Summer Is Heating Up

It was another oppressively hot day today. Summer is here with a vengeance. There was a couple at the “Y” this morning bitching about how hot the work out area was. “We should all take our memberships and move them someplace else. They’d fix the air then.” They griped. Going into “Little Mary Sunshine” mode I replied, “I think how I hated it when it was so cold here in the winter when the heat was not working. It all evens out!” They just glared at me!

I think back to how my mother just hated the summer heat. We grew up without air conditioning. As kids we never knew the difference. When things got too bad mom would move a lawn chair to the basement and she would try to relax in the damp, clammy cellar.

The first time I experienced sleeping in an air conditioned room was when we attended the New York Worlds Fair in 1964. My sister Laurie, mom and I stayed at my Aunt Fran’s place in Queens. As children we imagined Aunt Fran as leading such a glamorous life in New York City, living in an apartment just off Queens BLVD. She had an air conditioner. My mom thought she was in heaven being able to sleep in the cool bedroom.

Aunt Fran (waving) and Mom at the Long Island Railroad exhibit: Worlds Fair 1964.

While we were at the fair, my dad was doing house renovation work. He bought a window air conditioner unit for their bedroom, and box window fans from Noah’s Ark (the main “auto store” on Main St in Lockport) for Laurie and me.

Mom was so thrilled. To her dying day we always made sure she had a working air conditioner! Long after I had grown up and moved out of the house mom told me about the hard time she got from her co-workers at the hospital over that first air conditioner. Apparently they were trying to lay a guilt trip on mom for having an air conditioned bedroom while her children didn’t.

Mom was a trooper who didn’t mince words. She replied, “Piss on them! Those kids are young: they can handle the heat. I can’t!” Don’t mess with a WWII Army nurse!

In all honesty it never crossed my mind to feel deprived over the situation. It was no big deal: we kids did not mind the heat, just like mom said! That box fan from 1964 is still in use here in Alabama. I oil the bearings every year, and every couple years I dismantle the thing to give it a real good cleaning. How many nights have I fallen to sleep listening to the “white noise” from that fan?

At home I really dislike running the central air. My old house was designed with a center hallway and opposing windows for good air circulation. Keeping things closed up during the day, and opening the windows after sunset for the cool night air to flow through is good enough for me.

The windows let in the cicada calls and other night sounds. In the morning I can hear the first birdsong. The cats sleep on the window side of the bed to catch the breezes.

During the day Stumpy will move to different spots in the shade under his favourite shrubs. I usually keep one of the ceiling fans going on the porch so he always has so air flow in his rocking chair. Daggy is like my mom. She will scream at the basement door till I open it. Then she waddles to her space in the North West corner under the cement porch. She has a hollowed out spot in the dirt where she has a view of the side yard through an iron grate. She is happy to spend the entire day there.