It all is a matter of perspective - and attitude, Freezee.
Consider that in all of America, there was no air conditioning to any degree until after WWII - in the 40's!
That was when refrigeration became a big deal, emerging fully from the literal 'ice boxes' to modern ones - and the introduction of - gasp! - frozen foods!
Those first were stored in a common, public one - then eventually incorporated into the fridge in your kitchen. (No mixes for things - everything was cooked from scratch; but that's another matter.)
No a/c in schools or stores - in other words, we viewed warmth as essential to life and health and well-being, just as you were accustomed to cold as the 'norm' in Vermont, and did not dwell upon that.
In Coral Gables, we prayed for a cold snap when I was little, since the schools did not have heat in them, and if it was near freezing, the radio announced, "No School Today!"
The first snow I ever saw was when I was 19 and in Rochester, NY - stunned that it was so wet, and not like the Ivory Snow Flakes laundry powder with which I was familiar..:))
As dansy said, on the East Coast, there usually is a pleasant breeze to enjoy, and it almost never reached and exceeded 100 degrees. You just took each day as it came - in stride - as you did snowy ones, no doubt.
By the way, later, living in Rochester, NY for two years, the very hottest I ever was, was a week there in the 90+-degree range - very humid - no breeze - and the heat magnified in the Asphalt Jungle.
To get any sleep at all, I had to lie sans clothing under a damp sheet with a fan on full force....and still was uncomfortable.
The reputation of The Deep South as being unbearable is not always deserved. This year, for example, here in my part of South Carolina, there have been only a handful of days that just barely went over 90 degrees - not in the 100's but one time - usually a breeze, and the humidity not excessive.
Nights for three weeks have been in the 60's, and last night 50's!
Comfort sometimes is a question of 'Mind over Matter' - -
if you think in terms of "I'm Uncomfortable," you are bound to be that.
Hey, I've drank from there! Now explain my grey hair!
Founding of St. Augustine
Don Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in America with Columbus on his second voyage, 1493. Leon and his fellows, not Columbus, completed Spain's claim to the New World. Made governor of Puerto Rico in 1510 and later deposed, Ponce de Leon, at his own expense, equipped an expedition to the North in 1513. A few years previous, Amerigo Vespucci had discovered and claimed the South American continent for Spain and John Cabot the northern continent for England. Two of the mightiest nations in the world stood opposed for proprietorship of half the globe. Ponce De Leon heard Indians tell of Bimini, a fabulous island in the North. Historians do not unanimously honor at full value the beautifully romantic story that Ponce was seeking to find the fountain of youth. Yet it was not incredible to men of that day - when the very existence of a New World was hardly believable to those who had not seen it with their own eyes - that those who had touched these shores should believe in greater magic in this strange realm. And certainly there is no legend more appropriate to the beginning of America than that this new land should offer men a vision of eternal youth. Indeed it has! With his able navigator, Anton Alaminos, Ponce sailed and chared the ocean's main artery, the Gulf Stream, shaping the destiny of oceanic transport for all time to come.
That is so true LadyX. I found that the people who hated FL after going there to live were the ones who had made up their minds beforehand that they were going to hate it.