Air conditioning marks first century

Air conditioning has been with us now for a full century. The first air-conditioning unit was installed in a Brooklyn printing plant in 1902.

With temperatures and humidity hovering in the sweltering 90s, folks in Southeast Missouri are well-acquainted with sultry summers. Most of us, however, take air conditioning at our homes and where we work for granted.

This is a good time to remember that many of our parents and grandparents relied on open windows and oscillating fans for a bit of relief in days gone by -- the days before widespread air conditioning.

Air conditioning didn't become commonplace in homes and businesses until 30 or 40 years ago. With the advent of home air conditioning, our lives and the houses we live in changed dramatically. Front porches were no long havens from the heat. Thanks to cool air indoors and the lure of television, many neighborhoods turned into isolated islands of insulated lifestyles.

Many of us can't remember life before air conditioning. Frankly, most of us don't want to.