Yes I remember those days. Our bedroom was on the 2nd floor. The only window looked out over a big flat roof.
Seemed hotter than an oven.
On those days I used to sleep on cot in cellar. Felt like air conditioning.0 -
my mother use to sprinkle water on my sheets at night before bedtime. she opened a window and put one of those window fans on blowing out. on the other side of the room, one would blow in.
when it rained during the day, we stood in the rain barefooted to cool off.
we considered ourselves wealthy.
in 1966....dad bought a fedders window ac.
luxury bit us.0 -
Musta been punishing to not have a swamp cooler.
Swampers have been part of desert livin' for a really long time, remember those "desert bags" every car had hanging on the fenders?
Same technology, but in a house[:D]0 -
I was at home until 19 in Ravenna Ohio, we never had air conditioning. I lived in the Chicago area for ten years and we never had air conditioning there either. In Alaska it is not needed.
Now, decades later, in Southern Ohio with it hitting 99 yesterday and going to be hotter today I appreciate my new system, it is 72 degrees in the house and I choose to stay inside today.
In my mind it is not a good time to be Amish.0 -
Architecture took heat into account and incorporated all kinds of innovations. A few are high ceilings, vents over interior doors, Houses elevated off the ground, attic vent/fans are just a few.
In antebellum Southern homes, kitchens were detached. You would be amazed at the tricks to keep houses cool that were developed. People weren't really tougher, they were just smarter. [:p]0 -
Swamp Coolers. But they worked where I lived in the desert.[:D] 0 -
remember after i moved into this house and a pipe got a room wet in the basement...i mopped it up and found a little black fan less than a foot in diameter and got an extension cord and turned it on....WHEEEEE put out air like a 42" shop fan ..OK..went back down a little later to check on it and it was a little hot so i shut it off and happened to read the label...it was a 32 volt DC fan from when the house had the old delco system before the REA came thru the country.... 0 -
quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
Swamp Coolers. But they worked where I lived in the desert.[:D]
They work on the gulf coast all the time if the wind is blowing in your direction but you can't tell any difference. [:D]
serf0 -
My dad built us a new house in 1957 with A/C. Neither of my grandparents houses ever had A/C in them. They both had big houses with lots of big shade trees around them and I don't ever remember it being hot in their houses. 0 -
my home place. my bedroom was upstairs where you see the window 
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this is the inside0 -
Yep, I remember those days in Central Virginia in the early 50's. Granny and Grandpa had no well and I would walk almost half a mile to bring Granny two ice cold buckets of water from the spring.
Granny would take the dipper and fill up bowl and take a quick cool down with a wash rag. I hated that trip to the spring but the smile on her face made the trip worth it.0 -
Back in the late Fifties..we'd hang out during the day at the New York State Museum...all the floors and some of the walls were marble...it just felt cool...
Or if you had thirty-five cents you could go to the movies....outside the theater they had fake icicles hanging with a sign " Cool Inside"...you could stay there all day...
At home at night......you looked for the cool side of the pillow...0 -
Yes, p3skyking, ceiling fans! But in suburban Atlanta, nobody had ceiling fans. We only had floor fans.
We went, in 1963, on vacation to St. Simons Island and stayed in a huge, old 6 br house built in 1918.
I had never seen a house like this, it had high, ten foot ceilings with a big old ceiling fan in every room. I never had seen a ceiling fan, you pulled the cord and had a wonderful cool breeze. The fan made no noise, and was not in your way to get kicked, like a floor fan. What an invention.
These houses also had huge screened porches and screens on all the big windows to let the breeze through.
It was hotter there than in Atlanta, but you felt cooler.
None of thes new suburb houses in Atlanta, in 1965, had a ceiling fan, or a high ceiling, or a big screened porch. Nor A/C
As y'all know I build houses and I am on a ceiling fan spree, I have 6 ceiling fans in my house and there are 5 in my mom's house. Love those ceiling fans.0 -
double hung windows that dropped on top and lifted on bottom.....with 10' ceilings. I live in that today in va. detached kitchen too. 0 -
When I was a sopsamere we moved into a big 2-story brick house with ivy all over the east side. It was a true "brick", not a modern veneer.
