I’m a member of the EtsyBloggers Street Team and one of the things we do each month is to write about a particular subject.  The subject that I chose for this month is to talk about how I beat the heat of summer.

While thinking about how I do it now, I started reminiscing about how things were when I was growing up. I don’t remember air conditioning. Actually, we never had an air conditioner in our home – until I had already gotten married and moved out, and my parents bought their first home.

My dad was in the navy, so we always moved around a lot – and in those days, all you did was rent houses or apartments. While we never lived anywhere in the deep south, where it would have been really hot – we had hot summers, or at least I remember them as being hot. But what I don’t remember is being bothered by it.

As kids in summer, we would ‘walk’ to the community swimming pool, ‘walk’ to the library, play out in the back yard, and have a really great time. No one complained about it being too hot to be outside.  Hey, we all just drank lots of water or lemonade, and kept on trucking.

I don’t even remember having fans in our homes. So what changed?

When did people decide that they couldn’t tolerate the heat, and have to do something about it? And they did – first room fans and ceiling fans, window fans, then window air conditioners then central air!

Did you know that the first attempt at building an air conditioner was made by Dr. John Gorrie (1803-1855), an American physician, in Apalachicola, Florida. During his practice there in the 1830s, Dr. Gorrie creating an ice-making machine that essentially blew air over a bucket of ice for cooling hospital rooms of patients suffering from malaria and yellow fever. Then Carrier created what we now know as the air conditioner.

It would be years before the average home owner/renter would use it.

We have central air – my DH couldn’t live without it – I’ve tried to turn the temp up a few notches, but even at 75-80 in the house, it gets very warm.

What do I do – I’d rather stay outside, in the shade – it may be very warm, but with a nice glass of ice water, or ice tea, and a good book – I really don’t feel the heat as much. I think it’s more going into the house, and coming out again, that makes me feel the heat more.

Of course, it’s only been the last few days that the temps have risen to near 100 degrees. Most of the summer so far has been very mild, in the 80′s with low humidity. I think a lot of people were complaining that we weren’t really having summer weather. Ha – that ended with this week. And it’s not August yet.

We live in Virginia near the coast of North Carolina, and it gets really hot here and humid – which makes the air feel like you are swimming. I’ve visited Georgia in the summer – my daughter lives there – and I’m not sure how they handle the heat – but they have been there for years, and I guess are used to it.

A thought occurred to me – mmm, I do have those every once in awhile – maybe beating the heat has more to do with age than the temperature. I’m 63. I don’t tolerate the heat as well as I used to. So maybe kids still don’t feel the heat like I do. What do you think?

Sandi