FROMONLINE | 2013-07-21

  • By Tami Lange
  • July 21, 2013
  • 364
                        
HED: So, how hot was it? SUMMARY: Hot enough to think about how we ever got by without air conditioning Whatever did we do before air conditioning? I pondered this as I sat inside last week, watching from my comfortable second-floor perch as people walked up and down the street – moving slowly as if laboring against a virtual wall of steam. The windows were closed tight, keeping me and my recycled cool air a world away from those poor schmoes who had to be “out there,” pumping gas, running to the bank, heading to the post office. My plan for the heat wave was to figure out all the places I had to be and the spend as little time as possible in the heat – hopping instead from my air conditioned car to my air conditioned house, to the air conditioned grocery store. And if the thermostat at home went above 72 degrees, I complained I was hot. Too hot. So hot. Way over what my poor body could take. Nipper, on the other hand, could care less how much he sweats, how many showers his mother makes him take or how big the laundry pile gets: he just wants to be outside. So the other day, our neighbors are putting up a new playset for their daughter. Nipper sees a buddy of his outside with the family – and off he goes. He runs – and runs – and runs. As nightfall comes, he refuses to come in. I am watching from behind the sliding doors that separate us. “It is NOT dark yet,” he whines when he comes inside at 9:20 p.m. and is directed immediately go get out of the sweaty clothes and get in the shower. If you’ve ever known a 13-year-old boy, you know personal hygiene is not a real red-flag priority. The next day, Nipper’s grandmother calls to report he is covered with mosquito bites. I itch at the very thought of it. My son could care less – it was a small price to pay for all the sweaty fun that was had. The next evening, the shower went back on and the laundry pile went back up again. I like to think we’ve evolved as a society, what with our central air and our microwaves and our computers and our smart phones. Each of them, after all, was created to make our lives more comfortable. But in the long run, what good do they really do? They make our lives go faster, more quietly, more efficiently. At the same time, they isolate us – they remove the need for developing patience, or seeking fact-to-face human contact, from having to sweat. My air conditioning is fine. Still, I miss those hotter days – the days when people sat on their front porches to escape the heat, when children chased the blinking lights of fireflies rather than computer monitors, when dark was the signal the day was done, when windows went up to circulate air and let in the sounds of the night – when it was OK to get sweaty and mosquito bitten and to go out and get all sweaty again the next day. It might be time to power down and live like a 13 year old again.


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