I grew up not unlike you. My grandmother didn’t have a single air conditioner until she and my grandfather were in their sixties. When you stayed out there, you got A fan in your room. They couldn’t afford a/c.
I lived two summers in MS with no AC. During one heat wave I remember, the LOW one night was 89 degrees. High the next day was 105.
None of my schooling was in any air conditioning. And school started the week before Labor Day. And ended the last week of May or first week of June, depending. I remember one September, first week, the highs were in the upper 100’s. Like 106 or 107 with a heat index of 120+. Yes, we had school still. Yes, we were required to dress according to dress code as well. No skimpy clothes allowed. There was ONE fan per classroom. The teacher usually turned that on her desk. We just sweltered.
Bill, you’re a wimp. Get a life.
I don’t know how I made it through those years, seriously. I have hyperhidrosis (excessive perspiration, only on my head and face, just from the neck up), and I practically plan my life around trying to stay cool and dry. The thing with hyperhidrosis, it can be 40 degrees in the winter, I’m perfectly cool, even cold, but I’ll break out in a pouring sweat on my head, even as I’m being cold. I don’t know if it just got worse as I got older, or what,
But I love Mississippi, wouldn’t live anywhere else, so I’ve just learned to deal with it. (Livng in a cooler region wouldn’t help much anyway, as I mentioned how I can break out in a cold sweat in the coldest weather). I take glycopyrrolate 2mg-it helps, but not even close to 100%. It also dries the heck out of my hands and mouth, and I have to make sure I drink lots of lo-cal Gatorade or I’ll dehydrate. I can feel the inside of my skin gettng hot when I take a whole one, like a furnace inside me, but the heat can’t escape through perspiration (only on my body, my head still perspires some even with the medicine).
When we bought a new house a few years ago, my main criteria was a pool. Starting in app May through app the end of September, I live in that pool. I keep the central A/C on about 71, and I have a window unit in my bedroom besides!
Hyperhidrosis is the bane of my life. The one good thing about it is that my dermatologist said it’s good for my skin. I would trade all this “hydration” for a normal life, not having to plan everything I do around whether I’m going to sweat like a ditchdigger in August!
I seriously do not know how I survived growing up without A/C in Mississsippi. Lke I said, it must have gotten worse as I got older. Or else when you’re young, you just don’t notice these things.