Monday, June 21, 2010

Random Monday Memories #8 . . .

OPEN WINDOWS
&
SLAMMING SCREEN DOORS
I you're from my generation you probably remember
growing up in an unairconditioned house.

My parents didn't get airconditoning until the summer
after my first year of college.
Even then, Dad would get up in the middle
of the night and open windows and doors.
On extremely hot, humid nights we would pull our beds under the open windows in
hopes of feeling a little breeze.

Our neighborhood grocery stores had screen doors
similar to this one.

Some screen doors were fancy . . .





Can you imagine sleeping with your front and back doors open and
your only security was a screen door with a little latch?
My how times have changed.
HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!
And remember,
don't slam the screen door!





9 comments:

Stacey said...

Hi Carol! Great post. We always had air conditioning but I think it was frequently broken. I remember trying to sleep in the Texas heat...blazing hot with locusts singing at the top of their lungs. It's nice to think of but I'm glad we don't have to do that anymore.

Becky K. said...

Ahhh...the sound of a screen door creaking open or slamming shut. They are the nearly lost sounds of summer.

Thanks for the memories.

Oklahoma Granny said...

Ah, those were the days.

Lori Lucas said...

All my children grew up without air conditioning!! And they talk about it like they are from the cave-man era!! We had a huge old Victorian house and the windows were huge. All of them. As in 52x72!! But when all the windows were open, the house was designed so that the air circulated in a kind of circle. It was wonderful and that is one of the things I miss most about my "new" house. Granted, it did get hot some days, but we were never miserable. When our old furnace finally went out and we installed central heat, we put in central air at the same time. (I actually felt kind of bad about doing that to the old house that had never even had a window air unit in it before!) Lori L

Kerin said...

Good Morning Carol!!
Yep....screen doors slammin sure do bring back a lot of happy summer memories.
My cousins would come from Las Vegas and they loved the fact that we could camp on the livingroom floor and leave the screen door latched and feel the summer breezes at night. They could not do that in Las Vegas.
Always with one of my parents hollering ...'shut the screen! your letting the flys in' !
Love summer!

Patsy said...

I remember slamming a screen door a few time in days gone by
Patsy

Opie Dawn said...

Great post! Things have really changed.

Elena said...

Yes, I remember the no airconditioning and screen doors. Fortunately here where I grew up it didn't get to bad. I know my in-laws who are from Oklahoma tell about those days. They had screened in porches that they would sleep out in on the hot summer nights. Yes, when I was a kid the only time we locked our doors was when we went on vacation. It sure is a different world now!

Jenni said...

I love this post! I wish things were still like that~ I would love to sleep with our window open at night! And I love old screen doors! :)