I was pregnant with my first during a Dallas summer which had, at the time, the record number of days in a row over 100. talk about sweat, and labor! Being a girl from the North Country, where I also grew up without air conditioning, it was … brutal. Even the pool was bath water temps!
I also grew up without air conditioning down in Mobile, Alabama. During the summer, one of our TV weather announcers always says, "When you go outside, the humidity will give you a hug!" They also speak of "air you can wear." That is all true, but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
Well, of you can't change it, you might as well have fun with it! When I opened my door to leave my apartment in College Station for classes, the AC would meet the REAL air and make an instant cloud wall... And I always felt like I was entering The Twilight Zone walking into that eerie "special effect! It was an interesting way to start the day!
I’m sure there are more, but I am usually aware of two types of sweat: that which is the product of good hard work or exertion and that slimy sticky sweat from fear or tropical conditions. I much prefer the former. It’s cleansing and it makes you feel good mentally and physically. The latter, as my niece puts it, is just gross.
Apparently that latter is secreted by quite different glands, and those are located in the armpits and the groin. The smell of it comes from bacteria that grow there, and not the sweat. The sweat from hard work without fear comes from other glands, such as on your forehead, your neck, your forearms, etc. Not much bacteria there .....
As someone who, quite frustratingly, naturally gets hot and sweaty very easily, I do not envy your having grown up without AC. The lack of air conditioning is the one thing that convinces me that God, in His mercy, deliberately chose me to be born in this age, rather than in the Middle Ages or some other AC-less time. Had He not been so merciful, natural selection would probably have picked me off during my first summer!
David, you have my sympathies! I have miserable sweltering weather stories from my college days that I could share.. Tulane, in New Orleans, where I began. UT Austin, where I finished my BA during a 3-month heat wave that was so bad that there's a Wikipedia page about it. And then TX A&M, where I did my MA, Chapel Hill, NC, where I met Tony in the Ph.D program, and Greenville, SC, where he had his first job. Oy!
I was pregnant with my first during a Dallas summer which had, at the time, the record number of days in a row over 100. talk about sweat, and labor! Being a girl from the North Country, where I also grew up without air conditioning, it was … brutal. Even the pool was bath water temps!
I was in Pennsylvania and then New Jersey when that heat wave hit. I remember reading about it in the newspapers. Holy cow, it was a scary thing...
I also grew up without air conditioning down in Mobile, Alabama. During the summer, one of our TV weather announcers always says, "When you go outside, the humidity will give you a hug!" They also speak of "air you can wear." That is all true, but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
Well, of you can't change it, you might as well have fun with it! When I opened my door to leave my apartment in College Station for classes, the AC would meet the REAL air and make an instant cloud wall... And I always felt like I was entering The Twilight Zone walking into that eerie "special effect! It was an interesting way to start the day!
I’m sure there are more, but I am usually aware of two types of sweat: that which is the product of good hard work or exertion and that slimy sticky sweat from fear or tropical conditions. I much prefer the former. It’s cleansing and it makes you feel good mentally and physically. The latter, as my niece puts it, is just gross.
Apparently that latter is secreted by quite different glands, and those are located in the armpits and the groin. The smell of it comes from bacteria that grow there, and not the sweat. The sweat from hard work without fear comes from other glands, such as on your forehead, your neck, your forearms, etc. Not much bacteria there .....
Avoidance of the second kind adds some urgency to the expression, "No sweat."
As someone who, quite frustratingly, naturally gets hot and sweaty very easily, I do not envy your having grown up without AC. The lack of air conditioning is the one thing that convinces me that God, in His mercy, deliberately chose me to be born in this age, rather than in the Middle Ages or some other AC-less time. Had He not been so merciful, natural selection would probably have picked me off during my first summer!
David, you have my sympathies! I have miserable sweltering weather stories from my college days that I could share.. Tulane, in New Orleans, where I began. UT Austin, where I finished my BA during a 3-month heat wave that was so bad that there's a Wikipedia page about it. And then TX A&M, where I did my MA, Chapel Hill, NC, where I met Tony in the Ph.D program, and Greenville, SC, where he had his first job. Oy!