It’s sort of hard to fathom just what it must have been like for my grandpa to grow up around here.
I’m closing in on 60 and have seen a world of change come to this region.
So it’s sort of staggering to think what it must have been like when my grandpa was coming up. For one thing, he had to spend the summers without any sort of residential HVAC. It’s sort of hard to imagine what it would be like to deal with these sort of summers and no heat pump. I don’t think I ever lived inside a house that didn’t have central air conditioning. But even my father didn’t have residential HVAC until he was a grown man. We’re lucky to have a heat pump and the HVAC technology that provides cooling comfort to our homes. In this region, that is certainly our biggest HVAC concern. For four months during the summer, you need plenty of air conditioning just to get by. But like I said, residential HVAC hasn’t always been around. The earliest heat pump was invented early in the 20th century. But it took until the 1950’s to refine the HVAC technology enough that it could go inside a home. Before that, there was no air conditioning to be seen. Folks up north had boilers or furnaces for heating. Where I’m from, I think everybody got by with a pot belly stove that also provided cooking as well as heating. Those were far simpler times and I’m sure the action was limited during the summer. Without air conditioning, I think I would be always looking for a shady spot and some breeze.