Sweat!

Today's heat reminded me of how hot it was in our house when I was growing up.

Air conditioning? Ha! How about we had one fan.....one! It was set up at the top of the stairs where the window was. Theoretically...heavy on the theory part, because it faced towards the three bedrooms my family slept in, we all got some of it's intended effect. Barely.
But when the humidity and temperature were both at 100, all it did was blow the hot humid air around and around.
.

My 2 brothers and I were all sharing one bedroom for a while and on the most horrific nights, we would sleep in our underwear and bring glass jars filled with ice water in the room to try to stay cool. Sometimes it was impossible to fall asleep, as the sweat dripped off onto the sheets. I can remember waking up literally drenched from sweat. In Jersey, we would have heat waves that could last like two weeks, so the unholy pattern stretched on for days. My father's advice..said seriously during these heat waves was always the same: "take your shirt off". Followed by the admonition to go outside, where the sun just made it feel hotter.

The years passed and my parents actually bought 3 new fans, so every bedroom had it's own fan. It was like how winning the lottery must feel, because we couldn't believe how lucky we were! But it still wasn't as good as an air conditioner would be.

When I was about 16 or 17 and earning money at the local hamburger joint, I conspired with my younger brother to elevate our cooling experience to a new level. We went out and bought our own window air conditioner . By this point, we each had our own bedrooms. but we slept in the one bedroom on hot summer nights. We were in the bedroom 24/7 during heatwaves, putting some beach chairs in the bedroom, and listening to our own tv set which we had by this point. We felt like we were staying at The Ritz.

My dad always pooh poohed the benefits of an air conditioner..."a fan is just as good". Yeah, right. I remember him coming in our bedroom and ever so reluctantly admitting that it sure felt nice in that room.

Next summer my mom and dad bought one for their room! I can still remember how vindicated I felt.