When I looked at the national forecast map in the Monroe Times published on July 1, I wasn’t too excited about the weather for the holiday weekend.
It was supposed to be hot — scorching hot. The map from Denver heading east was red or brown, indicating temperatures in the upper 80s with some spots hitting 100.
I don’t have far to go to reach Twining Park where the fireworks were held and can see them from my patio, so I didn’t have to worry about traveling on Saturday.
What really got me, however, were the brief trips I had to make in the car. I have a dark charcoal-colored interior and it seemed to me the temperature in the car was 120-plus. Then, because I had left the air conditioner on from previous trips, that starts up full blast and the full boiling point in the car is reached.
I had to let things cool down considerably before each trip because my steering wheel seemed ready to self-combust when I touched it.
Some of the most memorable Fourth of July celebrations I’ve had are due to the heat. About eight years ago I was in the Vernon County village of La Farge waiting for its annual Fourth of July parade to start at 10 a.m. Just up the street from me was the local bank sign with the digital temperature reading 91. In the course of five minutes it went up to 93.
A law enforcement officer I knew well at the event from another community — helping direct traffic — looked at the sign and jokingly said, “If that temperature goes up to 95 before the parade starts, I’m going to get the shotgun out of my car and shoot that sign.”
I got a laugh out of that, and the temperature didn’t raise past 94. It was the shortest Fourth of July parade I had seen in La Farge. All of the spectators were lined up along the south side of the street, using the downtown buildings to get protection from the sun.
By mid-afternoon on that day, when the county’s historical society was holding its annual strawberry shortcake social, the temperature reached a high of 103. The community band and local men’s chorus both performed. Thankfully there was a lot of shade on the property where the event was held.
I’ve always wondered what people did to keep cool when such conditions arose before air conditioning became a staple in our lives.
I’ve heard the stories that in big cities, families living in larger buildings would gather on rooftops, spread out a blanket and sleep.
In the country, rural folks, if they had the time, would take their families and livestock to any running water or spring on or near their property and lay in the shade. Trees along creek beds were allowed to stand to provide cool areas in the summer. Children could play in the creek, being near the water was perfect for the livestock. There were plenty of identified swimming holes along the Pecatonica and Sugar Rivers not to mention places like Cadiz Springs.
Most cooking in the summer was done at what’s known as a summer kitchen, which is basically an outdoor barbecue set aside from a house by a good 30 feet. This would prevent the heat from cooking fire from turning the whole house into an oven.
A combination of heat with still air would have been difficult to contend with before electrical devices made it possible for fans and compressors to provide circulation and air conditioning.
While the forecasted high on the Fourth of July was 85 degrees, according to the National Weather Service it reached 91 degrees in Green County.
Summer is back in Vernon County. Baseball games are being played. Let’s hope that the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases doesn’t do anything to ruin the fun we could have over the next two months.
— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
