Sunday
Walking out this morning was almost painful. The temperature was already 78 degrees and the humidity was 90%… Pretty much right where it should be for this time of year, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The only thing worse than summers on the Texas coast is summers in the Texas interior… In my opinion anyway.
Even as a youngster, way back when summers weren’t quite so excessively hot, the only thing that made Texas summers semi-bearable was no school. Back then schools were not air conditioned. So even the school boards didn’t schedule schools after Memorial Day of Before Labor Day. It was just common sense, kids couldn’t concentrate on lessons when the temperatures inside the classroom put them into a stupor. The most intense memories I have from back then was the windows all open, the large fan up on the wall blowing hot, humid air around the room as I worked on lessons. My arm leaving layers of sweat on the paper, ink smearing as I wrote my answers to questions as my mind wandered to the grounds outside those open windows…
I can even recall when they retrofitted air conditioning into my elementary school. It was between the summer 4th and 5th grades… 1965. It would be a whole lot of years before air conditioning would make it into any home I lived in… Our world would revolve around “attic” fans for years to come.
Breakfast is wanting my attention… So, y’all stay safe, stay healthy, and pray for the nation and the world.
I well remember our first AC. I was in grade school, and AC wasn’t common in Iowa, but I was terribly allergic to corn pollen. The doctor prescribed a window unit for one room, so I could escape my windblown nemesis in the summer. Eventually, I took shots, and got over that and other allergies in a year or two. Then, I moved to Texas, and after a few years began understanding Cedar Fever in a new way.
I was out of my teens before I lived in a home with AC, Since I worked in a warehouse it was probably a good thing I wasn’t acclimatized to the cooler drier air… thou truth be told I would have loved the cool night sleep.