From the Porch
The Greatest Invention

Dwight Otwell

Air conditioning.

That's a cool word in more ways than on. At this moment, I consider air conditioning to be the major invention of the last century.

A pebble or stone found its way to the small, unprotected area of the air conditioning condenser in my car. That meant the freon leaked out and you can't just patch a condenser. A new one was needed.

Therefore, for a week, during the hottest part of the year, I experienced driving in the heat of the day as I did when I was a teenager and a very young man. I did without air.

I guess I have turned into a wimp, because in the past, while it was uncomfortable to not have a cooled car, I accepted it because only rich people had cars with air

conditioning.

I drove around with all the windows down, pushing hot air all around me. However, that was better than driving with the windows up.

I once had a job in which I had to drive between towns. I wore a business shirt and tie. During the height of summer, I took my shirt off for the drive and put it back on when I arrived in the parking lot of my destination.

I especially remember the time when my family, including my grandparents, took a trip out west when I was 12-years-old. We had no air and driving through the desert, Ma Ma Otwell, my grandmother, made us roll the windows up because she didn't like the wind blowing her hair. Talk about an uncomfortable ride.

Also, our home and school had no air conditioning. Most businesses had no air. However, structures were built so that there were plenty of windows that could be raised - providing cross ventilation. The only time I really became uncomfortably warm at school was around the start of school in early September and the end of school in late May.

When I am too warm, I become antsy when wearing good clothes - slacks and nice shirt. At one small newspaper office, the air conditioner was too small for the room and during the middle of the day in the summer, it got very uncomfortable. I had a desk in the back and I took off my shirt and wrote stories wearing my tee-shirt. Sometimes, I took off my shoes. That was the only way I could concentrate.

So, it seems that the modern world has turned me into a wimp. My car has air again and I still maintain that it is the major contribution to science of this past century. Moose Tracks ice cream might run a close second.