By Michael E.C. Gery
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It’s hard to imagine that 40 years ago, next to no one in rural North Carolina had air conditioning at home. In 1963, electric cooperatives and their staff “electrification advisors” were helping members update their indoor wiring and choose electric refrigerators, freezer chests, barn ventilation systems, electric space heating and water heating systems, but air conditioners were still a few years and more than a few dollars removed from North Carolina’s rural households.
To cool off in the hot months of the early 1960s, North Carolinians at home and in small businesses within electric cooperative service areas still relied on electric fans or the occasional breeze through an open window. A photo from the time shows a woman working at an office desk while soaking her feet in a pan of ice cubes. Big shade trees surely increased the value of houses and would help keep you from feeling woozy on hot days. A plunge into a river’s swimming hole or a neighbor’s pool were even better.
It’s not that the technology didn’t exist to cool and dehumidify inside air. It’s just that air conditioning would not become affordable in rural North Carolina until the mid-1960s and later. People could certainly take a hot drive to a nearby city and wander around an air-conditioned department store or loaf inside a cooled movie theater for a few hours.
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