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A History of Air Conditioning
And the “dog days of summer”
In Washington D.C. right now, it is hot as F — k. Thing is, this is normal.
As a youngin’ in Washington D.C., we did not originally have air conditioning in our home. There were six of us in a brick town home uptown and mostly we survived with just fans and fans in open windows.
The nation’s capital as is well known can get very hot. And humid. The city literally sits on top of a swamp in many parts.
Strangely enough, it never seemed like it was too tough to manage growing up. My mother is from South Carolina, so the heat never seemed to bother her much.
When it got really hot, we would go into th e basement, pull all the curtains, turn out the lights and sit still. My brother, Mike and I did this all the time.
We also spent plenty of time at the local pools, or out from the city, where it was cooler.
We did eventually did get two wall A/C units in our house. I am not sure when. My parents had a wall unit and then later, my parents put a wall until in the downstairs living room/dining room area.
At night, we often slept underneath that wall unit on the floor in the summers. It was the best of times. Our city, in the summer, was always hot back then.
