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One thing I do is keep ice packs in my freezer.About 30 minutes before bed I place them between the sheets to cool off the mattress, which often gets very warm. And I would wonder about his choice of words: Why should I keep awake if this fellow is walking around at night to protect us?! Ice packs are your palsĪnne James, San Leandro, Calif.: I live in an older home without air conditioning. And then sometimes there would be a chowkidar (guard) walking at night loudly shouting a supposedly reassuring phrase - jaagte raho (keep awake). Elders would keep a flashlight, a transistor radio, a stick and a whistle close by. That's where people would sleep at night in the summer.
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Azhar: Older homes were built around a central courtyard or veranda. Evaporative cooling made sleeping possible. He slept on a cot in the backyard at night, and his mom would put a wet sheet, just normal bed linens, over him. Kevin Webb, Cave Creek, Ariz.: A friend who grew up in Phoenix in the 1960's-70's and didn't have AC had a variation on the hacks you mentioned for sleeping. The sheets were important so we could see any insects crawling around (never found one - i think they too were exhausted after the day in the sun). The evaporating water cools off the roof, and we would spread out white / light colored sheets and lie on them at night. Many a delightful book was read that way, although if we tried that today, we'd never be able to get back up again! Azhar: I too remember sleeping on the cemented roof after spraying water on it. It never disappointed! When the spot we had chosen became too warm from the heat of our bodies, we would just roll over to another spot. We would strip down to our underwear, grab a good book and a pillow and lie down on the cold floor. We took advantage of a cement floor that had been tiled over in a large room. August and September were always unbearably hot. Chunn, Prescott, Ariz.: I grew up in Monrovia, a suburb of Los Angeles, without air conditioning, and my sister and I had a couple of favorite solutions to keep cool on hot summer days in the 1950s.
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Being open to the breeze on three sides, it was much cooler than the main house with just the windows open.
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He explained that before they had air conditioning, families would sleep there. Scott Taylor, Lawrence, Kan.: When we lived in southern Arizona, some of the older houses had an "Arizona room." I asked a native Arizonan about these projecting, three-sided screened porches. In fact, the onset of summer is celebrated with a festival called " Holi " where we spray colors - both dry and wet (using water balloons and water bottles). For playing with water we would use squirt bottles to spray water. Azhar: In India it would most likely be a table fan or a pedestal fan.
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For instance, we'd use our daytime water guns, aka our mom's Amway squirt bottles, to spray ourselves as we lay in bed while my brother and I fought over how to direct the box fan for bedtime. Jeff Weit, Atascadero, Calif.: Growing up near East Los Angeles we were too far from the ocean to receive any of its cooling effects, so we relied on my mom for ways to cool down in the hot summers. Azhar: Yes, this is one of those under-appreciated but cool ways of staying cool! But be careful and avoid hard water as it may harm your hair. The evaporative action on the head and shoulders is so refreshing and helps to stay cool. Laurisa Rich, Martha's Vineyard, Mass.: When I lived in the tropics, I found it ever so helpful to keep my hair wet and dripping. Either an ORS pack or simply mix a spoon of sugar and a pinch of salt in a glass of water to replenish all the electrolytes lost in sweat. oral rehydration packets to carry around. I remember my father (who worked for the World Health Organization) giving me U.N. I remember getting heat exhaustion when I was 10 after riding a horse in the early morning. I would also add yogurt-based drinks like raita and chhas (buttermilk) to this list.Īnthea Peck, Sebastopol, Calif.: As a kid from Georgia growing up in India, I have SO many memories of the heat. Azhar: Yes, foods with lots of fluids and electrolytes are super helpful in keeping one cool and hydrated.
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On super hot days I will switch to mostly those foods and it makes an incredible difference in the temperature of my body and the ability to deal with the heat. Meg T., Portland, Maine: Something I learned while visiting India was to eat plenty of cooling foods like watermelon and cucumber.
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