Suddenly Less Summer: Effects of Air Conditioning on Louisiana (Part 2 of 2)

This video features stories as told by participants of the reading program “Suddenly Less Summer: The Effects of Air Conditioning on Louisiana.” The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) administered and partially funded this program in partnership with the St. Tammany Parish Library, and the city of Covington, La. The sessions of this program were held at the Madisonville Branch of the St. Tammany Parish Library in March of 2015.
We hope you enjoy these stories, detailing lives in south Louisiana, as we largely embraced air conditioning. However, the storytellers also lament the loss of freedom to play outside, unattended by adults, the long comforting hours on front porches with friends and family. Listen to them describe the sounds of nature, of mothers calling children home from play, of church bells and mill whistles. Folks found a myriad of methods for cooling off; soaking feet in buckets of ice water to swimming in the artesian pools of Abita Springs. When window units first arrived in homes and public buildings, folks happily adapted. Finally, we hear of the shock of doing without air conditioning after Hurricane Katrina amidst the devastation and sweltering heat of late August 2005.