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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my inlaws lived in Benton ar. they built a new house after the war.
inlaw mom and dad grew up in sw ar, dad served in the pacific....and swore he'd never go without ac for the rest of his life. he got his wish.
house was built in the early 50's with central heating w/ducts....but as soon as window ac, heat pumps, and central air came out...he had it installed.
my wife taught in schools w/o ac in eastern ar. near the river, and told of stories where kids came to school w/o shoes and lived in dirt floor homes. she would teach the hardest classes early in the morning because she knew she'd lose their attention when the heat increased in the afternoon.0 -
my school in conn didn't have ac. it had those huge glass windows in rooms with 12' ceilings. the bottom row pulled in and the top set pushed out with a pole.
teacher assigned window guards who had to close them if it rained.
yes....we even had cloak rooms with venetian sliding doors in back of class.
it was an old old school. grade k thru 6.0 -
In the 50s, all through the South, any business you might go into had high ceilings, and Hunter Fans lazily turning.
I have one of the last Real Hunters, Cast Iron frame, nearly 60?pounds polished and Brass-Plated, hanging over Our Bed. I've had 3Homes, but only One Bedroom Fan in all the Years since0 -
I prefer taking a cold shower, then standing in front of the side by side with the freezer door open with the HVAC set at 69 personally. 0 -
Never had AC in the schools I attended! Never thought a thing of it. 0 -
When I worked on the assembly line at Chrysler in the 60s they could only run air conditioned cars every fifth car at most as it took that long to install them. We even ran a lot of cars without heaters. Most of them were for Hawaii or corporate fleets or government agencies. 0 -
No AC here. I run the AC in the tractor since otherwise I'd pass out.Seldom run AC while driving until I got my current pickup. The ventilation is so poor that even with windows down all you get is noise w/o air flow.
I sleep in the basement with a small fan--good enough.0 -
Oddly enough I grew up in a house with A/C. Then I went to college. The Virginia tech Corps of Cadets barracks at the time (2003-2007) did not have AC....we would sweat so hard during the "online sessions" each day as freshmen it was crazy. We would open the windows and put two box fans in them side by side....one blowing in and one blowing out. It was the best way to circulate the air. 0 -
Growing up we had no air conditioning. If it was in the 70+ degree range at night I would take a cold shower, soak my underwear in cold water and lay in front of a fan. If I woke up hot and dry I would repeat the process.
First car I had with a/c was a '70 Pontiac Catalina.0 -
None of the schools I went to from 1st thru 12th grade had A/C. There was no screens on the windows either so wasp, flies and other insects had open house.
Below is Ramsey Elementary School in Knoxville, TN that I went to, from the 1st thru the 8th grade, from 1955 to 1962. Back in those days there were no free rides. Poor kids that couldn't afford to pay for their lunch worked for it. They worked in the lunch room cleaning up, swept and mopped the halls or did what ever needed to be done around the school.
My Mom went to school there also. She also went to the same high school that I went to and I had a lot of the same elementary and high school teachers that she had which was not good. Mom was a model student and I...well, I wasn't and they reminded me of that on a regular basis. [:D]
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My house 1965 how to swamp cooler. It was nice
Fast forward to 2018, my house has Central AC, but I also have a swamp cooler that I like better than the AC... Cheaper to run and gets my house cooler. On a 100?? day I can get it down to 60??with my swamp cooler, and only down to 65?? with my central air... Yes I like my house cold, even during the winter...
But I do turn off my swamp cooler and turn on my AC when the humidity is high. It works better than a swamp cooler in high humidity conditions. But that doesn't happen too often0 -
Yep. Back in the early 80's I was stationed in the Philippines and lived off base in an unairconditioned house for 3 full years. You get used to the heat. All we had was fans. On really hot nights we had a guaranteed method for sleeping cool. We used only sheets and no blankets so this worked well. My wife and I took the top sheet, got it soaking wet and wrung it out before putting it back on top of us. With the windows open and a fan pointed right at the bed, that damp sheet provided a really nice cool sleep. The fan ensured we had evaporation all night long. By morning, when the outside air was cooling down anyway, the sheet would be dry.
Nowadays, in Nevada, we rely on our swamp cooler. It works great and uses a whole lot less electricity than an air conditioner.0 -
None of the schools I attended had air conditioning. The real reason we had summer vacation (June, July, August) was because it was too hot for classes. 0 -
Grew up on a farm . Only air conditioning I knew about were the stores in town on a rare shopping trip. My grandparents got a window unit about 1968 or so because grandadaddy had a stroke . Only cooled two rooms . Mom and dad got one in the middle 70s .We cooled the den and kitchen. We all had big sears window fans for the rest of the House . Managed quiete well until we got central air in 1980 or 81 Glad I don?t have to go back to those times 0 -
Yep, We did not have nor want AC even in vec's. Did not want power steering, power Brakes, just want more power and good AM radio.
