Heat Wave Through History

This recent heat wave reminds me of how people lived before air conditioning, before fans running on electricity, before fans running on kerosene.  What?  Haven't you seen those?  Yes.  You fill it like a kerosene lamp, light the wick and the heat from the wick would make the motor turn the blades.  Of course, the heat from the wick only made hot days worse, but the idea was there.

I've got pork chops cooking right now.  Yeah, right, it's 80 degrees outside and you know it's gotta be warmer in my kitchen.  But what about your great-grand mother in the 1800's?  Was she wealthy enough to have a cook to slave over the wood cook stove, or did she have a summer kitchen?  Would they have cooked outside over a campfire? Barbecue anyone?

As for a job, did they call it a day when it got too hot?  Did they close those hot, dirty factories and let people go home just because of the heat?  Many an occupation could stop during the hottest part of the day and take a siesta until it cooled down like farmers or ranchers or carpenters. 

Some homes have to be cooler than others.  Sod and adobe homes and cave dwellings all had to be cooler than today's stick built or modular homes.  The earth itself can be a great insulator.  I would think that even a log home would insulate against the hot and cold.

To go somewhere on a horse or in a buggy, oops...no air conditioning, just the hot sun boiling down on you and a fast 5 mph breeze.  Don't forget you have to stop to let that (1 horse power) engine cool down.  Of course, the one good thing about this is we were not forced into paying high gas prices then.

Clothes had to be the worst.  Bloomers, petticoats, long dresses, long sleeves, high collars...no wonder women of the 1800's had the vapors.  It was probably heat exhaustion.  The men didn't have it any better.  Gotta wear your long johns, long sleeve shirt and a jacket?

But wait!  Did someone say ICE?  Ice houses?  I have always found it hard to believe ice could be kept all summer in an ice house by storing it in sawdust.

Thank goodness for modern conveniences.  It might be 80 outside, but at least I can sit back with my ICE tea and relax.  God bless.