Dad's Stories: A day in the life

 

In 2014 Dad was very much in the mood to write. He was on fire! Here is yet another recollection of his.

"At nine in the morning, it's actually intriguing to see that the temperature inside the house is 3 degrees higher than outside the house.  This condition will change when the temperature outside reaches into the mid to upper 90s; then inside the house will be around ten degrees lower.  I'm not complaining...that's a fact.  These home's built in the 50s...have no insulation in the walls, and it's very difficult and expensive to install it. 

 

This reminds me of battling the hot summer temperatures as a youth in Meridian.  During July and August the outside temperature would consistently reach 105 degrees.  Often, during the hottest part of the day, I would fill the bathtub full of cold water, put on my bathing suit and just sit in it while listening to the game of the day.  

 

In our room upstairs it was a sauna day and night.  We had a circulating fan on a table in between our beds that helped some at night.  Downstairs, the rooms were quite comfortable at night.  A nice breeze flowed through the open windows, and the upstairs rooms kept the roof heat off those below.   The only thing between the the roof and our room was a piece of sheet rock.  During the afternoon, you could actually feel the heat in the ceiling sheet rock. 

 

I would lay in my bed anticipating the exact moment the oscillating fan pushed the resuscitating breeze onto my perspiring body.  I learned by sound when the fan was coming my way and nervously anticipated the refreshing 3 seconds of breeze -  then it was gone again.  I honestly never did this, but after I fell asleep, Billy would sometimes fix the fan so it would blow on him constantly, leaving me to sweat in my bed without a modicum of relief. 

 

I had always wanted a Winchester 30/30 lever-action rifle.  I caught the fever from reading Field & Stream magazine.  One summer afternoon with little to do I visited the Meridian Hardware and talked the owner into selling me a Winchester 30/30 lever-action rifle and permit me to make weekly payments until I'd paid off.  After four months of patrolling, the Bosque river hunting big game, and never finding any...it dawned on me that I really didn't need that much rifle.  The ammunition was too costly to target shoot, so I spent most of my time cleaning and polishing the rifle - then returning it to the closet. 

 

Occasionally, while lying on my back on top of Bee Rock, I would shoot at buzzards circling above (I hit some, but never brought one down).  Earlier I learned  that if you lay down in the open and be still, it wasn't long until a vulture started cruising circles above to determine if dinner was ready.   The Winchester turned out to be a foolish purchase on my part.  Eventually, I returned to the Meridian Hardware and swapped the mint condition rifle for a more practical item...an air conditioner for the "boys room."  

 

Billy helped me install the A/C in the window closest to my bed, after all, as sole owner of the "evaporative cooler" it was only right that I receive some extra benefit of the soothing breeze.  The unit had louvers on the front, and we divided them equally so the output would be a share alike basis.  Every so often, I would count the louvers to make sure that Billy hadn't switched more toward him; to my knowledge, he never did.  We also kept the oscillating fan in operation moving air around the room.  I never actually checked the temperature in the room, but psychologically we felt we'd moved to the top of the comfortability  chain, and life was grand.  Years later, Billy installed a refrigerated A/C in the upstairs window.  Goodnight sweet prince."

June 12, 2014