The DU Lounge

Permanut

(8,614 posts)

27. Neighborhood pools open every day, and I was there most days..

Sun May 31, 2026, 01:27 AM

Yesterday

Creston pool was about a mile away, a hot ride on a bicycle but worth it.

My Mother had a different way to cool off. She was one of six children of a legally blind single mother, growing up in the middle of the Great Depression. Her Father was killed in 1922 in an industrial accident, a cave-in.

So the family had almost no resources, say to escape the heat. She found, though, that if she let cold water run from the faucet over her wrists for a minute or two, it had a cooling effect.

I have tried it, and she was right.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

debm55

39 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Memory Lane, How did you keep yourself cool in the hot summer heat? Running through a sprinkler? the inflatable 4 ring [View all] debm55 Saturday OP

Water hose. LoisB Saturday #1

Yup... that was about it. Occasionally my Mom would take us to a community pool. hlthe2b Saturday #3

Yep, that is right. hlthe2b. We didn't have a community pool. So it was the jumping through the sprinkler and the little debm55 Saturday #6

Yeah.. when I say "community" pool, not like an HOA-Subdivision pool, but a city pool 20 miles away... hlthe2b Saturday #22

Oh, I knew, but living in a Steel Mill town, did not give us a community pool. Carnegie Library in the little town had a debm55 Saturday #23

That was my life too. All the fans did was blow around hot air. If we were LoisB Saturday #21

Garden hose! johnp3907 Saturday #2

Thank you very much for sharing with us, johnp3907 debm55 Saturday #7

Picking mushrooms and going to the sinkholes. Big Dismal wasa favorite Lochloosa Saturday #4

Thank you very much for sharing with us, Lochloosa. debm55 Saturday #8

Ice True Dough Saturday #5

HAHAHAHHHAHAHAHHHAH. OMG. Thank you True Dough. debm55 Saturday #9

uhhhmmm...shrinkage. ret5hd Saturday #20

No way to keep cool. Just awful unc70 Saturday #10

Thank you very much for sharing with us, unc70, As a kid, we didn't have AC. I agree. , fans did nothing. My husband debm55 Saturday #11

There are cooling small towels : mucifer Saturday #12

Thank you very much , mucifer. I wil have to try. debm55 Saturday #13

As a kid, I didn't know a damned thing about thermodynamics, so what I did was pretty dumb. NNadir Saturday #14

Great post, NNadir. We have a Cape Cod house. ---two bedroom/attic upstairs. Even though, we have whole house AC. it is debm55 Saturday #15

That's what I grew up in, a "Cape Cod" house. NNadir Saturday #16

I remember sleeping outside as the house seemed to hold the heat.Never had AC in the car either . AC was a luxury that debm55 Saturday #18

I never had a house without AC. House of Roberts Saturday #17

Thank you very much for sharing with us, House of Roberts. Somehow the heat didn't bother me, during the day. but at debm55 Saturday #19

There was a playground, probably about a half mile from our apartment ... surrealAmerican Saturday #24

Loved those sprinklers at the playground. Thank you for sharing your memory with us.surrealAmerican. debm55 22 hrs ago #32

slip n slide - great fun jgo Yesterday #25

I loved that, jgo. Great fun and wonderful memories. debm55 22 hrs ago #33

I lived four blocks from Lake Michigan. greatauntoftriplets Yesterday #26

That sounds wonderful, greatauntoftriplets. Thank you For the memories. debm55 22 hrs ago #34

Neighborhood pools open every day, and I was there most days.. Permanut Yesterday #27

I am going to have to try that. Thank you very much for sharing, Permanut. debm55 22 hrs ago #35

Sprinkler MIButterfly Yesterday #28

Yes it was , Thank you very much,MIButterfly for sharing the memoring with us. debm55 23 hrs ago #31

Most of July and August gladium et scutum Yesterday #29

Thank you very much for sharing with us, gladium et scutum. I slept outside too. debm55 23 hrs ago #30

I grew up on military posts mainly in the South. Aristus 13 hrs ago #36

Keeping cool wasn't a problem as a kid LogDog75 12 hrs ago #37

Lay on the floor w a fan on high and a pan or pot filled w ice water. AllaN01Bear 12 hrs ago #38

We we hit triple-digit weather, i used to haul a folding chaise lounge from sporting goods to the frozen food isle... Brother Buzz 12 hrs ago #39