That was us

[Texas Ranch Hand]

My dad used to say "Damn the good old days, I've had all of them I could stand."

Buddy of mine's dad always said there were no good ole days before air conditioning

 

[greybeard]

I grew up in a home with no air conditioning and went to school for 12 years just East of Houston Tx with no AC. I wouldn't trade my youth for anything!

 

[Ouachita]

I grew up in a home with no air conditioning and went to school for 12 years just East of Houston Tx with no AC. I wouldn't trade my youth for anything!

I grew up in a home without air conditioning. When I built my house in 1999, I did not install a/c. I was dumb and didn't know better. We insulated it very well, and put a window unit in after the third year.

I wanted my kids to experience life. They grew up knowing how to fell trees and cut, split and chop wood for the fire in the summer that would keep them warm and comfortable during the winter.

We did that and the kids are doing well. The parents just had mini-splits installed. Never would have happened without her approval, but she was tired of toting firewood too. We've both become puzzys in our older years. Her more than me.

 

[simme]

We got indoor plumbing when I was about 9 years old. No air conditioning. No central heat, just propane space heaters after we went big time. Prior to that, a pile of coal outside and a pot belly coal burning heater. No air conditioning in grades 1-12. Went to the state university in the early 70's to study engineering. Three story engineering building. No air conditioning. No elevator. No screens on the windows. Students would sometimes sit on the window frame with the window open. All seemed normal to me. They added elevators and air conditioning my last year. For the soft next generation, I guess.

Of course, we have all the luxuries now and are acclimated to them. Couldn't survive now without them. Hate the hot weather now (and what we call the cold). Back in the day, I did not know it was hot. Just normal for poor folks. And no harm in bringing a pocket knife to school. Or a shotgun or rifle in the car. Just normal stuff.

And no internet forums - don't know how we got by or how we kept ourselves entertained.

 

[Ouachita]

I gather from previous post that Simme is old enough to be my dad, but sounds similar to my childhood. We just installed mini-splits for the house three months ago, and routed the gray water into a proper system.
I also just flashed a field on a charging system yesterday; 1953 year model Cessna 180.

I need to be needed. When I'm not, I just take up space and can't sleep

 

[mwj]

Maybe your just a youngster to some. I will be 76 this spring and a lot of the good old days could have been better and most were enjoyed after they were over.

 

[Ouachita]

Maybe your just a youngster to some. I will be 76 this spring and a lot of the good old days could have been better and most were enjoyed after they were over.

Exactly!
My wife (darlin companion) and I decided that we wanted our kids to grow up knowing how to keep warm in winter and cool in summer without being able to turn a knob on the wall.
In modern times that sounds cruel. I almost lost full custody of my son because I didn't have a central HVAC unit.
We've done fine all these years, but if you want to get me fired up about not having it, I can introduce you to a judge that didn't get it, and then one that did. His name is Gayle Ford. Good man. He made sure my son was in the best hands.

 

[farmerjan]

Still don't have air conditioning to this day. It is nice to go inside with AC when it is 90 out, and get cooled off, but then I need to get back outside... Get headaches from the AC alot... I seldom use it in the car unless it is sweltering and I can't move along to get a breeze... but I don't shut the windows... just AC to cool a bit and provide some movement with the windows cracked.
Worked in AC and often wore a sweater while waitressing because it was always cranked down too low... Yes, I get hot in the heat... but I don't need to go in the freezer compartment to just being the temp down a little. Couple of fans to get the air moving to dry the sweat and cool off naturally....
I grew up in New England.. snow, ice, humidity, the whole bit... I can dress for the cold and still don't mind it so terribly much... just add clothes and move to keep body heat circulating. No, I don't think I could take the extreme cold of UP Michigan, or even the cold of our Canadian members... or the other places it gets so cold that your breath freezes as it comes out your mouth...not at this age anymore...
We used to cut wood for the wood stove inside.... I now use propane and a space heater... no central heat in the house even... Furnace rusted out in the dirt floor basement, while house sat empty for 8+ years, previous owners.... Don't see the benefit of putting another one in....floors get cold, put on socks and slippers...ought to get the chimney lined and go back to wood heat....or put in the outside wood furnace and run the hot water through the pipes in the baseboard heaters.

Do like my heated mattress pad to warm up the bed, and my feet, when I get in and it gets turned off then. Like the benefits of electricity.... haha....like the contact with this forum and such because there just aren't the neighbors around with like values and lives, to be friends with anymore.... it gets lonely sometimes being single and no one nearby to share day to day stuff with that they understand, because so many do not do the self-sufficient /sustainable lifestyle around here. Oh well, I will just putt along until I just stop one day...
But I value the friends I have made on here and the ones that believe in and LIVE that simpler.... if "harder" type of life.

 

[jshep]

The USPS is the only government organization that has to pay up front retirement money before anything else is paid out . This is the way l understand it.

 

[Twisted]

Still don't have air conditioning to this day. It is nice to go inside with AC when it is 90 out, and get cooled off, but then I need to get back outside... Get headaches from the AC alot... I seldom use it in the car unless it is sweltering and I can't move along to get a breeze... but I don't shut the windows... just AC to cool a bit and provide some movement with the windows cracked.
Worked in AC and often wore a sweater while waitressing because it was always cranked down too low... Yes, I get hot in the heat... but I don't need to go in the freezer compartment to just being the temp down a little. Couple of fans to get the air moving to dry the sweat and cool off naturally....
I grew up in New England.. snow, ice, humidity, the whole bit... I can dress for the cold and still don't mind it so terribly much... just add clothes and move to keep body heat circulating. No, I don't think I could take the extreme cold of UP Michigan, or even the cold of our Canadian members... or the other places it gets so cold that your breath freezes as it comes out your mouth...not at this age anymore...
We used to cut wood for the wood stove inside.... I now use propane and a space heater... no central heat in the house even... Furnace rusted out in the dirt floor basement, while house sat empty for 8+ years, previous owners.... Don't see the benefit of putting another one in....floors get cold, put on socks and slippers...ought to get the chimney lined and go back to wood heat....or put in the outside wood furnace and run the hot water through the pipes in the baseboard heaters.

