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Keeping Our Cool
By Ursula B.G. Kilner, Salisbury
New England has long been known for whimsical weather. A year ago today as I write this—July 19, and the following day as well—we had low humidity and high (!) temperatures of 75 degrees. Today will be in the high 80s or more with lots of humidity. Earlier this summer I went to a concert in a hall with no fans (except during intermission) and no air conditioning—and with the musicians mopping frequently, it felt even hotter than it actually was.
I was asked not long ago about what the New York City theatres did in summer about the heat. Manhattan, like every Atlantic coastal city, is toasty hot all summer. Once the buildings get warm, just put your hand on a cement building and you know it is summer! So the theatres devised a cooling method (or there would have been no audiences) that worked adequately—at least one did not have to take a towel to a theatre seat. There were fans in the theatres, which helped; then someone had the bright idea of big ice blocks (bigger than the ones that were delivered to your grandmother's and great-grandmother's iceboxes), which were positioned in front of the fans, and the cooled air was pushed into the theatres that way. Not so efficient as our present air conditioning, but not bad.
Many stores and theatres had large signs out front, saying temptingly on 90-degree days: "10 (or 20 or whatever) degrees cooler inside." That kind of sign drew many persons inside off the hot pavements. I suppose that no matter what nature throws at us, someone will find an method for alleviating our discomfort—be it hot or cold, wet or dry. I remember a movie theatre on 42nd Street whose motto should have been "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" We have all heard of (and may even have experienced) bedbugs. This theatre had bugs which quietly chewed the ankles up to knees of unsuspecting audience members.
We forget easily. Not more than 30 years ago the A&P had a store on Canaan's Main Street which depended on New England breezes for comfort on hot days. A memory like that makes me realize how truly recent the delights of air conditioning are. We here at Bird Bottom Farm were early in having a couple of window air conditioners. Now many houses have central air conditioning, which is becoming expected—not as an unusual extra, but built in, particularly in new houses. One of our friends built a house in Kent about 25 years ago and he said, confidently and loudly, "No one needs air conditioning in the Litchfield Hills!" The next year, the first "improvement" to his new house was—you guessed it—central air conditioning. The fact that he had a new wife may have pushed the improvement along.
Why do we "need" air-conditioning when Litchfield Hills residents got along fine without it for hundreds of years? Of course, air-conditioning wasn't invented until relatively recently, so it wasn’t available—but people had large verandahs, gazebos, sleeping porches, and bedroom doors with louvers set in them to let the air circulate while keeping the rooms private. New homes now have none of these "old-fashioned" cooling advantages. And we can't forget the concern for insulation to keep the heat in during most of the year—almost as if the attitude now prevalent says: "Summer is so short, why bother … we'll go to the lake, the shore, or the pool."
When we first lived here we had several old quarries to swim in, but as time has gone on these have been fenced off by new owners. We cannot really blame them, as lawsuits prevail after any accident, no matter whose fault. Also, the quarries became places where garbage and bottles were dumped more and more frequently.
The only thing that remains the same is change. I have often thought that each town should have several pictures taken each year of Main Street for the record. Changes come every day, but a series of pictures would make us all realize that change happens faster than we remember.
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