It is hot! As I write this evening, the day has cooled down to 98 degrees. Every day’s high has been pushing 100, and the heat index is at least 110 or 115.

My poor garden! My poor tomatoes! My poor strawberries! My poor lawn grass! Ok, I’m not too sad that the lawn grass is not growing much right now.

I have never minded not needing to mow the lawn, even when the grass turns brown. I think I have never watered my lawn grass, and I can’t really understand why people would water the grass if the cows and goats don’t need to eat it.

Having grown up on the farm, I tend to think more about the practical uses of green grass, more than how nice the lawn looks with green grass. I would water the grass for the cows’ sake, but it just seems illogical to water the grass just so I can keep running the lawn mower.

It is so hot that even the church signs have been picking up on the theme.

Last week Nancy and I made a trip to east Arkansas to see our daughter and family, who live in Swifton.

On the way, we saw numerous church signs having a heat message posted, “You Think It’s Hot Here!!?” It seems that the preachers see the heat of summer as an opportunity to remind their people of that really hot place and to make the point that church is a really cool place to be!

We have a new air conditioner at the Pea Ridge Historical Society Museum on North Curtis Avenue, thanks to Arvest Bank and the initiatives of Mayor Crabtree and city employees. It is remarkable to me that the Museum building, the old E.H. Building (orLodge Hall), has served the town and community of Pea Ridge since 1948, (more than 60 years), and never until now has it been air conditioned. Back when the Lodge Hall was built, not long after World War II, nothing in Pea Ridge was air conditioned. At best we had box fans and small oscillating fans. I don’t even remember any ceiling fans in our stores. Rogers did have a few stores with ceiling fans. I remember in particular the Sterling Store, located on the northeast corner of West Walnut and 2nd Street (or was it an ice cream parlor?). The building had an entry foyer, and as you entered, over your head was a huge ceiling fan. Wow was that cool in the hot summertime!

A little wind went a long way toward cooling you down, and it was surely a fine invitation to come into the store - like a breath of fresh air.

Back in the summer of 1947, our family took a vacation trip to California.

We left Pea Ridge in mid-June, when everything was still green and cool, and returned in mid-August, to find that everything haddried up and turned brown from the heat. I think this year, 2010, is going to be as dry and brown in August as the summer of 1947, or the summer of 1953, or the summer of 1954! On our trip, I began to notice a few things about how summer travelers adapted and prepared for the heat on the road. Most cars traveling the desert highways carried canvas water bags on the front bumpers. Car radiators in those days were not too efficient, and engine overheating was a common cause for stopping along the highway, as common as fixing a flat tire. We don’t seem to have much engine overheating or tires flattening these days. Our family was traveling in a 10-year-old 1937 Chevy, and we stopped quite often to “cool ’er down” and to fill the radiator with fresh water. You didn’t want to pour the cool water in when the engine was really hot, because you might crack the engine block as the cold water shocked the superhot metal. Running an old car across the Arizona desert in mid-summer in those days took some savvy and some preparation.

I also noticed on that trip that some of the nice cars had coolers. They were not air conditioners, but they did offer some cooling for the car’s interior.

These were water coolers,circulators, mounted over the top of the driver’s door.

They looked something like a small jet engine attached above the door. Air came in by the force of the car’s forward speed, passing through a moist pad that was kept wet with cool water, and the cooled air blew into the car near the driver’s head. I never got to ride in a car cooled that way, but I’m sure it was better than the hot wind in your face.

Sometimes I think we can overdo the air conditioning. Going into some stores is like going into the old frozen food locker in Bentonville. I still like fans better. If the air conditioner de-humidifies, that’s the main thing! If it also cools, then that’s pretty cool, too!

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Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Community, Pages 5 on 08/18/2010