Do like my heated mattress pad to warm up the bed, and my feet, when I get in and it gets turned off then. Like the benefits of electricity.... haha....like the contact with this forum and such because there just aren't the neighbors around with like values and lives, to be friends with anymore.... it gets lonely sometimes being single and no one nearby to share day to day stuff with that they understand, because so many do not do the self-sufficient /sustainable lifestyle around here. Oh well, I will just putt along until I just stop one day...
But I value the friends I have made on here and the ones that believe in and LIVE that simpler.... if "harder" type of life.

My mom, rest her sole, stayed cold my entire life. She said that she enjoyed menopause because that was the only time in her life that she got warm.

 

[bbirder]

I grew up in my father's autoshop in the 50s and 60s. Working on flatheads and straight 8s. Points, condensor and dwell were never the mystery to me that they evidently were to the rest of the world. Some of you probably never flashed a field on an old generator either. (It's exciting!)
Or bled a hill stopper brake cylinder.
(I'm also that one guy you heard about but never met, a decade or 2 later, that mastered (and loved) the mysterious and often hated Quadrajet, but only after going tru GM's carb school in Memphis Tn)
..early 70s. Needles and jets, and linkage OH MY!

"I grew up in my father's autoshop in the 50s and 60s. Working on flatheads and straight 8s. Points, condensor and dwell were never the mystery to me that they evidently were to the rest of the world. Some of you probably never flashed a field on an old generator either. (It's exciting!)
Or bled a hill stopper brake cylinder."

Bet not many on here ever had to contend with a vacuum shift or starter button on the floor!

 

[Travlr]

I grew up in my father's autoshop in the 50s and 60s. Working on flatheads and straight 8s. Points, condensor and dwell were never the mystery to me that they evidently were to the rest of the world. Some of you probably never flashed a field on an old generator either. (It's exciting!)
Or bled a hill stopper brake cylinder.
(I'm also that one guy you heard about but never met, a decade or 2 later, that mastered (and loved) the mysterious and often hated Quadrajet, but only after going tru GM's carb school in Memphis Tn)
..early 70s. Needles and jets, and linkage OH MY!

Compared to Holleys, I always found the Quads performed as well and didn't need tweaking nearly as often. I wasn't much on timing and setting points, but all my buddies with six packs came to me to get their progressive linkage dialed in. Six-packs were my comfort zone.

 

[AmandaQ]

Fifteen years ago we found a set of old school Maytags at Home Depot for $500 for the set. We jumped right on them. An amazing deal for the units with the old school washing machine transmissions. My brother bought some new Samsung front loaders at the same time and kind of made fun of our "cheap" washer and dryer. If I remember right his were $1800. They lasted about three years and were replaced by something else front loader that cost even more. And those units lasted longer but they've been replaced too. The quality may be better as far as built quality but if the design and engineering are bad it doesn't matter.

I've had three different newfangled washer and dryer sets. When the current ones break, I am going old school Speed Queen with an agitator in the middle and use a whole lot of water for each load!

 

[Travlr]

I've had three different newfangled washer and dryer sets. When the current ones break, I am going old school Speed Queen with an agitator in the middle and use a whole lot of water for each load!

I hope you can find what you want. Those old agitator machines did just fine and lasted.

 

[farmerjan]

Had a starter button on the floor of the GMC 2 ton truck... 51 or 53 I think... Loved that truck..

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

I grew up in a home with no air conditioning and went to school for 12 years just East of Houston Tx with no AC. I wouldn't trade my youth for anything!

Ditto. We didn't get window units till I was 12

 

[Stonewall Joe]

Ditto. We didn't get window units till I was 12

we didn't have it either but then you never missed what you didn't have. We didn't know many people that had air conditioning, a lot of stores didn't have it and going to the movies was a place that did have it. I can still remember the signs on the stores that did have ac, on the door there was a little metal placard that said "Come on in, it's cool inside!"

 

[4hfarms]

Mom had a window air just before I was in high school. We had gas heat in the winter and metal wire screens in our windows. School had heat when needed.

I know my kids suffered because of the computer thing. My wife and I had built a home a couple years after we married, with all the comforts we didn't have growing up. Kids were spoiled..... I regret working to much when they were young. Now retired, the tables have turned. When we retired about 10 years ago. We sold that house and bought an old house with property. Now we have built another new house on the farm. Kids live here on the property but neither want to do anything to keep it.

I wasn't left much in the way of materiel items from my parents. But I did get knowledge, drive and determination to make things better than they are... or were then.

I realize that this farm thing is our dream, it's not for the kids. Neither of them want anything to do with animals or property. Just waiting to inherit so it can be sold off. Makes us sad...

 

[CowboyRam]

When growing up in Craig Colorado we never did have any type of air-conditioning. I did install a unit that I had taken out of a house when I built an addition on it, as it was no longer big enough. So it didn't really cost may anything, other than having it installed. My ex wife thought she needed it, but she was a bit paranode and didn't want to leave the windows open at night. Usually if you opened up all the windows at night the house would cool down and not really get all that hot by the end of the day. Here in Riverton we have a swamp cooler that works fairly well.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

We bought a window AC unit when my wife worked night shift. Trying to sleep in an upstairs bedroom facing south can be very uncomfortable from noon-3pm.

Now that she's back to day shift we just open the windows at night and use a fan 99% of the time.

Most businesses have AC UP here but very few houses do.