Most people farmed back then, so they got up and got their work down early and when it got hot they sat in the shade. Many slept outside on the porch to catch a little air movement, and the houses had large windows to allow in the breeze if there was any. Winter and the cold would have been much worse than summer time for these people. Houses that were always cold and going out to the outhouse in January could not have been worse.
***Official 2024 Weather Thread***
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So are we now on to this being your neighbor’s fault for poorly maintained trees?
There are places in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado that get pretty big extremes. Eastern Wyoming gets stupid hot in July. They don't have the humidity though.
Backpacking in the Big Horns several years ago, I was blown away by all of the mosquitos.
It makes sense once you get down into all of the bogs etc. but I still never would have guessed them to be that bad (and active).
Nope. They just trimmed around all the lines this summer. Big healhly looking tree the storm just knocked down. Same in nearby park.
I gotta say I feel like this is the first year of my adult homeownership life that I was mowing about 3 times per 2 weeks since spring.
While the last couple days have been scorchers, it's nice to get a mowing break.
While the last couple days have been scorchers, it's nice to get a mowing break.
We didn’t have any AC outside of a window AC in our farmhouse when I was growing up. Dad wouldn’t turn it on due to cost. It had to be really hot to do use it. Maybe 1-2 days a year I would sleep on the living room floor to avoid laying in a pool of sweat. You just learned to tolerate it back then. Bale hay with an old 4020 and a year around cab and you opened the windows and door for air flow.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in farmhouses that had no air conditioning. It just got hot, you dealt with it. Lots of days spent in front of fans, doing what you could to try to cool down. Every night we had fans in our bedroom windows, at least bringing in the night air into the house. When my brothers and I were out with Dad in his pickup truck, we’d beg him to turn on the AC, but he’d never do it. He’d tell us, “You’ll just feel hotter when you have to get out.”
I’m not saying it made me tougher, I didn’t like it (and baling hay in temperatures like this was torture), but what are you gonna do? This week I hardly ever went outside, it was so gross.
I grew up in Iowa in a family of 7 and we had no AC. I remember when Dad installed a fan in our hallway ceiling that sucked the air up into the attic. We thought we died and went to heaven.
You could see the curtains be sucked inward when we turned on that fan and you could actually feel a little breeze in the house.
Of course our parents waited until us 5 kids had grown up and moved out before they had central air conditioning installed.
You could see the curtains be sucked inward when we turned on that fan and you could actually feel a little breeze in the house.
Of course our parents waited until us 5 kids had grown up and moved out before they had central air conditioning installed.
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Love the Bighorns. Way underrated and basically the same driving distance as the Rockies in Colorado.
School out early 3 days in a row in Dubuque because of the heat. Ok maybe Monday but today and Wednesday??? Its getting a little bit ridiculous. The schools of course unlike 40 years ago all have air conditioning so I think we know where the belief that 90 degrees is unprecedented heat is originating from.
Do they?
The school I work in doesn't have AC.
And 30ish years ago we got out for heat.
*looked it up: As of last April 35% of Dubuque schools had AC.
So...not all schools.
Surely it can’t be from the power company shutting them down to save power on the grid and give them a better rate saving tax payer money…
I spent my summers on a ranch in TX...no AC there either. But I was younger then, and I wasn't taking a med that makes me less able to tolerate heat. I overheat easily, and it makes my heartrate skyrocket.
That's because they finally had the discretionary cash fund to pay for it with all you rug rats gone!
I wonder if other changes in the interim also have an effect.
Like, 30 years ago a teacher might've kicked a door open to try to get some airflow into the room. That may no longer be allowed for security reasons.
But yeah, i remember schools with no AC getting out early when I was a kid too.
In Dubuque they have AC. Reasoning is its to hot to ride in a bus without AC. Monday was a scorcher but I don't think today or tomorrows temperatures reach a point where kids can't tolerate a bus ride in a little bit of heat.
