Maybe it was diet. People had a lower metabolic rate then because food was expensive, and less varied. I know when some of my Silicon Valley colleagues went to China to install a satellite reconnaissance system, (hey, don’t blame me, it was the Reagan administration) they remarked that everyone wore woolen Mao suits, buttoned up all the way, and woolen caps in the hot summer sun. They were fascinated by the crazy Americans playing softball in shorts and t-shirts.

I remember growing up without A/C in Florida and the heat was so bad I would often wake up in the middle of the night, (my bed was pushed against an open window) go take a cold shower, dry off, and by the time I got back to bed I was drenched with sweat again.

I know Houston..Dallas…Miami…the list goes on, would not be where they are today without a/c. Hell…politics wouldn’t be either.

The Southeast was doomed to be an agricultural backwater, inhabited only by the very rich, who could travel with the seasons and the poor who were trapped by their circumstances.

I grew up down South without AC. It was not so bad in my memory. Certainly not as bad as it is now when the AC goes down. You couldn’t sleep late in July and August. I remember waking up late with my sheets bathed in sweat, yuk.

You sat on the porch, and prayed for a breeze, but it was what it was so it didn’t seem like hell. A night at the movies was not about the B movie double feature. It was all about that sign outside that said “Cool Inside”.

Some down here swear that the AC’s pumping out hot air has made it worse than it was but that is not believable for me.

It didn’t take high rise condos to get you to the beach. The prevailing Gulf breeze was enough.

Hell, thinking about it makes me nostalgic, but I have to say it is better now