What did they do before air conditioning?

[Byershome]

My father used to say "it is not hot until the air temperature moves above 98. 6... ... ... ... ... ... ..... who needs AC. "



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[CTait]

I have lived and worked in Phoenix,Las Vegas,and S. Utah. I have heard people say that the reason those places are experiencing explosive growth is because of air conditioning. I say it is because of the ability to deliver water to the desert. Water flows uphill toward money. In the Eloy and Casa Grande area I observed Mexicans,Blacks,and Whites who lived on farms and worked in the fields who did not have air conditioning in their homes. They did have fans and some of them even dripped water onto burlap bags that were hung over the windows. Some of my most favorite memories are of sitting under the tamarac trees listening to their stories of how they came west from Oklohoma during the dust bowl days. Last Saturday I repaired a broken watermain and the high temp was 118. The humitdty down in the trench was very high. I drank close to three gallons of liquid in nine hours that day. The dry desert heat is bearable, it is the places that have high humidity that I feel sorry for.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I heard on the news that nationwide July was one of the hottest on record. I looked up the recap for our weather and despite being in triple digits for almost half the month- and reaching 113- it was only the 8th hottest July on record (records go back less than 60 years). Our worst was 1958, which saw an average high for July and August of 99. 7 degrees.