When I grew up here in the 40’s & 50’s there was NO air-conditioning. My mom used to take a square fan and lay towels that were wet with cold water in the front of it and that is how we got cooled off. Many times it was over 100 degrees. How did we ever survive?
Here is a cool homemade swamp cooler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpqUr6bEYOs
When I lived in the bay area I didn’t have AC, but it rarely got hot enough to need one. And it always cooled off in the evening. But I lived close to the water. Go inland a few miles and the temp went up.
I remember working out on ranches in the heat, but I was much younger then.