July 25, 1941 (Friday)

NO RELIEF IN SIGHT FROM THE HEAT

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Another very very hot

day - with no relief

in sight so the weather

reports say.

Cleaned up stairs this

P.M.

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My dad is 91. He grew in a house adjacent to the family farm where his grandmother (Edna) and grandfather (Henry) resided. When it was really hot, my dad recalled that as as a kid, he would sometimes sleep on a mattress under a tree in his grandparent's yard or on their front porch.

Sleeping porches gained popularity in the early 1900's as a way to beat the heat and stave-off disease. Tuberculosis and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 contributed to what was called a "sanitary revolution." The idea of sleeping in open-air rather than an enclosed space was thought to stay-off disease.

"By the turn of the century, much of American society had embraced the idea of open-air sleeping. From that time until around 1925, many families insisted that their new houses be built with that modern, health-giving amenity: the sleeping porch." (Kahn,Eve and Jowers, Walter. "Night Moves: The Sleeping Porch From a Health Conscious Era." Chicago Tribune, August 3,1986)

Sleeping porches were distinctly different than a front porch on a home. Unlike the front porch that was used for socializing with friends and neighbors, sleeping porches were meant to be a private porch used only by the family. They were often enclosed with screens and located on the upper level and/or at the rear of the home.

Although the first in-home air conditioning unit was installed in a mansion in Minneapolis in 1914, it wasn't until the 1950's that air conditioners gained popular use in homes across the United States. With the rise in use of air conditioning in homes, the sleeping porch fell out of favor. New homes were designed to contain air rather than promote cross breezes and many existing sleeping porches were enclosed to create additional square footage.

I, for one, love the idea of a sleeping porch. I also love the idea of air conditioning. In my dream world, they can and should co-exist.