When I finally moved into my own apartment at 18 I got air conditioning. Even then it was a wall unit for the entire 2 bedroom apartment. The bedrooms got hot in the summer.
Til then every single house we lived in had a swamp cooler.
My first air conditioner? About 1984. I was 40.
Made it through four Atlanta summers with no AC. Hot and humid.... and yes I did walk back and forth to school lots of times.