THE THERMOSTAT

Several years ago one of my granddaughters and I were having a conversation about all things how hot the summers were in N.C. Of course, I was quickly reminded of my upbringing in a section of Eastern N.C. that is hotter in the summer than Charlotte. As I was explaining to my granddaughter how hot our little nine hundred square foot home could get in the July and August summers she innocently replied, ” Why didn’t you just turn down the thermostat on the a.c. unit”? After bursting out laughing, I gave her a little history on our thermostat.

As most of the residents in my small town the only “a.c.” unit was a large window fan. Only the upper class on front street could afford the a.c. window units at the time. The installation of the window fan was simple. You placed the fan in the most central window location in the your home. For us it was my parents bedroom. The fan was set up to blow out rather than in. At night we would raise our windows about four inches allowing the window fan to pull damp cool air through the opening. On many a night I would sit directly in front of the opening breathing in the cool air, simple pleasures.

Summers in the South are always hot and humid. As a youngster you accepted the heat as just another season realizing the only relief was heading to Butler Mill Hole for a dip in the pond. And then there were the tobacco fields that offered your only means of earning a few dollars. Imagine standing in the center of a twenty acre tobacco field where you cannot see the end of the row and on a sunny day the temperature is a hundred degrees or more. Youth somehow can disguise hard times, but when its all you know it is alot eaiser to justify. At the end of ten hours in a tobacco field you looked forward to three things, getting your five dollar wage, washing the tobacco gum off your body, and sitting in front of the window with the fan blowing damp cool air on you. Oh! the only thermostat setting we knew was low, medium, and high.

Stay cool and be sage.