Back in the day

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Hot weather during the old days

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Hot weather during the old days by Bunny Baker

In May, when school was out, the weather was pleasant and life was enjoyable. As July and August approach, the hot summer days set in and for the most part, it was hard to enjoy the scorching hot days of summer.

School always started the day after Labor Day so we had that to look forward to, knowing a cold “Northerner” could blow in at any time and catch us off guard as there was no weather reports to warn us. However, our mother could always send us off on the one-mile walk to school with sweaters, just in case it turned cold while we were there.

Before air-conditioners and electric fans, because there was no electricity to hook them up to, all windows and doors had screens on them and remained open day and night to catch the slightest breeze that might pass through.

Folks would gather outside after the evening meal to cool off and wait for the house to cool off after the meal being prepared in a large, wood-burning cook stove.

With the heat of the day plus dinner being cooked, the inside of the house would be really warm. The family would sit on the front porch and swing, sit on chairs or steps, while the kids would play on a pallet or quilt spread out on the yard, playing games or pointing out various star formation as evening turned into night. The only way we had to cool ourselves was to fan with pieces of cardboard or fans with thin wooden handles that had been passed out in church or at a funeral.

This was a time when the large, old crank type ice cream freezers were put into action. We had all the ingredients for ice cream on the farm, other than sugar and vanilla. A block of ice would be purchased in town at the ice plant on South Main, where the Community Bank is now located. It would be wrapped in tow sacks and placed on the front bumper of our 1936 Pontiac for the seven-mile ride home. More than any other summertime treats, ice cream made enduring the heat worthwhile.

It was hard work turning the handle of that large freezer until the ice cream was frozen so hard the handle wouldn’t turn. Everyone took their turn cranking until your arm felt like it was going to fall off. The smaller kids took turns sitting on top of the freezer to help hold it still and what a joy that was. The freezer would be packed in ice with folded tow sack on the top of it. It was the coolest place a person could sit.

These days, people still enjoy homemade ice cream, but made with electric freezers, no arm effort involved. Windows, blinds and doors were kept closed to keep the cool inside.

If we didn’t have ice cream, watermelon was the evening treat. It is hard to pay five or six dollars for a small watermelon (ours were all large ones) when we picked a wagon load of ripe ones every few days. On the way to the house, we ate all we wanted, but only the center, called the heart of the melon, the rest was fed to the pigs. Back then, farmers grew large patches of watermelon for the foliage to be plowed under for fertilizer.

So if you find it hard to cope with the hot summer days with all the modern conveniences, now you can see what it was like in 1936 when the temperature was 114 degrees and no heat index.