Huh, Have You Noticed?

Our country and a lot of the rest of the world are having some extreme heat and weather issues.  I hope everyone is being careful and staying safe.

Having said that, I have noticed recently that some of the new "experts" are giving suggestions on how to handle the heat and take care of ourselves. They are saying things like "close your blinds and curtains", "use fans", and the one that particularly got my attention was "put a large bowl of ice in front of your fan".  Now, I agree these are all good ideas.  But they are also old ideas.  And I can almost see my Mom and Grama rolling their eyes at all this!

When I was a little girl, I am pretty sure there were very few people who had air conditioning in their homes.  And even though we hear all the time now about global warming, it got HOT back then, too.  Mom and Grama did close the curtains and pull down the shades. And by shades I mean the kind that were a roll at the top of the window and if you didn't hold the string just right when pulling down or putting them back up they would get loose and roll and flap and flap. 😄 Of course the windows would be open so the breeze could get in, and the curtains flapped around in the breeze, but still, it helped.  We had fans, big ones that could go in windows.  There were also small ones that would set on a table or counter, and other ones that sat on the floor.  I don't remember very many ceiling fans anywhere.

One of my Grama's favorite things was to turn on her floor fan.  It was a large round one that sat on the floor and it had a flat top to it.  And she would get a large bowl of ice and set where the air would blow over the ice.  Then she would get single ice cubes, wrap them in hankies, and we would sit and hold those on our wrists.  I'm not sure how much cooler we got, but we tried.

Of course, we also would also just go outside and sit in the shade.  And we'd take a hand held fan out with us.  These would be given out at churches and funeral homes to those in attendance, and we could take them home.  I'm sure other businesses gave them out, too.  Honestly, they don't really cool you off, they just make you think you are doing something positive.  These fans usually advertised for the church or funeral home.

Now we have air conditioning, and generators, and community cooling stations.  I still like the idea of going out to sit in the shade.  But I rarely do it, we are in Virginia.  It is HOT and it is HUMID and we have biting bugs.  

Take care of yourselves and stay safe.  Life is good.  God Bless America!