"It is very much as one looks at it whether one is to suffer
or enjoy most during the summer. Fretting and fidgeting and violent fanning
adds to one’s discomfort.” Orleans County Monitor July 15, 1895.
Warmer summers are here to stay. There have been past periods
of extreme heat in Northern New England. The summers of 1911, 1936, and 2021
are examples of summers that had a series of heat waves, with the latter being
one of the hottest summers on record. For some, this summer will even surpass
that one.
These are the days we sometimes look back to last winter for
cooler temperature. This column explores how people kept cool in the years
before air conditioning made sizzling summer work, dining, or sleeping more
comfortable. It includes some
time-honored methods still used by area residents, and some that have passed
away with time and inventions.
A few previous
columns included ways in which area residents and visitors have dealt with hot
summer temperatures. The following are brief excerpts from those articles. The
full articles can be found at larrycoffin.blogspot.com.
For over 200 years, area residents have hosted summer
visitors at commercial and private facilities. In Aug 1871, Orford’s Hale’s
Hotel hosted “a large number of city boarders who have come to stop through the
hot weather.” Hostels and private cabins offered residents and tourists
opportunities to enjoy local lakes.
Mountain locations were especially appealing to summer
tourists. The Breezy Point House at Mt. Moosilauke hosted wealthy summer guests
who traded the stifle of the city for the fresh air of the mountains. The full
article can be found at “Summer Tourist Trade.”
Summer residential youth camps have flourished in the Upper
Valley from early in the 20th century. Those who established camps such as
Farwell on Hall’s Pond, Aloha on Lake Morey, and Moosilauke on Upper Baker Pond
were pioneers in the youth camp movement.
Annually, trains brought urban youth to enjoy the refreshing
lake-side environments. Hiking, swimming, and canoeing were among the many camp
activities. These camps had the added
benefit of freeing parents of their children during the long summer vacations. The full article is entitled “Going to Summer
Camp.”
Swimming and other outdoor recreations helped folks deal
with the summer heat. Hall’s Pond, Baldwin Bridge, Flat Rock, Ticklenaked Pond,
and Lake Morey were among the swimming locations that called young and old
alike for a refreshing dip.
Just as tourists sought cool mountain locations, locals
enjoyed hiking for day walks, picnics, or camping. Bicycling, canoeing as well
as lawn games brought residents out of doors in the summer. This third excerpt can be found on the blog
at “Late Summer Fun.”
In times past, spring houses were one method used by area
rural residents to kept perishable farm products and household foods from
spoiling. Built over running water or a spring, this small structure allowed
items to be kept in the cold water or on shelves. Spring houses were especially
important for the safe storage of butter, milk, and other heat-sensitive
foodstuffs.
Before air conditioning and electric refrigeration, ice
harvesting utilized winter’s cold to combat summer’s heat. The area’s many
lakes and rivers provided a harvest of ice that was stored in private or
professional insulated ice houses. It was winter’s cash crop.
Ice cutters used huge
blades to cut ice that was at least 18” thick. The work was hard and often
dangerous. Horses, and later tractors, were used to haul the heavy loads of ice
away.
Area newspapers described this annual activity. In January
1883, 20 men hauled ice for the Bradford Ice Company. Five hundred tons of ice
were stored in one company’s ice houses in Woodsville and Wells River in 1885. According
to the Adirondack Almanack, some 5,000 men cut ice on Lake Champlain in 1890.
In 1896, Orford’s ice
houses were filled with ice of “large quantities and of most excellent quality”
from Lake Morey. In Feb 1911, Newbury men filled the creamery ice house with
100 tons of ice in just two days.
A late fall, an open winter, or an extremely hot summer
often led to a shortage of ice. In those cases, dealers had to purchase ice
from neighboring towns with surpluses or import it from colder states or
Canada.
In 1874, the Vermont Central Railroad began to use
ice-cooled refrigerated cars. This increased significantly the shipment of
perishable area products, such as butter, milk, and strawberries to
markets. Theatres, stores, restaurants,
and factories used fans blowing over large quantities of ice to provide “air
conditioning” or “comfort cooling.”
This naturally harvested ice was popular into the early 20th
century. Artificial ice had been manufactured in the southern United States for
some time and began to replace harvested ice. The first commercial ice-maker
was patented in 1873, but it was not until the 1930s that edible ice was
manufactured.
Early in the 19th century, household “refrigerator” iceboxes
became available. Blocks of ice were home delivered and placed in these
insulated appliances. Home owners told the iceman their needs by placing a sign
in the window. He would chip off the desired amount and, using tongs, swing the
block over his rubber-covered shoulder for delivery.
My Brattleboro grandmother still had an icebox as late as
1948. I recall the iceman treating the neighborhood children to slivers of ice.
In the 1930s, the price of electric refrigerators was
reduced, and more homes installed them. In the 1940s, as frozen foods became
popular, separate freezer compartments were added. Chest freezers followed in
popularity. All these appliances kept food safer for longer periods of
time.
Mechanized air conditioning began to be used for cooling
buildings and railroad cars in the 1930s.
In May 1938, the new Chimes Restaurant on Bradford Main Street touted its air-conditioned atmosphere. In 1948, Bradford’s Colonial Theatre was
renovated, and air-conditioning was added.
In 1947, advertisements for Carrier Room Air-conditioners
offered the chance to “dodge the dog days and keep cucumber-cool this summer.”