Windows, screens and the ivy kept it fairly cool, but any shade would feel cool after a day in the field or on the tractor[8D]0 -
we had attic fan in the main hallway of the house, I remember it dying and dad and mom argueing over the replacement, dad wanted a bigger one, and that was what we got it was close to 4ft x 4ft and had a timer. had high and low, on high it would suck the curtains straight out pulling the air in, closest we got to A/C..... 0 -
Being born in 1961 I don't remember many years without at least a window unit. Can't say I'm sorry I missed out on most of the 'no AC' era.[:)]
In the works, but years down the road,...
https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-invests-nearly-8-million-develop-next-generation-hvac-systems0 -
I have managed to live without AC all my life until 2015 when I moved from my boyhood home. The new house has a 1200 BTU window unit that is needed only because it came with the house.
My basement is always cool or even cold and I spend a lot of time there.
The old house was on a 5 acre swampy parcel with a crick in the back yard. The crick never ran dry even to this day and I could cool off in that ice cold running water anytime I didn't mind getting wet.[:)]0 -
Crick (variant of creek) - Grammarist
grammarist.com/usage/crick/
Apr 4, 2012 - Crick is a variant of creek originating in the U.S., where it reflects a dialectal pronunciation of the word for a small, shallow stream.0 -
Meh - I haven't used A/C in 5 years. No Big Deal. Drink WATER, and open the windows for the breeze. 0 -
I remember in 1956 when my parents took us on a vacation to California & they rented one of those contraptions that hung on the window that the air blew through & you filled with water to cross the desert. There was a chain of stores where you could rent them & then turn them in.
It was another thirty years before I had a house or car with air conditioning.0 -
The theaters were the only thing with AC when I was growing up.By the time the movie was over I was freezing,glad to be back out in the hot,humid Carolina summer air. 0 -
as a kid I knew no one who had A/C even in there car
there was maybe three stores in town that had them one we never shopped at too much $$ for mom the Murphy's five and dime was my favorite place maybe once a month we would go in .. felt great on the summer days
My wife and I were marred several years before we even had a window a/c . just a box fan in the window same as growing up
some times at night I think back on how trying to sleep flipping my pillow a dozen times at night [:D][:D] trying to get a cool side ..
now we have become spoiled warm in the winter and cool in the summer .
heck even the welfare crowd demand A/C at our expense
we survived with out it they can also [:(!]0 -
My Dad was in Oil Exploration; so I grew up in South Texas, South Louisiana, and Southwest Arkansas with other states and locations in-between. I never lived in air conditioned anything until my freshman year of college (1963 - air conditioned dorm)!
Back then, we survived with floor fans and attic fans with windows open during the summer.0 -
St.Louis,1960's - 1980. Two story house,bedroom upstairs,no A/C. [:0][:0][V][V] 0 -
1967 Buick LeSabre was my Dads first air conditioned car.
We moved in 1975 to a house that just the 2nd floor had central air.
Other than that, we never had A/C. Just oscillating and box fans.
Grade school and high schools both had no A/C either.
I couldn't imagine not having A/C today!
My Aunt died in 2010. She lived in a brick home my Uncle and Father built in the 50's with Hot Water baseboard heat. No ductwork in the house and casement windows.
She once said "with the ceiling fans and good shade trees it's just like air conditioning."
I said, "the ONLY thing that is JUST LIKE air conditioning IS AIR CONDITIONING!!0 -
quote:Originally posted by Tech141
Meh - I haven't used A/C in 5 years. No Big Deal. Drink WATER, and open the windows for the breeze.
That's easy to say when you live in Ohio. Try that down in the deep south and it becomes a big deal when temperatures are triple digits in the shade with 98% humidity.0 -
first time I ever saw ac in a car was in fla in the late 60's. 64 Pontiac tempest.
then...in ca. they were accessories that sat on the hump under the dash. uncle had one put in his 61 valiant wagon.0
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