opened all the windows, and we slept there.

We also slept on the roof of the house (cement construction so the roof had only a 3 degree grade).

We were also allowed to "dance" in the sprinkler.

When I got a little older, we'd sit in front of the fan with a spray bottle of water to spray on arms and legs.

Ah, memories.

Az. wrap a hose in a circle and fill with water and lay on it. Otherwise, a kid? See who could stand on the asphalt longest. Cook egg on pavement.

Very inventive.

I don’t remember hot summers. We were kids. Summer meant school was out, swimming, movies, lemonade, lemon chiffon cake, fresh peach ice cream. At that age who cared if it was hot. We were free.

in the car, windows down. Sometimes we'd stop at this watermelon place on the outskirts of the city. They would put down a slice of ice cold watermelon on newspaper. It was heaven.

No air conditioning at home, and this was summer in Okla. City! I don't know how we made it, though we'd also go to Veazey's Drug store and just walk around, because it was cool inside.

Miserable times.

When it got really hot my sister and brother and I would sleep on the front porch.

in front of it. I spent nearly every afternoon at the city swimming pool.

Willingly - in south Texas mid sixties.

the movie theaters had a/c. In the evening, put down the car windows and go for a ride. Sleep with all the windows open, but close them and the drapes in the morning to keep the heat out.

One super-hot heat wave, we put a big laundry tub in the living room and ordered a 25 pound (I think it was) block of ice to be delivered. We put that in the tub and turned on a fan to blow across it. I recall the drama, but don't think it was very effective.

By the time they were on the bed you got about 10 seconds of coolness.

At around the age of 10 I got my very own box window fan.
I was in heaven.
I could spend all day in an air conditioned movie theater watching a double feature western shoot-um-up TWICE (and thoroughly enjoying it BOTH times).

We drank a lot of (not sweet) Ice tea. I never heard of sweet tea until I moved back to Alabama in'93. If you wanted your ice tea sweetened you put in 2 or 3 teaspoons of sugar and stirred like hell.

Dinner in the basement. Sprinklers. Staying outside in the shade.

"By the yard, it's hard.
By the inch, it's a cinch."

when I was a very small child, but my folks went for a window A/C unit shortly before we moved to the suburbs. They had the home builder put in a hole for the unit to take with us. And, we had a basement with a dehumidifier there.

Then, when I was thirteen, they moved to the wet side of the Pacific Northwest, and we didn't much miss A/C.

which was linoleum (sp?) in front of the screen door. Hot Ohio Valley summer nights. Ah, that was a long time ago. That home no longer exists.

ice cream and fresh peaches if at the grandparents summer cottage. Wonderful!

in the water, sprinklers, wading pools, graduated to swimming pools, then lakes and rivers. Was raised in SoCal back when I didn't know those were the good old days living cooly now by the Hoquiam River in Washington

Somehow it was just fine

our pool.

Early years on Eastern Shore of Chesapeake, then to Fenwick Island.

The house was plenty cool after that.

Which could get ridiculously hot in the summer. I had an uncle in the area with peach and cherry orchards watered by the Colorado river via irrigation ditches. We would play in those ditches all the time to stay cool...almost drowned in one when my brother opened one of the gates to let water out. I remember the ditches and the orchards fondly, my brother...not so much.

congregated because of the fear of polio.

Also, re swimming pools, do you remember having to walk through foot rinsing water thing before entering the swimming pool? I believe it was to combat athlete's foot.

I grew up on a small farm in rural PA. We had no electric fans.
We had a HUGE tree in the front yard and would sit in the shade, drinking iced tea.

Once in a while we'd make home made ice cream with a hand cranked ice cream maker.

on Great South Bay (Long Island). I would ride my bike down to the local, tiny, village beach and go swimming in the Bay with the jellyfish and the horseshoe crabs. If my elder, married sisters visited with their families we'd all go to Fire Island for "real" Atlantic Ocean beach days.

The garden hose always was a savior

the evil stepmother hogged the a/c unit in her chambers.

Back then we sat on the porch or in the yard and actually talked to our neighbors. Me and my friends would swim and camp out at night at the neighbor's farm pond a lot in the summer.

back then it never really heated up much

Ya got me.

my dad (depression survivor) would always look for the cheapest option, for sure

I was furloughed (laid off) from TWA three times.
One year, two years, two and one half years.
The first time really caught us by surprise.

Damn near lost our first little house through foreclosure.
We had a fair amount of credit card debt. Had been paying just the minimum each month.
Hey, FREE MONEY!
Dee-Yew-Umb...DUMB.

You might say that taught me to be very very 'thrifty' and to pay off the entire credit card bill EVERY MONTH.

dad a depression era survivor, mum a WWII survivor - they drilled frugality into me.....they were the kind of people who did not just think bad things could happen, they KNEW they could...I followed most of their habits and it has "paid off" - that sense of security beats any vacation or new car I could have had

When not there we did "cross ventilation" opening and closing windows strategically with two box fans....my dad insisted this cooled the house down his entire life. It was humid and hot as Hell and we suffered a lot!

We would ride our bikes behind the truck and yell for the guy to spray us ---- which he obliged us.

It was cool.

5 or 10 kids would be behind the truck, begging to be sprayed.

Finally we got a window unit in the living room. Then it would be wrapped in wet sheets in front of the window unit.
Good times.

And I slept under it in the hallway. Then dad installed air conditioning about 1956.

Closed the den doors and took my portable tv in to watch.

My privileges as a 13 year old were lets say cut short t

We lay on the bare wooden floor, with no blankets and in our coolest clothing, right under the open double windows. It was the top floor of a city apartment, and boy, was it hot!

My mother told me about the terrible heat waves in Chicago during the Great Depression. It got so hot that it stayed hot and airless all night in the city neighborhoods. She said that thousands and thousands of families slept together on their family blankets, in rows and rows along the beach, right beside Lake Michigan. As far as she could see, the beach was covered by these rows and rows of family blankets. They slept that way all night, with some police officers keeping watch over them.

Dot, Dot, Dot (touch the top of someone’s upper back with your index finger)

Question Mark (draw a large question mark on someone’s back)

Ocean Breeze (blow on the back of their neck)

Give a Little Squeeze (lightly squeeze the back of their neck.