Theoretically, summer will not be here for another week. In reality, Summer is already here. We are in a drought and the daily temperatures have been in the upper 90s. Earlier we had the furnace on one week and the air conditioning the next week.
I thank the Lord for air conditioning in our home and in our vehicles. We retreat to one or the other as often as we can. But I also marvel that we lived without it in former years. When I was a child, no one’s homes was air-conditioned, so kids spent as much time as possible outside. Some of my favorite memories are of the whole family sitting in lawn chairs in the back yard in the evenings and into he night At our house we had a whole house window fan which helped us sleep at night. But some nights that was not enough, so we sweated through the night.
In those years the only place in town which had air conditioning was the movie theater. A big selling point for the movies was that air conditioning. And I can remember the shock and the relief of walking off he hot sidewalk into the dark air conditioned comfort.
Not even our church, which was relatively large, had air conditioning. What we had were hand held "funeral home" fans. I remember many a Sunday sitting on a pew and fanning for all I was worth. Sweat would stick our Sunday dress shirts to the back of the wooden pew.
Except for church on Sunday, we kids went barefoot all summer. I remember hopping along our way on sun heated pavement, especially asphalt. Often this was to the neighborhood city operated swimming pool, when we had the admission price to go. It was only four blocks from our house, but those could be a tortured four blocks, walking on grass when we could and pavement when we had to do so. When we went, we would spend three or four hours in the water.
We welcomed thunderstorms and played in the rain, ignoring the danger, if we were even aware of it.
I’m sure it got as hot as it does now, but, looking back, we dealt with it better and enjoyed the good old summer time.
Grace and peace.
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