Barbara J. Hamby

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Thanks to my California Childhood

For the first twelve years of my life, we lived in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys in California. With no air conditioning in those days and poorly insulated houses, I learned about keeping a house cool. Fortunately, our apartment is brick and has storm windows. The bedrooms also have insulated draperies. We also have some trees that help shade us.

At 1:30 p.m. it is 93 degrees in the shade on our front porch and 74 degrees inside. We have a ceiling fan and two smaller fans, so we can stay quite comfortable. I may pick up a box fan for the bedroom window if we have much heat this summer. For the sake of the planet and our budget, I’m going to try to avoid installing an air conditioner.

At night, I open the windows and the sliding glass door on the balcony deck and close them as soon as it begins being warmer outside than inside in the morning. Then I close everything up, including the sliding storm windows and the drapes where the sun is shining in.

I remember an old house in Medford where there were vines growing along one side and it was wonderfully cool in there on hot days. My mother used all the tricks I mentioned above that were available in that place. When the temperature soared, Mom and my sisters and I got the dishes done and the house spiffed up early in the day, then went out to rest in the shade and eat snacks. When it got too hot to play outside, we rested or played cards or board games inside the cool house.

Those were good days before the war changed everyone’s lives.