re: How Did Our Ancestors Survive Without A/C?

If you never experienced AC then it wasn’t a big deal.

Your body gets used to it.

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He would burn leaves in a long-sleeve shirt in August. Just old school tough.
I work next to a 640° oven in an open door plant so hanging with them as a kid makes it way easier for me to handle it. (I say as a I type in the nicely cooled break room lol)

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My Pops worked in a film plant where they had to load and unload rolls of film into and out of a hot room. I can't remember the exact temp, but it was probably 160°+. When he was having to work it he would put on no-cut sleeves, a long sleeve shirt, his overalls, and a head cover and hat. The guys he worked with made fun of him for it, but he never overheated or had any issues. He swore that it kept the "heat off of him" and the clothing helped regulate his body temp. I couldn't argue it, but I would have had to try it myself.

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He swore that it kept the "heat off of him" and the clothing helped regulate his body temp. I couldn't argue it, but I would have had to try it myself.

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Ole baw was smart. There's a reason why the Bedouin in the Middle East/Africa wear full length loose fitting clothing and turbans. At heat ranges of that type, your sweat evaporates too fast to actual cool you effectively, not to mention the water loss.

You never see a picture of them in shorts, either

My parents did not have even a window unit but got central air and heat a couple of years after I moved out and got married, etc. Our house was made of Cypress, was a shotgun, A-frame, was a 3 bedroom, den, hallway, kitchen, front and back porch, shotgun style of house.

We survived with an attic fan and the benefit of some shade from three huge Sycamore trees.

I didn't have A/C in any house I lived in until 1970, and by then I was 17 yrs. old and heading out on my own to make my way in life.

I grew up in an old shotgun house with a 36 inch Reed window fan that was set up to blow out and pull air through the open windows in the house to try to cool things down.

You really don't miss what you don't have, so it was not so much an inconvenience back then. It wasn't until I got "climatized" to having A/C that it really got to me when the power went out or the A/C broke and didn't have it.

When I was young, I was hardly ever home during the day and spent much of my time outside, so the heat of the day didn't bother me then.

Hell, every school I attended didn't have A/C back then. McDonough 19, Arabi Elementary on Friscoville, Chalmette Middle and Chalmette High were not air conditioned when I attended. They just opened windows and turned on big upright fans to try to cool things down.

I don’t have AC and I live in New Iberia

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on top of that they wore shite like this. id be inventing the tank top real quick.

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I've heard that that's not a real representation of what people wore on a day to day basis. People dressed up for pictures and when they went into town. Kinda like if people assumed high school glamor shots were how people dressed and always looked

We were poor…no a/c option on the table. When my whore of a mother divorced my poor dad, and cleaned him out, she got a window unit for her room. Yay woman power.