Tag: air conditioning

It’s Too Hot to Write

You don’t need anyone to tell you that in practically every area of the country this past week, it’s been unbearably hot. In Mister Boomer’s neighborhood, like many others, there has been a heat wave.

Mister B has recounted in earlier posts how we boomers used to keep cool in the age before air conditioning. There was another family tradition of sorts in the Mister Boomer household that occurred during heat waves back then, that probably will resonate with many boomers. That is, once the temperature started rising for a few days in a row, Mister B’s mother would declare, “It’s too hot to cook.” And that was that. She had the first and last word on the subject, so the stove was off-limits. She couldn’t stand the heat, so she was staying out of the kitchen.

Instead, her declaration was the starting gun for Mister Boomer’s dad to grill in the backyard. On such short notice, the meal would have to be whatever was on hand. That usually meant hot dogs or hamburgers, as these were made from inexpensive ingredients that were always stocked. Mister B and his brother would trek down the basement stairs to the storage area where the circular charcoal grill was kept in its original box. One carried it while the other grabbed the charcoal and charcoal lighter. We brought them up the stairs, through the back door and into the yard. There, the Boomer Brothers would flip the box over to spill the contents onto the grass. There was the shallow, black circular charcoal pan, a grill top, and three legs. One brother held up the charcoal pan while other slid the chromed legs into the pre-formed sleeves on the bottom of the pan to form a tripod cooking station. They placed a crumpled page of newspaper in the bottom of the pan and dumped charcoal on top of it. Mister B’s brother then took great delight in squirting charcoal lighter over the entire contents. After a quick run to the kitchen, where matches were kept, he ripped off a paper match, struck it on the cover strip, and tossed it onto the charcoal. With a big woosh of flames the pile came alive, setting the stage for cook-master dad.

So, in the spirit of Mister B’s mom and her “it’s too hot to cook” declaration, I’m declaring it’s too hot to write this week. Instead, please enjoy this encore presentation of classic Mister Boomer posts about how we beat the heat:

Keeping Our Collective Cool

Boomers’ Cars Breezed Along … Without Air Conditioning

Boomers’ Cars Breezed Along … Without Air Conditioning

As we approach another summer season, Mister Boomer was reminded by a recent conversation about how he and the neighborhood teens would describe the air conditioning in their cars. Some semblance of naming the vehicle make and model followed by “460” was cleverly voiced to describe the model number of the cooling unit (i.e., Ford Fairlane 460). What they were actually saying was, “four windows down at 60 miles per hour.” Of course, that meant turning the hand-cranks to open each of the windows before getting underway. It would be decades before power windows became standard equipment. In other words, when it came to air conditioning in cars, Mister B’s boomer-hood didn’t have it.

Car air conditioning was first seen in a 1939 Packard, but it really began in earnest when the Packard Motor Company offered factory-equipped air conditioning in some of their 1940 models. It consisted of a compressor stored in the trunk that circulated cooled air through tubes inside the car.

Though the timing would make car air conditioning a pre-boomer invention, lower-priced cars aimed at growing families didn’t feature air conditioning as a selling point until the prime boomer years of the 1950s. By 1953, Chrysler presented its Airtemp air conditioning system. It took Ford until 1956 before air conditioning was an option on most models. When the mid-50s rolled around, every auto manufacturer was offering air conditioning as an option on some, if not all, of its models.


Looking to increase their market share alongside Ford, Chrysler and GM, the American Motors Rambler was often associated with the most inexpensive cars available. Unfortunately, it was also considered among the ugliest. By 1958, the top-of-the-line Rambler Ambassador gave air conditioning as a standard feature to help differentiate it from its higher-priced competitors.


DeSoto was introduced by Chrysler in 1929, and sales continued until the disruption of auto manufacturing during World War II. After the war, Chrysler picked up where they left off, and several DeSoto models continued to sell until the recession of 1958. After a precipitous drop in sales that year, the brand never recovered and was dissolved by Chrysler less than two months after they introduced the 1961 models. DeSoto was yet another car model that disappeared in early boomer years, though many recall riding in them with parents or grandparents.

For Mister Boomer, air conditioning wasn’t present in any of his family’s cars until the 1970s. In fact, none of the neighborhood kids had air conditioning in their family cars either, except one. A family living near the Boomer household had a penchant for buying used Cadillacs. Mister Boomer had the occasional ride in their cars, marveling at the power windows and air conditioning while at the same time preferring the windows open since the father of the boomer neighbor liked to smoke cigars in his Cadillac. Car air conditioning in the 1960s may have cooled the air, but it wasn’t a good filter for cigar or cigarette smoke.

In Midwest car culture, most teens had their own vehicles between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. The very nature of buying inexpensive wheels meant teen boomers went for the most style available for the money instead of luxuries such as air conditioning. For Mister B, air conditioning controls never graced the all-metal dashboards of his early-years cars. Even when he was able to purchase his first new car years after college in the late 1970s, he did not equip it with air conditioning. The 460 model had been good enough for him for decades.

What car air conditioning memories come to mind for you, boomers? When was the first time you rode in an air conditioned car?