Done a lot of swimming in the Crk (creek) in summer times after hauling hay all day.
Was tough as a old boot.
Hell cannot live without it now days. When the AC quits I'm on it fast. (Do my own repairs and have a AC license)
One hot job is working on a AC when temp is 100F or above.0 -
Five or six years back a transformer blew out a few blocks away. Everything got quiet. I lay on the couch reading, the wife taking an extended shopping trip.
I remember how nice a faint breeze felt, stirring through the window and up the steps.0 -
quote:The Days Before Air Conditioning
Sucked.0 -
quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
Swamp Coolers. But they worked where I lived in the desert.[:D]
i use a swamp cooler in extreme low humidity western montana from mid july thru august. by september temps moderate greatly0 -
pg.#2 0 -
Joe, your grasp of the obvious is inspiring. [^] 0 -
I?m 48 years old and have never lived in a house with AC. AC was a pipe dream at the farm in Ohio, PA was humid and hot and we dreamed of AC, summer is so short in MT by the time you get to complaining about the heat it gets cold again. 0 -
When I lived in Columbus, Mississippi there were dozens of antebellum homes (many still in the hands of the original families) and you could tour them each Spring.
A typical one was the Waverly Mansion. It was surrounded by huge oak and magnolia trees for shade. The innovative thing, though, was that all such houses had cupolas on the roof. The cupola was designed to catch sun and heat up. By opening its windows and also opening the ground floor north side windows, they created a chimney effect. The cool, shaded air on the north side was pulled int and rose until it warmed up and exited the cupola. Natural and very effective cooling.
Pretty smart folks back then.0 -
Never had AC growing up.
Summers involved opening the windows before turning in, and closing them mid morning.
We did not have a television most of the time, so after dinner we would spend time out on a screened patio reading and talking.
The kids had our bedrooms in the basement, which never got much above 70 or 75.
AC was never really a bid deal; kind of a never had it, never missed it sort of thing.0 -
I never had it growing up either, I remember a day that was 113 in Missouri so humidity was at least 85%. But it is like outhouses, I do not want to go back to the old days. No nostalgia about either. 0 -
I was raised on the Texas Gulf Coast... Never had AC until the late 1950's. We had attic fans that ran 24/7 with all the windows open about 2-3 inches...kept the house cool, but the bed sheets were a bit clammy when you went to bed.
I remember when the cars came out with AC and the units were in the trunk and blew though vents in the back window ledge...My first air conditioned car was a Valiant with an after market under the dash unit...damn thing would freeze up, thaw, and then blow ice and water...my bride liked the cooling but was not impressed with the latter.[;)]0 -
I don't remember much about being really hot in the house , just outside, until we moved into a place that had an attic fan, and sleeping on top of the sheet with the bed close to a window that was slightly open spoiled me. I was twelve years old then. Shortly thereafter we got a window A/C for the living room. That was really nice. By then most newer businesses and newer automobiles had A/C as well. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
Joe, your grasp of the obvious is inspiring. [^]
If not downright uncanny!!!! [:D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by discusdad
quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
Swamp Coolers. But they worked where I lived in the desert.[:D]
i use a swamp cooler in extreme low humidity western montana from mid july thru august. by september temps moderate greatly
Had a big swamp cooler in Oklahoma with the pine chip cooler pads from Otasco, water pump, etc. House smelled like Pine Sol and curtains would get so heavy they would rip out their hangers and fall or drip water. The old RCA TV would sound like bacon frying due to the high humidity from the swamp cooler when it was turned on at same time the swamp cooler was running. Good ole days but don't want to go back.[;)]
Seen swamp coolers used in western states and they cooled good in the lower humidity places.
New Swamp coolers now days are kinda costly.0 -
ya those pine chip pads weren't quite the answer, what i have is an industrial strength air filter per se.. but even now in the high 80s to 90s, its cooling only from noon to 9pm, i switch over to just "fan" and open windows. nighttime temps drop in to the 50s usually. 0 -
We recently stayed in a VRBO house that had a swamp cooler - our first experience with one. It didn't take long to learn that you have to switch to Low Fan when you go to bed, or have everything soggy by morning. Rising humidity at night makes the evaporative system nunfunctional. 0
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