Adults who lived in the 50’s can remember the hot summer days - without air conditioning. We didn’t know what it would mean to be cool in the heat, so we didn’t miss it. Instead we found other ways to stay cool.

Most houses had huge wide lawns, which we mowed by hand with a reel mower (not motorized). Huge shade trees surrounded it and prevented heat. Cement roads and driveways were practically nonexistent.

When I was a child we did our work in the mornings - cleaning, mowing, hoeing, bringing in vegetables, canning, laundry. The afternoons were free. Papa often lay down to rest on a screened-in porch, where there was nearly always a breeze. I have no idea what Mama did, probably sewed.She never took naps during the day. Us kids would often head for the creek where we’d wade in the cold spring water, hunting for crawdads and watching out for snakes.

In the cool mornings, as us kids milked cows, Mom would fry eggs and pancakes for breakfast. We’d cook a big noon meal on our wood stove, then for supper we’deat crackers broken up with milk, so our stove wouldn’t heat the house all day.

Later, when I was a teenager, I’d often climb up stairs to our hot bedroom in the afternoons and listen to soap operas or read. For some reason, the heat never seemed to bother me. (It was only when I got much older that the humidity mixed with high temperatures would make me nauseous.)

Hot weather insects were bad. To combat chiggers we’d wade in the creek after picking blackberries. But one summer I itched my feet so vigorously my toes got infected. If we found a tick, we’d just pull it off. Not one of us got Lyme disease.

Mostly, to combat the heat, we’d head for the swimming holes. Sometimes Mom would pack a picnic lunch and drive us in our old pickup over to Honey Creek. It was there I learned to float in the rippling water.

After we moved to Gravette a bunch of us would head down to Spavinaw Creek. There were alwaysboys hanging out on the bridge. I thought they were there to flirt with girls but they just likely wanted to cool off too.

I remember living in Caverna, near Jane, Missouri, when I was a young mother, during the hot days of the 50’s. I’d leave my baby with a neighbor, then walk to the creek to swim. That is, until I began to see lots of snakes swimming in that same water. We soon moved to an unfinished house that had a cool basement with a cold, drippy shower. By then our second son was born and I’d take those two boys down stairs for their afternoon nap. (All this time my husband would be out working in the heat.)

One summer I took my three kids to visit my oldest sister in Wichita. She had just purchased a water cooler and we piled her five kids and my three into her carand headed out, with water dripping behind us. But the water cooler took too much juice and everything would die at intersections. I do remember being hot then.

Now I just enjoy my air conditioned home and car and wait for cooler weather.

Marie Putman, one-time Gravette resident, shares her thoughts with our readers twice every month.

Opinion, Pages 8 on 09/01/2010