Ask yourself how those who came before us in Texas were able to deal with the summer. They slept with wet sheets on them. Yuk.
We got our first AC after Kennedy was shot. Before that we just suffered through it. About ‘57 was the first really hot summer I remember. My grandparents had a big hackberry tree in the front yard we would sit under. The screen porch wasn’t horrible after about 10 or so at night. No AC in the car either.
The church was air conditioned, an old theater, big and dark with thick brick walls. It was a glimpse of heaven in the summers. I could not help but fall asleep no matter how loud Kenneth H. the song leader was. He was a piano tuner by trade and always carried a pitch pipe.
Yeah, wet sheets, yuk.
I don’t know how they did it. I have read though that the invention of Air Conditioning actually changed the demographics of the country. Suddenly the south was livable in the summer. My hero is Mr. Carrier. Inventor of AC!