HOW IN THE WORLD DID WE LIVE WITHOUT A/C?

Summer is fast approaching and of those that were wishing the cold would go away are only days away from cranking the air conditioning down to the lowest point. Janet has already gone into semi-summer-hibernation(if that is possible). That poor girl can not take the heat. While sitting here at the computer, trying to ward off the onset of frostbite, I started thinking of our childhood days in Hogansville. I know there were some families with the ability to afford such a luxury, I just can not call any names.

I think we all sat through some of the worst movies ever made just to enjoy the cold air in the Royal Theatre. When I was a pre-teen, I would do my chores on Saturday morning, wash up(Mother would not let me go to town looking like a 'hobo'), get my 25cents, and take off in a steady trot to the Royal. By the time I got there I was so hot and sweaty, it felt like the North Pole when I walked up to the counter to get a very large nickel bag of popcorn and a 10cent big orange drink with lots of ice. Who cares what movie was playing, comfortable seat, cold air, your best friends sitting with you, popcorn and soda. What else could a person want?

TOM DENNEY'S ICE HOUSE was the second place that came to mind on this cerebral journey. You could get the BIGGEST, COLDEST, WATERMELON for little money. I want to say we bought some for 50cents, but I can not swear to it, but knowing the Cook Family Finances as I do, I would say that was about right. Also, if you were polite and friendly, Doc Black, would take his ice pick and expertly knock off a long sliver of ice from a block of ice and hand it to you. There are many of you that have never seen 'block ice' or an ice house that will not get that thrill.

McKIBBEN FUNERAL HOME is an early place of coolness that I remember. I still think many people came to 'sit with the dead' because it was cool more so than their closeness to the departed. I once asked Mother if we could go to the Funeral Home to see someone and she asked who was it and did we know them. I told her no. it was just cool there. That woman blew a fuse as she did not take such things lightly.

I think the first car we owned with A/C was a 1964 Chevy Nova. I had rolled the 1962 Nova and Daddy bought a much nicer one(an for some reason would not let me drive it, hmmm). After your first car with that luxury(?), you can never go back. I have owned 'piece if crap' trucks that I had to strap the door shut with an old belt, BUT the A/C was blowing as cold as the North Pole. Some things just move from the luxury column to the necessity column pretty quick.

I do not remember the date of your first window unit at our house on Power Plant Road, but an image of Mother coming home and walking over and standing directly in front of it, with the look of pure contentment comes to mind. You could only afford to cool one room, maybe two, at a time, and then not all day long. I remember when I worked for Daddy, he sent me home a few minutes early on particularly hot days to turn on the unit and crank it up on high so that Mother would have a cool room to come home to. The first time I saw a house with Central Air, I thought, how wasteful! Now even my laundry room has cold air. How times change.

Now you can't have school if the building is not air conditioned and almost all school buses are as well. These poor children! When I drove the bus for Alternative School, I refused to drive an air conditioned bus. That was part of their punishment from me----a hot as hell school bus! Behave and you can go back to riding a cool bus.

The days of buying a car or a house that does not come standard with a good cooling system are gone. Our children and certainly our grandchildren have missed out on just one more life defining event in their lives----looking for a place to get cool!!