Older People Reveal “Middle-Class Luxuries” That Were Once Reserved For The Wealthy

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“Air conditioning, anywhere. If you were lucky, you had a swamp cooler, an evaporative cooler. They worked pretty well, but not if it was humid. Most businesses lacked AC, and, of course, none of the schools had cooling. You just had to get through it. There was AC, but the system required a water tower to do the cooling. The good thing was, though, that unless your family was rich enough to afford that water tower system, your family sat outside in the front yard once the sun went down. Usually that meant joining neighbors, and while the grownups visited, we kids played. Hide and seek took us all over the neighborhood. It was kids of all ages — from the youngest in elementary school to even high schoolers. And many times, since it was summer, when our parents started calling us in around 9:30 p.m., there’d be fresh iced lemonade for everyone. Even better, sometimes there’d be homemade ice cream, although we kids usually had to help turn the crank.”

“As they say, there is always a good side and a bummer side to everything. The good thing about no AC was the neighborhood’s sense of community. When AC became commonplace, that close feeling faded, because everyone stayed in their homes; no more visiting in the front yards anymore.”

—Anonymous, 89, female, Tucson, AZ