Weather report

“What is the weather like today?” is a frequent question here at Assistant Living. The question has me reflecting on how differently we handle weather today as opposed to when I was growing up. My Mother had a saying that never made any sense to me. She would say “Don’t rush off in the heat of the day without your blanket.” What was she talking about?

It could get very hot in Middle Tennessee where I grew up. People slowed down, all activity stopped, no one “rushed off”.

Then a memory surfaced.

My grandfather”s farm was surrounded by large shade trees. On the hottest days Mother would spread out a pallet (blanket) and we would recline on it enjoying a slight breeze from the sheltering trees. Thus we survived the stifling heat.

I was a teenager before we got a one room window Air Conditioner. It seems today’s children cannot imagine a home or store without Central Air Conditioning.

In contrast the winters were bitterly cold. We had a cellar with two large, spooky, cobweb filled rooms. The first room was for coal. A large truck full of coal would drive onto our yard. The driver would get out and open the cellar door on the side of the house. When that door opened a coal chute would emerge and then the driver would dump the entire load of coal into the cellar, filling the whole room. The second room was a space filled entirely with a large coal furnace with pipes extending up from it, sending hot air upstairs to open registers. In those days when girls never wore pants, my sister and I would stand over these registers and watch our skirts bellow out.