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.