{"id":1818,"date":"2018-05-03T12:58:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T17:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2021-07-10T12:19:40","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T17:19:40","slug":"swamp-cooler-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/swamp-cooler-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Swamp cooler days"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dave Williams
\nMay 3, 2018<\/p>\n

It\u2019s raining today in North Texas. I love rain and dark, cloudy days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Me slurping from our garden hose on a hot day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most people I know worship the sun. They seem to like summer best of all and the hotter it gets the better. I don\u2019t get it. I really dislike heat.<\/p>\n

Summer was great in the 1950s when I was a kid, impervious to sweat and grime, running barefoot through neighborhood lawn sprinklers and slurping from any old hose lying around because that\u2019s what they were for.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t have air conditioning when I was a kid. We had a swamp cooler on the roof that blasted semi-cool, very humid air through a hole in the ceiling directly into the middle of the hallway between the living room and kitchen in our house. I used to lay my bare tummy on chilly asbestos floor tiles right under the torrent of wind wearing nothing but a pair of shorts fashioned by my mother\u2019s scissors applied to an old set of blue jeans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A new picture of an old wooden clothes rack like the one we had in the hallway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I stayed there for hours on the hall floor with a stack of Dennis the Menace and Sad Sack comic books for entertainment.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I took the pillow from my bed and put it on the floor next to my comic books. That was “the life of Riley”, as we called it in those days.<\/p>\n

Mom had to step over me to hang wet laundry on the wooden clothes rack. She didn’t mind. Sometimes she gave me lunch there, peanut butter and grape jelly on white Wonder Bread. I had to eat\u00a0 it fast so it didn’t get stale from the wind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Me with my sister, Linda, and our faithful collie, Rusty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I wish I had pictures of all these things: me, my pillow, PBJ and comics. Sometimes my collie, Rusty, would lie down with me for a couple of minutes. He liked the cool floor but I don\u2019t think he cared for the overhead wind. He’d soon get up and wander, panting, to his water bucket.<\/p>\n

For the past fifty or more years I\u2019ve been able to enjoy and expect indoor air conditioning.<\/p>\n

Now in my mid-sixties I don\u2019t need to strip down to my shorts and lie on the floor under a swamp cooler.<\/p>\n

That’s progress.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I still like summer for its memories of all-day baseball, ice cream trucks,\u00a0 Wham-O\u2122 Slip \u2018n Slides and hot days that wouldn\u2019t end until bed time. I loved childhood.<\/p>\n

These days I prefer old man comforts, winter and the temperate yet crazy weather days of spring and fall in Texas.<\/p>\n

Dark skies and rain feel cozy to me. They call people like me pluviophiles.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad they have a name for it. I just thought I was weird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dave Williams May 3, 2018 It\u2019s raining today in North Texas. I love rain and dark, cloudy days. Most people I know worship the sun. They seem to like summer best of all and the hotter it gets the better. I don\u2019t get it. I really dislike heat. Summer was great in the 1950s … Continue reading “Swamp cooler days”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,91,1],"tags":[412,431,531],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-boomers","category-uncategorized","tag-childhood","tag-summer","tag-swamp-cooler"],"yoast_head":"\nSwamp cooler days : The Aging of Aquarius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We didn't have air conditioning when I was a kid, we had a swamp cooler. 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