Since you mentioned it. Yes, when I was a barefoot urchin in the deep south we lived in a wooden share-croppers house where the outdoors was generally also indoors. All of us urchins slept with the bed bugs through the winter. When the weather turned warm to stay the beds all went outside. Open springs laid out on the grass were wiped clean and returned to the beds. Then the mattresses were brought out. All urchins had a “rag” soaked in Kerosene with which we wiped the crevices of the mattresses on both sides. It was a painstaking job and the tiniest crevice dare not be missed. After they set in the hot sun for several hours they were returned to the beds. The room also had been scrubbed and sprayed with Kerosene. Loved that clean smell of “Coal Oil”. When the cold weather came back, so did the bed bugs. We considered them part of life in rural TN.
I guess you didn’t kerosene the beds in the winter. Also that could have made them an easily ignited fire hazard.
Setting the mattresses out in a cold freeze would have killed the bugs, but again it is not that common in Tennessee to get that cold in the winter.
Thanks for sharing that childhood memory, WVNan. A good read!