By Wayne Laepple
Air conditioning may well have been one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, but for most folks of a certain age in the Valley, chilled air in July was something they could only dream of.
Senior citizens in Sunbury, Northumberland and Milton recalled on Thursday -- when the temperature reached 89 degrees and the relative humidity hit 90 percent -- how they coped with the summer heat when they were younger.
"We'd drag the mattress off the bed and put it by the window," Helen Boardman of Sunbury said.
William Kuenseler lived across from the old Greyhound bus terminal on Fifth Street in the city.
"We'd open the windows, hoping to catch a breeze," he said. "Those hot fumes from the buses would come in the windows."
"It was terrible, riding in a car," said Jim Poploskie, who grew up in Shamokin. "The only thing that would save you was those little wing windows."
Andy Gavason, sitting next to Kuenseler, nodded.
"Yes, I remember those wing windows," he said. "They don't have them any more."
Wing windows were at the front edge of the side windows and would swing open to direct air to the inside of the car, Gavason said.
Terry Benfer of Milton also remembered the heat inside cars when he was growing up.
"You had 2-55 air-conditioning," he said with a laugh. "Two windows at 55 miles an hour."
Hazel Smith, enjoying a card game at the Northumberland Senior Action Center, had the perfect solution.
"I grew up in New Berlin, and I spent a lot of time in Penns Creek every summer," she said.
Bobby Feigles, of Milton, said she did the same thing.
"I lived right next to Muncy Creek in town, and I would be in the creek every chance I had," she said.
Carrie Weaver, also part of the Milton group, said her family would all sleep on the back porch.
"It was a lot cooler there," she said.
Jane Thomas grew up in Dornsife in rural Northumberland County.
"We used hand fans," she said. "The funeral directors used to give them out. You just didn't let the heat get to you."
Boardman, of Sunbury, said she worked in a sewing factory, and all the doors and windows would be open. At times, they would have big fans blowing air across the sewing rooms, but the breeze would sometimes tangle the threads on the machines.
"I lived in a second-story apartment, and it was so hot," she said. "I couldn't even afford a fan."
Several remembered swimming in creeks and in the Susquehanna River during hot spells.
Said Boardman: "I used to swim in the river, even though my mother forbid me from doing it. I would sneak off and do it."
Kuenseler said he would swim in the river, as well as at the pool at Island Park on Packer Island, and sometimes he'd even go over to Rolling Green Park in Hummels Wharf.
Poploskie said he used to dam up a creek near his home and lie in the water.
While everyone had a story about coping with hot weather, Shirley Bowling of Milton summed it up best: "You didn't have it, you didn't miss it."
n E-mail comments to wlaepple@dailyitem.com
