Yesterday brought 7 Rose of Sharon blooms. Unfortunately, they were kind of smashed when we had a major, rather insane, thunderstorm in the late afternoon. We are under a heat advisory with lots of humidity and high temperatures and it continues through today.
Both Don and I felt more than a little trapped yesterday. It was too miserable to go outside except to quickly water the porch plants and the birdbath and grab the mail from the mailbox. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves.
And working on the Beacon Hill was impossible – the office/studio was like an oven. The box fan just blew the hot air everywhere. I have the window open in that room right now, just to cool it off a little.
All of this reminds me of my youth. We didn’t have air conditioning and August always brought hot and humid weather. I would place my head at the foot of my bed, which was right by the box fan inserted in the window, so I could feel a slight breeze. It was the only way I could get to sleep. My parents didn’t get a window A/C unit until years later and it was purchased for their bedroom. (Thanks for nothing, Mom and Dad.) A couple of years later the living room got its own unit. Those unbearable summer days always fell when performances started for the summer musicals I was in. Heat, humidity, heavy costumes. mosquitoes. I can be back there in a second in my mind – the smells, the heavy air, the faithful audience members, the excitement – all of it.
Later I experienced dorm rooms that had no A/C, and a slew of apartments that had no A/C. One apartment in Philadelphia – which gets very, very humid in the summer – had no A/C, nor could I afford to buy a unit. I was a poor graduate student. I used to come home from my summer temp jobs and take a shower, then position three fans on three different sides of the bed. I’d sit on the bed and try not to move for the rest of the evening. My next apartment did have an A/C unit which cooled off the kitchen living space, but it never quite reached the bedroom, so I had to put a fan in the doorway to draw in some of that cool air. No A/C in Boston and Cambridge, either. None in my first apartment in San Diego. Those were the days when the temperatures were still moderate, sort of a dream-come-true – it gets more humid there now. In the house we shared in San Diego, Don and I put in one window unit in our den. Central air? No. Only when traveling or visiting my parents and sister in Florida.
I still have a box fan, which we use in early spring/summer before we reach the point where we have to put in the A/C unit in the bedroom. That fan is in the office/studio now. And I have a little fan that I place in the doorway of the den to help bring in the cool air from the kitchen/living room.
More than you ever wanted to know about my life with and without air conditioning, I know. But the fact is I have not had A/C access most of my life. I’m so glad I have it now! This has been a very hot and humid summer.
Forgot to add: we have no A/C in our car. It stopped working early in the summer. We’re getting by and will continue to until we can afford to have it fixed.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
