I GREW UP MOSTLY in south Florida -- in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas.
I went to elementary, junior high, and high school here.
Stationed at Orlando AFB – BRACed out of assistance – I used to drive between Orlando and Hollywood (FL).
No air conditioning in any of the schools.
No air conditioning in the car – it had “4-40” cooling: 4 windows open and 40 (or greater) miles per hour.
How did we survive?
THERE IS A TV commercial (Air Around the Clock) that tells me air conditioning is a “must” for south Florida. We can’t live without it, the spokes person tells me.
I recall a sign in Burdine’s window c 1956 trumpeting “Conditioned Air.” Burdines – like Orlando AFB, is history, as is much of downtown Miami.
My Spouse, a school teacher’s assistant (she used to be a deputy head of school but burned out) and my daughter, a relatively new teacher, cannot comprehend how anyone can teach or learn anything if the A/C is broken.
The daughter, who grew up in Clearwater FL and went to air conditioned schools, discovered that “windows OPEN” when the A/C for her building failed. Unlike some other faculty and management, she had the good sense to open windows and doors. Lucky for her – and her students – the windows COULD be opened; in many new facilities, windows are sealed shut.
In my school days, not only did the windows open, but rooms had fans to move the air.
While the barracks at the late Orlando AFB did have A/C (and heat, too), I never lived in an air conditioned house in south Florida until 1979. (I moved to Florida in 1952.)
- An aside on heating. There was a time throughout central and south Florida when cars were sold sans heaters. Heat in most south Florida residences was provided by space heaters and piled on blankets. It worked.
I don’t think – despite Al Gore – that it is any “warmer” or “colder” that it was back in the 50’s.
Did I have a deprived childhood without knowing it?
To this day, my preferred temperature range is 80o to 85o F. When I drive around town the windows of my flivver usually are open (except, of course, during the frequent afternoon deluges for which the area is known – and no, Virginia, the rains do NOT lower the temperatures appreciably).
I would rather open windows and turn on fans than run the central A/C.
While air conditioning now is almost universal in south Florida, solar water heating almost disappeared. It now is enjoying a s-l-o-w comeback.
Granted, the “tank on top” was less than attractive, but the water was HOT. Today, the solar panels are less obtrusive and the water tank is inside the house – usually in a garage or utility room. Along the (TriRail) train tracks between Fort Lauderdale and Miami is about the only place the “tank on the roof” still exists.
When did we become so dependent on electricity.
There is a commercial for Generac home standby generators that challenges us “What will you do when the power fails?”
Here is south Florida, FPL (Florida Power & Light) is pretty good, but following a hurricane, power outages are common.
What to do?
Read a book.
- How can you read a book without electricity? Try candles and “kerosene” lamps.
Old timers in hurricane prone areas know to stock up on non-perishables and to stuff as much frozen food into a freezer as possible before a storm. Power outage? A survivable inconvenience.
Today’s young people have to have air conditioning.
How can they possibly survive sans A/C (and ac).
I doubt they believe me when I tell them “back in the day ...”
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
BCPLANNER: Comments on Softees
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