LIving without air conditioning in the 1960s and 1970s

 I remember as a child driving by places when it was 115 or 120 degrees especially like Palm Springs but also in places in Arizona and New Mexico without Air Conditioning with my parents and wondering to myself at a child? "How could people live in this heat all the time?" But, somehow people learned to live with the heat one way or another whether they had air conditioning or swamp coolers or nothing. This always surprised me as a child because mostly temperatures over 100 were ONLY in July and August where I lived in Los Angeles and then most days I either Went to Verdugo pool to stay cool or did whatever I could to stay okay in the heat. But, I remember at least by age 16 that we had Air conditioning where we lived by buying a portable air conditioner and installing it next to our dining room table.

But, even then in the 1960s most cars did not have Air conditioning and I didn't have it either on my 1968 Camaro because then it wasn't considered macho to do this which is humorous for me to think about now.

However, my mother I think bought herself a 1965 Chevrolet Impala with Air Conditioning and we all liked this so much that most cars or trucks my parents owned after this had air conditioning because it became normal not to have headaches all the time in the heat with people dying of heat stroke so much at least in California. I'm not sure what people did in other states but at least in California on the coast people were more adaptive and accepting of Air Conditioning and Swamp Coolers starting in the 1960s and 1970s everywhere I traveled from about the 1960s and 1970s on. I was 12 years old in 1960.

But, for me as a child in the 1950s having a headache from the heat and passing out in the back seat after struggling to stay cool with wet washcloths and water sprayer bottles on my face and hanging out the window to cool my wet fact until my face got chapped from the water evaportaion was pretty normal through the 1950s and into the early 1960s as well when it was over 100 to 110 outside traveling somewhere.

In Fact, my worst experience with this heat was actually taking my mother to the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and she got to Seattle before we got home to Glendale because of a traffic jam and it was 110 degrees in Los Angeles then. I remember being incredibly upset the car wasn't moving at all and we were sort of like dying in our car then my Dad and I and thinking "I cannot believe we are doing this and we both have heat headaches!"

This ended my love for Los Angeles County permanently as far as traffic jams go. I never really ever got over that experience. This would have been around 1958 when I was about 10.

I think it's one reason why I eventually moved out of Los Angeles because I had had enough of the heat and traffic jams starting at age 10 without any air conditioning that day in our car. And to add insult to injury my mother arrived happily in Seattle with her relatives before we even got home. It too 4 hours from LAX to Glendale that Day in unbelievable heat.