We didn't have air conditioning when I was in school. The teacher's lounge did, as well as the administrative offices. Some teachers were kind, made sure the class caught some of the breeze from the fan, and suffered with the students on the days when the temperature was in the nineties, and the humidity was high. Other's didn't, and only kept the fan where they were. It was that way until the year I graduated high school. The next year involved huge amounts of money to air condition buildings not designed for the systems, and guaranteed many of the old buildings would be demolished for the new schools needed for replacing the old buildings with only one problem: they didn't have air conditioning. It was all for the children...or not.
and we had a huge wall of non low-e windows facing the sun with only a couple of sashes that opened a few inches. it was a greenhouse in there. now they shut down when the a/c can't keep up with the 90 degree temps. wimps.
ReplyDeleteMy elementary school had boiler, and steam heated radiators. On really cold days, the radiators would be hot enough to melt crayons. That would get you in trouble, but it was all in fun.
Deletelol, yeah half of them were stuck wide open, the other half stuck off.
DeleteNo AC in my school, either. But the high temperature for the year was 80, and that was just once a year.
ReplyDeleteWe had only a few days of brutal heat. You had months of brutal cold. Somewhere, there is a happy medium to live, but I doubt I could afford it.
DeleteSW Arkansas, so no AC anywhere in the school system... LOL
ReplyDeleteMy elementary school in OK did not have a/c. I didn't notice, since I was never around air conditioning.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents in North Dakota had no a/c, and it could get really hot inside the house.
The junior high I attended in South Texas had no a/c either. I always tried to sit next to one of the windows.
Later, the 9th grade and high schools had a/c, but no windows.
Outside Greenwood, Indiana-
ReplyDeleteOn days above 90 we attended half-days.
And my recollection is that it happened quite a bit.
I went to Sam Barthe School in Metarie, La. No AC and no one bitched or had to carry bottles around with them to "re-hydrate". I miss those days
ReplyDeleteBack then, most homes didn't have air conditioning. My grandparents, in Oklahoma, had what they called a "swamp cooler", which cooled by evaporating water, and made a difference. We had so much humidity the design wouldn't work.
ReplyDeleteOne big church near my grandparents had a chilled water system of air conditioning. The cooling tower was outside, which gave us a shaded spot, with the cool air from the fans to give us an oasis from the blistering heat.