Staying Cool in the Heat

We always traveled in the summer.

My parents missed the season "summer" when we lived in South City. Mom had to reconnect with the mother mother ship her mom and dad. Dad loved to get back to his fishing schedule up on the Mesa in the afternoon and early evening. all of that was in Grand Junction Colorado. We lived 1200 miles from that world.

Grandpa and Grandma had 40 acres of peaches on the fabled western slope of Colorado. The town that the peaches were shipped from was Palisade.

If was hot back there. Sometimes it would be in the middle 90's. People always worked hard in the morning and had an afternoon siesta. They Worked up until dark in the fields and then had dinner. Dad would get his work done early so that there would be some "fishing" time. As basically a "volunteer" he was cast some tolerance.

It was quite a shock to come out of the cool foggy Bay Area to a land of mid day heat without air conditioning. We adapted. Peach season was in August with the early July Elbertas the first peaches around my birthday, August 14th. The whole season was over the week after labor day. The days were hot in July and August. When the crop was not harvested, the kids had chores to do. I got to pull weeds in the iris garden and sweep the enormous cement patio and walks. The girls got to stumble through the chicken coop with its poop and collect eggs and fold and distribute laundry. We all loved the chance to watch a little TV at noon. The show of interest was Art Linkletter's chhildren say the funniest things." We had no TV in South city. That will be a another day's topic.

Getting to Colorado was always somewhat difficult. We had basically a day and a three quarters of Nevada and Utah desert. Our 1960 Ford Falcon had no air conditioning. Dad always thought that it was a modified model T in its simplicity. 5 people headed across the desert in a model T probably was no picnic either. We always carried a cooler and camped for every overnight stop. We got to know the KOAs along the way. Much to dad's chagrin we also knew the out of the way Stuckies with their bright orange roofs and the forbidden pecan candies as well. They were the home to the 5 dollar coffee breaks. By the time the driver had a cup of coffee, and we all had sodas, it amounted to a 5 dollar bill... outrageous at the time.

We tried to stay cool in the car by hanging clean white cloth diapers from the window. Just a crack in the window allowed for evaporation and a little cooler cab. We drank a little shasta and the safeway brand of soda. No diet anything existed at that time.

Lets hear it for the new Fords that have an air conditioner that can produce enough cool to.. as one of my fellow teachers from whom we bought our used Aerostar.. "cold enough to hand meat in it."

We are headed to one of our hottest days of the year.. projected to be 107. There were some Sirus clouds passing by eariler this morning on my walk.. so I doubt that it will really get that hot. Hope you are in a place to stay cool.

Love
Pat