Too hot to blog. (Rachel Lucas)

Too hot to blog.

Seriously. It is so hot. How did people survive before air conditioning? I would like to know.

Posted on August 14, 2007 2:07 PM | Permalink

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Comments (20)

k2aggie07

Open windows. Fans. Not being a whiner. :-p

Posted by k2aggie07 | August 14, 2007 2:15 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 14:15

PatHMV

Nah, I remember spending summers with my grandparents in Louisiana when they had no air conditioning. There was a LOT of whining, by young and old alike. "Hot enough for ya?" "Sure is hot, ain't it?" "Just went by the bank, said the temperature was 104 degrees." "Lord a mercy, it is HOT out there." "Sakes alive, if we don't get some rain soon, it's gonna be a bad harvest." "I do declare, I just want to get in the tub and dump all the ice in the freezer in it." "Pat, you go on and sit down now afore you die of heat stroke." "Aw, granny, do I gotta?"

Posted by PatHMV | August 14, 2007 2:25 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 14:25

Rickbert

Air conditioning as we know it was developed around the turn of the 20th century.

It was just too hot to invent the internet or modern electronics before then. No A/C, no blogs. Elementary.

Posted by Rickbert | August 14, 2007 2:26 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 14:26

agathon

They had slaves. That's how.

And the ones who didn't just worked hard and died young.

Posted by agathon | August 14, 2007 2:40 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 14:40

Page

Two words:

Loin Cloth

Posted by Page | August 14, 2007 3:20 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 15:20

agathon

You know, what always astonishes me (and I lived in Atlanta for a decade, so I know what those ugly summers can be like) is that they DIDN'T wear loincloths. In fact, they wore all these layers and layers of heavy wool, with ruffles, and coats, and...wigs, even.

Insanity.

Posted by agathon | August 14, 2007 4:05 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 16:05

she_said

I feel bad for you guys in the ring of fire. I'm pretty good with that heat for a few days... after a while it just wears on you.

In fact, they wore all these layers and layers of heavy wool, with ruffles, and coats,

Allegedly all those clothes keep you from getting heat stroke. Keeps the sweat from wicking away. Yeah, I was watching Survivorman last night.

Posted by she_said | August 14, 2007 4:38 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 16:38

BlameCandida

Thankfully I get to wear shorts and polo shirts for my work during the summer (and be in the air conditioning at least half of the time). I don't know if I could have survived a century ago in a formal profession requiring suit and tie during the Texas summer. Oh well, at least I'm not in a burqa.

Posted by BlameCandida | August 14, 2007 4:39 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 16:39

Basil Riverdale

Well, dear, just up the road from Texas sits the City of Santa Fe at 7,000 feet. We open the windows at night to take in the cool 50's. In the morning we close the windows and bask in the residual night air all day long. No AC needed. But the best of the best is having morning coffee at 0600 in the hot tub. Am I bragging? I suppose so, but my decision to move here from the swamps of the East Coast was completely premeditated. You flatlanders are there by choice, ain'cha?

Posted by Basil Riverdale | August 14, 2007 4:41 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 16:41

laughykate

Count your blessings! It's minus freaking four (c)here this morning and i'm about to eat the heater and set fire to the rubbish bins. What I want to know is how did people survive without heaters?

Posted by laughykate | August 14, 2007 5:01 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 17:01

Brian_Thorn

Why back in my day as kid growin up, we didn't have any of that hoity toity high falootin fancy schmansy air coindishin thingamajobbers, and we liked it. Hell I didn't even know ya could lower the tempuratyer below 150 degrees till I was 47, and I am only 45 now, so go figure eh?

If we were really, really, really good, and by good I mean for like 6 years or so, after spending a short 32 hour work day baling hay in the 240 degree heat on Unkie Jedadyataeetya's farm, Pa would walk the 70 miles to the local Lucasmart and back, and spoil us by buyin a big ole block of ice to sit on for the 20 minutes we normally had to sleep before we started workin again.

Boy those were the days, lemme tell ya. We would jes sit on them there blocks of ice in our birthday suits till our testicles flat out ascended again, and we liked it. Hell those were such good ole days that 40 years later my right nut still hasn't descended again yet, and we liked it.

Have fun ;)!

Still havent figurid out what all the hubbubbabbuba is about this bloggin thingie. That sum kinda new pig vittles thing like scrapple er sumfin?

Posted by Brian_Thorn | August 14, 2007 5:04 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 17:04

David Gulliver

Run around naked and free. Find a big body of water to jump into.

Posted by David Gulliver | August 14, 2007 5:08 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 17:08

cirby

John Gorrie invented the first real air conditioning system (he used refrigeration systems to make ice, which he then used to cool the air in the Florida hospital he was working in).

There should be statues in Florida for this man.

Posted by cirby | August 14, 2007 5:23 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 17:23

N. O'Brain

Southwest Philadelphia.

In the 50s.

In the summer.

In a friggin' brick row house.

That's hot.

Posted by N. O'Brain | August 14, 2007 6:22 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 18:22

Lance de Boyle

Back when I was a boy growing up in Salem, Mass., we didn't have air conditioners.

When it got hot, we'd just hang a witch and set her to swingin'. Then we'd stand close and enjoy the breeze.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM

Whooosh whooosh

"Ah, now THAT'S what I call a breeze, or mild pleasing wind, if you prefer."

"Either way's fine. I hear they call the wind Mariah."

"You mean that tune by the Kingston Trio?"

"Yup, but we don't have musical comedy yet. So, the point is moot."

http://er.neoxer.com/lyrics/kingston.html

If you had a house party, it might be a two-witch night.

Of course, witches with wide hips was best. More surface area to create a breeze, or mild pleasant wind. You could get 'em over ta the Lucas Mather Mart.

They had this little girl, they did. Called her Rachel. A biblical name.

http://demo.lutherproductions.com/bibletutor/level1/program/start/people/rachel.htm

She'd be aclompin' up and down the aisles in them huge Mary Jane's o' hers...

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1074730/2/istockphoto_1074730_clown_shoes.jpg

just a pointin' and a shoutin',

...."Customers. Wide-hipped witches in aisle 11B, right next to ropes, bundles of faggots, and dunking stools. Buy some or YOU may be next to swing, according to my Daddy, Cotton Lucas."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(unit_of_measurement)

Posted by Lance de Boyle | August 14, 2007 7:15 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 19:15

Fletch

I lived in Central America for a time. During the wet season temperatures would soar into the 100's, thus heating the very damp ground to form nasty rain clouds which would then pour on us. Every. Day. For. Months.

After the rainstorms the temperature would drop into the upper sixties/low seventies. That's right, a 30-40 temperature swing every day.

I was always sick. And wet.

Posted by Fletch | August 14, 2007 7:28 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 19:28

mtncb

We didn't have air conditioning till I was 6, except for a window unit in the family room that also cooled the kitchen. Sort of.

I honestly don't know how I lived without it that long. I sure as hell wouldn't survive without it now.

Thankfully I grew up as an HVAC mechanic (among other things) so I know how to fix my own when it breaks.

Posted by mtncb | August 14, 2007 9:00 PM

Posted on August 14, 2007 21:00

trainer

We were so poor that if I wasn't a boy I wouldn't have had anything to play with.