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Escaping the heat is a matter of simple physics. The first rule is: Heat Rises! The second is, The Sun is Hot. The third is, Trapped Heat Doesn't Dissipate Well. Knowing these rules kept out grandparents and those before them relatively comfortable most summers. A couple of generations of air conditioning and it seems everyone has forgotten these elementary lessons.

Consider our housing; we no longer site homes and landscaping to take advantage of natural heating and cooling. A look at well-built homes from the last century shows how rising heat was used to advantage. Before central heating became common, it was usual to heat a home with a wood stove or furnace. Many times, these furnaces used gravity flow to move heat to the upper floors. Cheaper homes with a wood stove often had one or two registers in the ceiling downstairs to allow heat to rise to the second level. Cross ventilation window placement was carefully considered in most homes, as natural forces were used to moderate the temperature. These same common ideas were used to beat the heat, too.

Typically roof overhangs, particularly in the south, were wide to shade the windows from the higher summer sun. When the sun dropped lower in the sky in the fall, the sun would then stream directly into the rooms. Porches, besides being a neighborhood gathering place, added cooling shade to the front door-which was often kept open in summer. The more well-to-do often had sleeping porches screened to protect from insects, where sleepers retired to hammocks or chase lounges on particularly hot nights. Most old home had large shade trees, such as maple or elm, to condition the immediate environment.

People also worked WITH the environment, not against it. Heavy work was done in the early mornings or the evenings after it started to cool off. Early kitchens were often lean-to attachments, away from the rest of the house so that heat generated from wood-stove cooking didn't penetrate the home. Hard-working farm families usually ate a huge breakfast, before the day's heat made cooking and eating unpleasant. By working outdoors year round, workers acclimated to both heat and cold and could function in anything but the hottest weather. Cool salads were big on the lunch and dinner menu-along with iced tea, lemonade and plenty of cool water. Where water pressure allowed, children-and sometimes adults-ran thru the lawn sprinkler and cooled through evaporation. A picnic dinner of sandwiches and salads at

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