Before “refrigerated air” is a world that those who didn’t live in it can’t imagine, they probably think they can but they can’t know what it is like to actully live in it with not even knowing of something else, school, work, play, suppertime, trying to sleep at night, windows and doors always open, porches, , driving places (including in desert states up inclines), carrying water bags hooked onto the hood ornament or bumper, hot sexy southern women on sultry nights in flimsy clothes.
One of my favorite films. Janet Leigh in her underwear in 1960 must have been quite risqué at that time.
I have lived in Phoenix since the 1960s. The house I was born in didnt have AC, just an evaporative cooler. The heat island effect has made things worse here, because it doesnt cool off at night as much as it used to. My dad grew up here as well, and his family arrived in Phoenix using war rations and gas stamps. Back then, only a few select buildings in Phoenix had AC, like a movie theater or offices in the downtown area. Most places did not have AC. Let me put it this way- the numbers on the thermometer were slightly lower, but people still persevered anyways here. I used to travel to Casa Grande for work. You pass through tribal land to do so. A few hundred feet south of the Gila river was some older homes, several are very old and made of mud/clay bricks and are still in use. No AC there. I think what makes it worse on you is going from extreme hot to extreme cold. If it is 115 out, and you go inside to 75, that is a huge swing, and the reverse makes the heat feel like your oven.