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Recently when the rising heat tempted me to turn on the air conditioning in my car, I thought again about how uncomfortable life must have been for our parents and grandparents before it came along.
They lived in the same Midwestern climate that can be stiflingly hot and humid for weeks on end, but they couldn't flip on the AC - or even a fan - for relief. After supper, they would escape to the front porch to sit and wait for the cooler night air. A local farm family recalls one summer when the nighttime temperature held at over 100 degrees, they heaved their mattresses out the second story bedroom windows and slept on the lawn.
AC was a wonderful invention, but like most good things it came with a price. It devours a major part of our energy supply. AC is only one of the conveniences and luxuries we take for granted - habits that have accumulated to demand a massive amount of energy to provide.
Our ancestors, although they had never heard of a "green" lifestyle, actually lived it to much more of a degree, out of necessity. To get from place to place they used horses or walked, instead of burning gasoline.
Later, city children took streetcars or busses to school, and rural kids rode bikes or walked. The idea of turning their mothers into personal taxi drivers had not been imagined.
Clothes were dried by wind and solar power out on the line. Cloth diapers were washed over and over, instead of clogging landfills with disposables, and dried flapping in the backyard breeze.
This was before the "throw away" concept came along. Bottles for milk, soda and beer were made of glass, returned to the store, and sent back to the plant to be refilled. A writing pen was refilled instead of buying a new pen. A dull razor blade was replaced instead of throwing away the whole razor.
Imagination was used to create recyclable uses for lots of things. Even old tires were sliced into strips and used as large rubber bands.
Packaging fragile items was done with wadded up old newspaper, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap that lasts forever in landfills. People drank from fountains instead of using cases of throw-away plastic cups and water bottles.
Appliances that broke were fixed. Replacement parts were available and when something quit working, the first thought was not to throw it away. Now the job of repairman is almost extinct.
Clothing was passed down and many families were raised wearing hand-me-downs. Aprons were worn to save on laundry. Holey socks were darned (that was the art of mending socks) and worn again.
Homes usually had a small TV in one room, bringing the family together, not numerous, expensive movie screen-sized ones in separate places. And computers, with their tangles of plug-in cords, had not yet come along.
Now kitchens are full of labor-saving devices that need banks of electrical sockets to run them. It almost seems that stirring or chopping food by hand is going out of style.
Probably the most ironic example is driving a gas-hogging vehicle to the health club to get exercise running on treadmills that use electricity -- after firing up the gas engine lawn mower and riding it around the yard.
The invention of labor-saving conveniences has made our lives better and more efficient in many ways. Personally, I will be the first to admit that I love them. But seldom do we think of the trade-off in energy resources that it costs to keep all of them running.
As humans, we are not attracted to doing tasks a harder way when an easier way is available. But some people choose to do so, and their efforts are to be admired.