Before, and even after, air conditioning, houses were often
designed to reduce the impact of summer heat. Some were built with wide eaves to avoid the sun’s
direct rays. Higher ceilings allowed warmer air to rise over head.
Verandas, farm porches, or second-story enclosed balconies
offered shade for a mid-day nap or an evening of rocking. They also prevented
the sun’s heat from entering the house. Some verandas were large enough for a
swing or to serve as a sleeping porch for those who had no mistrust of night
air. Screens gave protection from
insects. Shade trees and climbing vines offered added protection
Windows were often placed to offer cross-ventilation and
outfitted with shades or shutters. With no air conditioning, residents kept the
house shuttered during the day and open during the evenings. Some larger homes offered summer kitchens to
prevent the heat from cooking invading the rest of the house.
Electric fans for both household and commercial use became
popular around 1900. Earlier fans had
been powered by alcohol, oil, or kerosene.
Fans were available in both tabletop and ceiling models. Westinghouse and General Electric battled for
the fan market. Stores mentioned electric fans in the advertisements and drew
more customers during hot weather.
Newspapers and magazines regularly carried menu suggestions
for summer meals. Lighter foods were recommended. Many recipes used available
fresh garden fruits and vegetables.
Lawn picnics and afternoon naps required just a
blanket. Modern picnic tables began to
appear in the early 1900s. Vermont newspapers began to refer to the joys of
backyard barbecues after 1940. One
Vermont observer made light of the tendency of newcomers and tourists to eat
out of doors.
A cool beverage helps the body deal with the impacts of high
temperatures. Just plain water or “Adam’s ale” was readily available and free.
“Switchel,” a 1921 United Opinion article proclaimed, “is
the homebrew of the Gods, unexcelled as a thirst quencher.” There are various
recipes, including one made with oatmeal. My Mom made it from water, sugar,
ginger, and vinegar for use in the ha fields.
Commercially-made carbonated beverages began to appear on
the market in the second half of the 19th century . Those included
Hires Root Beer (1876), Dr. Pepper (1885), Coca-Cola (1888), Pepsi (1898), and
Canada Dry Ginger Ale (1907). Others turned to the time-honored relief found in
alcoholic beverages.
Beginning in the early 19th century, tea punches were
popular. Iced tea was introduced after
1900 and was added to an assortment of fruit drinks.
Since the early 1800s, Ice cream has been a way to cool off
in summer’s heat. It was referred to as
a “dessert that made life endurable…”
Using ice and rock salt, hand cranks turned cream and sugar into
homemade ice cream. Later, commercially
manufactured ice cream became an industry.
In the 1870s, soda fountains began to appear, and ice cream
sodas were introduced. Some religious groups thought it sinful to eat ice cream
sodas on Sundays. In the 1890s, some entrepreneurs left out the carbonated
water in the soda, and sold them as ice cream sundaes. It was said that they
were initially referred to as “Sundays.”
Locally, many pharmacies maintained a soda fountain. When I
was a child, one could find soda fountains at Clifford’s Corner Store in
Orford, Chapman’s in Fairlee, and Gove & Bancroft Pharmacy and Chimes’s Restaurant
in Bradford. Similar ones were found in Wells River and Woodsville. In 1948, the soda fountain at Woodsville’s
Kelley’s Cash Store offered a student special ice cream floats for a dime.
The ice cream cone was introduced at the 1904 St. Louis World’s
Fair. Ice cream had been licked in hand-held containers for some time, but this
was the first time the container was eaten.
As early as 1912, there was an ice cream parlor on Main
Street in Fairlee. Known as the Neapolitan, it used Bradford strawberries in
its strawberry ice cream. It was bought out by Hood’s Creamery in 1936.
In 1926, Charles Taylor of Buffalo invented an automatic
soft serve ice cream machine. In the early 1950s, Taylor machines began to
appear in the area, offering an alternative to hard ice cream. It was initially
called frozen-custard in New Hampshire and cree-mees in Vermont. The popsicle,
invented by accident in 1905, became popular in the 1920s.
Those who could afford it gave up heavier clothes for
lighter summer ones. “Dress lightly, eat little, but often. Relax. Don’t get
too much sun at one time. That is the way to keep cool. Cliff Lang, Bradford’s United Opinion, July
31, 1942.
Linen and cotton
fabrics were recommended as were loose-fitting garments. Ladies had wide-brimmed
hats and parasols to avoid the sun. These seasonal outfits were most popular
and available among affluent residents and guests.
Wearing white outfits was considered most appropriate summer
attire until Labor Day. They indicated that the wearer was not involved in
dirty manual labor. The same seasonal rule applied to men’s hats, with boaters
or straw hats replacing heavier cloth ones.
Earlier attitudes regarding modesty dictated the amount of
skin the wearer could show. Earlier swimwear was less revealing. In the latter
part of the 19th century, women’s swim outfits consisted of long dresses or
bathing gowns. Men wore wool shorts and
tops, and only in the 1930s did men start to go topless.
Most men resisted short pants. In the early 1950s, Bermuda shorts were
introduced, with tourists the first local wearers. In June 1956, Bradford’s
Erskine’s clothing store was the first to advertise them.
In the past, the
poor suffered most from the heat of summer. Having a summer tan was the sign of
a laborer. The poor could not afford a summer wardrobe, a trip to a resort in
the mountains, the beach, or a residence with cooling features.
As the earth warms, and extreme periods of summer heat
become more frequent, it will again be the poorest that suffer the most, both
at home and abroad. And that’s cold.
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